California Love

Hello eaters far and wide and welcome to another globetrotting installment of The Novice Fork. I think I should start retitling this blog to “Where in the World is… that S.O.B now” but not sure I can handle the copyrights from that, cough, other program…

Well, New Years has come and gone and this year I found myself in my favorite place on the EAST coast, Cape Cod. There is nothing like ringing in the New Year with a best friend, great dinner, countdown, cocktails, and some requisite dancing and tomfoolery. I had a blast. It was a chilly but magical night. (Very large coffee the next day). If you travel to Provincetown for New Years might I suggest a few places.

Pretty, no?

First, for an inexpensive nights stay choose the Crew’s Quarters www.crewsquartersptown.com/ a charmingly rustic little guest house with fun décor and a beautiful common room with gas fireplace (Champagne anyone?). Dinner? Unfortunately not much is open after Halloween, but the Crown & Anchor was delicious and getting a table was a breeze www.onlyatthecrown.com. This also happened to be a much less expensive (relatively) than other options in town that night. (Most places had a crazy expensive prix fixe… I’m looking at you, Ross Grille). And the next day for Coffee? Both the Wired Puppy www.wiredpuppy.com and Joe Coffee & Café www.joecoffeecafe.com were suitable choices (Joe is the place to see and be seen in Ptown, and the other is more, well, like a coffee shop). It was a very quick but fun 24 hours on the Cape. I even wore a tux jacket (and fancy new bowtie).  Awesome.

But before all this fun happened, about a month before to be precise, I traveled west, FAR WEST, to California… an, until recently, mysterious and unexplored land to this Mainer. (To cut to the chase, it rocked).

 Somewhere in the distance, Phantom Planet sings... 

Let this brief post serve, then, as a preface of things to come. I warn you now that I went to way too many restaurants, bars, clubs, vineyards and corner stores to write of them all but I will do my best to transcribe them all for you over the next few days. (There is a lot of good stuff so stay tuned). I was overwhelmed with a trip of a lifetime filled with family, friends and booze. (Its dry out in California, gotta hydrate after all).

Until next time…

-NF