Vicky Cristina Barcelona

This afternoon I went to see Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Based on previous reactions, I'm guessing most of you have never heard of it. It's a Woody Allen film that I had seen in some movie trailers, and I think I may have also read about it in a magazine. It seemed interesting, so I selected it as my movie of the week, and it didn't disappoint.

In simplistic terms, this movie is probably best described as a romantic comedy. My take on it is that it's a movie about love, and how everyone has a different interpretation of what "love" is and what they're willing to do to find true love.

The story begins with Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), two friends on their way to Barcelona for the summer. The movie is narrated, which some people may find annoying, but I thought it added to the movie's charm. The narration begins by explaining that Vicky and Cristina have very different views on love, Vicky being very practical and Cristina being more spontaneous and unsure of how she really feels. Vicky is engaged to someone who will provide her security, but is otherwise seemingly boring. They are staying with a relative of Vicky's, Judy (Patricia Clarkson) and her husband Mark (Kevin Dunn), who have what seems to be a perfect life in a beautiful home.

The adventure starts when Vicky and Cristina go to an art exhibit and Cristina is immediately enamoured with a man in a red shirt, who Judy explains is a painter who had a tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife. After the event at the art gallery, Vicky and Cristina are having dinner when they spot the painter, Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), and he approaches them. Basically, he propositions them. He says he is going to another city for the weekend and invites Vicky and Cristina to go with them. Vicky immediately rebuffs his advances and his invitation, while Cristina is intrigued. They end up accompanying Juan Antonio.

It is from this point on that the story takes some twists and turns. Suffice it to say that both Vicky and Cristina have different types of encounters with Juan Antonio. For a while, Cristina and Juan Antonio seem to have a pretty good thing going. Until Juan Antonio's ex-wife, Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), shows up, then all hell breaks loose. Really, it's not an exaggeration. In my opinion, Penelope Cruz stole the show. She was feisty and hilarious, and her exchanges with Juan Antonio were priceless. Those scenes alone were worth going to see the movie.

I'm not sure the movie ended the way I wanted it to, although I really can't imagine any other ending. I think it ended the way it probably should have.

One thing I appreciated about this movie was that it made good use of all of the characters, and I felt satisfied that their stories were told to their fullest. I've seen some movies recently where I felt like some of the characters were underdeveloped, so it was nice to feel "complete" walking out of the theater.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is a great way to spend a couple of hours if you want to laugh and have a good time. While this is probably on the "chick flick" side of the movie spectrum, I hope men aren't turned off. The humor should appeal to just about everyone, and the men will probably also enjoy the women in this movie. And again, Penelope Cruz is terrific in her role as the somewhat psychotic ex.

Coming up next weekend (if all goes as planned): Burn After Reading.

Facebook and Finding Long Lost Friends

I think this blog template is a little too pink...I might have to change that after I post this.

Anyway, I was reminded today that I never followed up on my class reunion. It was held at the Koolau Golf Club about a month ago. I went with my gal pals, the ones I met in intermediate school and still hang out with til this day. I should note that one of these gal pals, who I'll call Elastagirl, is actually a year younger than me, but she hung out with us more than she did people in her class, so we invited her as our guest. We met The Stuff Guy (TSG) there and grabbed a table. The atmosphere was casual, which was nice. It was in a place called "Honeys," a place I presume is normally some kind of a restaurant. $25 got us heavy pupus, which was actually a pretty decent meal -- except there was no rice, which was odd considering that mac salad was one of the dishes. No host bar.

The drinks here were kind of pricey, which was probably a good thing since it helped to control how much I drank. I decided to limit myself to two drinks, in part because at some point I would have to drive from my friends house in Kailua to my house in town, and in part because I got plastered at my 10th reunion and had to have a friend drive me home.

Although I always enjoy seeing old friends and finding out what's going on in everyone's lives, this reunion wasn't as much fun as the 10th. I think part of it was that I wasn't involved in any of the planning, which is one of my "things." I'm pretty sure anyone who has known me fairly well at any point in my life, including now, will tell you that I was always involved in organizing or planning something. Nonetheless, it was still a somewhat eventful evening.

People seemed to hang out with their old high school cliques. I didn't socialize nearly as much as I did at the 10th, although I did speak to a couple of people that weren't part of my high school social circle. I was able to socialize with those I was most interested in catching up with, like our class president. At our 10th reunion, she had 3 children and said she and her husband wanted a total of 6...and they obtained their goal!

Ooh, and there were also door prizes, so that was cool. I won a $10 Starbucks gift card and a bag.

There were a few surprises in store for me. The first one was seeing a guy I had a love-hate relationship with in high school. I think the last time I saw him was probably about 18 years ago. He was literally the only person I knew in high school that I did not recognize at the reunion. I only knew it was him by looking at his name tag. So it was nice catching up with him in a civilized manner. The other surprise is one of the long-lost friends I got back in touch with earlier this year. He was supposed to return to the mainland before the reunion, but managed to stick around to attend.

It ended up being a fairly early night since we got kicked out of the place sometime around 10:30. Some people were going to head off to a bar in Kailua to continue the party, but my group chose to go home.

So what do I do when I go home? What I do practically every night...I log on to GMail and do other stuff on the computer. And who do I find also on GMail? TSG. Remember when people used to call each other on the phone? Although I had a number of people in the intermediate, high school, and early college days calling me, usually because they needed someone to talk to and I kind of became the Charlie Brown psychiatrist, I was never really much of a phone-talker. I always liked writing better, so GMail chat is great for me. Plus you can walk away if you need to and come back to the conversation when you're ready. Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked...my point is that TSG and I were chatting, and then I got Elastagirl to sign up for GMail since she and I were e-mailing each other back and forth at the same time. That way we could group chat.

Then Elastagirl sends me a link to the Facebook page she just signed up for. I look at it and immediately dismiss it as a Myspace-kinda-thing that I have no interest in doing. I'm telling TSG about it and commented that I can't even keep up with my own blog, why would I want to do Facebook? But I sign up mainly to look at Elastagirl's page. Then Facebook ends up "finding" people I know! Cool! So I add them as friends too. Now, one month later, I'm up to 45 friends and I spend time on it every day while I'm doing other stuff on the computer.

I've been questioned about "what's so great about Facebook." I have nothing else to compare it to, so I can't tell you whether it's "better" than MySpace, but I can tell you that Facebook can be used for many purposes and those on Facebook have a great deal of control over what they want to share on their pages and who they want to share it with. I've seen people use it primarily as a source of advertising for their business or cause, and some people who just use it for plain ol' fun, which is me.

It's also been a great tool to reconnect with people who seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. For example, I found a couple of high school classmates that I don't think I've seen or heard much of since high school, but I was curious about, especially after the reunion. I was actually amazed that they remembered me...or perhaps they're just not very discerning about who they add as "friends" on Facebook. =) I've also been able to reconnect with people who have moved and I haven't heard from in over 10 years.

Ironically, I don't necessarily chat or otherwise communicate with some of these people, but it's fun to look at their Facebook pages and see how their personalities are reflected through the content of the page. Some pages don't really have much on them, but others have all kinds of stuff like what their favorite tv shows, movies, and music are. I also really enjoy looking at the pictures people have on their pages. I try to find what I enjoy looking at on other people's pages and add those features to my own page.

Facebook has also helped me to develop relationships with people I know through work. There are people in my building who I have as Facebook friends that I have probably chatted with more on Facebook than I have in person! I also get to see a more personal side of these people than I would at work. It's nice to find something in common with people I work with, other than work.

I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that I ended up liking Facebook so much. Like I said, I was never much of a "talker" (believe it or not...I know some of my friends are laughing at that comment and saying, "yeah, right!"), and as soon as I learned about chat rooms, like Interact way back in the early 90s, as well as other discussion boards, I was in them. Facebook allows you to keep in touch with others as time allows and in the manner you're comfortable with.

So, if you're interested in keeping in touch with your current friends, or maybe finding some long lost friends, check out Facebook. But beware...you could become an addict like I have.

Longhi's

Last Wednesday I had lunch at Longhi's with several of my coworkers. I had been there twice before, once for my birthday a REALLY long time ago shortly after it first opened, and about three years ago for a holiday dinner with a couple of friends. This was my first time having lunch there.If you've never been to Longhi's before, the first thing you should be warned about is that they don't have rice. At all. For me, it's not that big a deal. I'm not the type that needs to have rice with every meal. But if you are that type, you may have some issues with Longhi's. But get over it, because it's worth going there even if they don't have rice.

First of all, the atmosphere is somewhat casual. You don't need to be super-dressed up to eat here. At lunch, a number of people were wearing shorts. Some, like us, appeared to be taking a break from work. I like this because the food is upscale, but the atmosphere and service are down to earth. Also, you can't beat the view. It was a gorgeous day...

On to the food...two of us shared a half-portion Longhi Longhi salad, which is essentially a Caesar salad. The croutons on this salad were amazing! They appeared to have herbs in them and were freshly prepared. They also served us some very yummy bread, kind of like bread sticks -- one had a marinara-like sauce on it, the other jalapenos, and both were covered with cheese.

Making a decision on an entree was difficult because of the many tempting choices. Our waiter immediately tried to sell us on the fish, a house special. Although his description of the fish was tempting, the veal scallopini caught my eye since I rarely get to eat veal. There are four different preparations available: picatta, marsala, parmesan, and Mediterranean. I immediately had my heart set on the picatta. My other friend also had her eye on the picatta, but she was curious about the Mediterranean preparation. Our other two dining mates both wanted the fish. When our waiter described the fish, he said it was served over a piece of garlic toast. However, it was unclear whether the veal was served with pasta or some other kind of starch. We asked, and he explained that "they" (the powers that be -- he actually seemed quite apologetic and not really understanding of the logic behind this) believe the veal should be served alone, but that he could have some pasta served on the side. He said we could get any type of pasta that they had available, and that one side order should suffice for two people. My fellow veal-eater and I ordered a side of cappelini (angel hair) to share.

We all enjoyed our meals immensely. We each tasted each others dishes and everything was equally delicious. The fish was cooked to perfection, and the garlic toast, seemingly a strange partner for the fish, was quite good -- although it was clearly a heart attack-inducing piece of goodness. Both of the veal dishes were excellent. I loved the picatta, and I piled a mound of the pasta on my dish to absorb the sauce. My friend did the same with her Mediterranean veal. The Mediterranean had a bit of a kick to it, but it was quite tasty and not overpowering.

I feel that the portions served here are "right-sized." I really believe that too many restaurants serve portions that are way too huge, unless you plan to share one dish between two people. That creates a lot of waste, not to mention obesity, but that's a topic for another soap box. Anyway, for me the portion is just right.

Although the portion was "just right" and I was pretty full after the entree, dessert was irresistible. I think any restaurant who wants to sell desserts needs to use a dessert tray, rather than a menu. I can tell you that I am far more likely to order a dessert that's sitting in front of my face, than one that is only described through words on a menu. Longhi's goes one step further by letting you take the dessert that's on the tray, so there's no waiting. We ended up sharing three desserts: a carrot cake, a berry glace, and a banana creme pie. All were extremely yummy! The carrot cake was the largest carrot cake I've ever seen in my life. I selected the berry glace because I remember ordering it on my last visit and I enjoyed it a lot. The banana creme pie was full of banana flavor and was probably the favorite of the table. We must've eaten it very quickly because I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of it. We ended up taking most of the carrot cake back to the office to eat the next day. It was terrific, but we decided that was the one that would hold best for one more day.









All in all, an excellent meal. The service was pretty good, although we seemed to have lost the attention of our waiter toward the end of the meal. But when he was there, he was great. Our waiter was very good about bringing us things we asked for and providing descriptions of items we asked about. The next time you're in the mood to splurge on a nice leisurely lunch, consider Longhi's at Ala Moana.

Bottle Shock

On Thursday I had my mind set on seeing Tropic Thunder this weekend, but then a coworker who knows me all too well said, "I'm surprised you're not going to see Bottle Shock." I had never heard of Bottle Shock before the Hamster mentioned it to me, so she told me that it was about wine. She knows I liked the movie Sideways, so she thought I would like Bottle Shock too. On Friday, I found a review of it in the Advertiser's TGIF section, and my interest was further piqued by seeing that Alan Rickman is the star of the movie. Somehow I developed a little crush on him after seeing him as Snape in the Harry Potter movies, so I find myself interested in other movies he's been in.

Anyway, on to the movie...I was even more pleased to see some of the names listed in the opening credits. For example, Bradley Whitford -- unless you've watched West Wing, or the short-lived Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, you probably don't know who he is, but suffice it to say that he's a good actor and I would love to see him in more substantial movie roles than he's had so far. I was also surprised to see Dennis Farina listed in the credits!

Apparently Bottle Shock is based on a true story of the up and coming wine of Napa Valley in the mid-1970s. Rickman portrays Steven Spurrier, a Brit who owns a shop in France that specializes in educating people about wine. However, this business doesn't seem very successful, as the only person who ever seems to be in the shop is Maurice (Farina), an American who seems to be trying to get as much free wine as he can get. However, it is Maurice that points out that Spurrier needs to change his marketing technique.

In the mean time, in Napa Valley, we see Bill Pullman's character, Jim Barrett, and his very unmotivated son Bo, struggling to run Chateau Montelena. Spurrier shows up in Napa looking to find some decent California wine. As we see with his exchange with Jim, Spurrier expects California wine to be mediocre at best. The dialogue between the two of them is hilarious and is probably the funniest part of the movie.

After Spurrier selects what he thinks is the best wine in California, he sets out to organize a tasting in France, where everyone thinks that if it isn't French, it isn't real wine. Spurrier wants to show people that there is more to the wine-tasting world than just French wine. Jim thinks the whole thing is rigged and that Spurrier just wants to make a fool out of him and everyone else in Napa, but Bo thinks that Spurrier should be given a chance, leading to some deeper issues where Bo gets to prove that he can be motivated.

The above is probably the strongest part of the story, and what happens during the Paris wine tasting is predictable, but still funny. What I felt was weak, and maybe even unnecessary, was the love story in the movie. There is an intern, Sam, who arrives, and while she kind of adds to the story, the love triangle between her, Bo, and Gustavo (played by Freddy Rodriguez, who has been on Ugly Betty -- he's the one I'm routing for in the Ugly Betty triangle, but I don't think things are going to go my way with that one), is weak. While the storyline about Gustavo is interesting, I don't think they developed it as well as they could have.

Some other underdeveloped and underused characters are Mr. Garcia (played by Miguel Sandoval who is the District Attorney on Medium) and Professor Saunders (Whitford). I was sad that Whitford only appeared for a brief minute or two. I felt that if they were going to do that, they might as well have just got a no-name actor to play that role! What a waste of good talent. At least Sandoval got a little more time and humor made his character stand out more.

Overall I really enjoyed this movie, especially knowing that it is based on fact. Since I went to Napa Valley last year, I have a better appreciation of it. Also, this movie touches upon accepting payment for wine tastings, something that is quite common now, but was almost unheard of in the mid-70s. That part is kind of funny too. While I wished some of the characters were better developed, and I felt like maybe they overedited the movie or something, I would still recommend it to anyone who wants to see something rather light-hearted and who has an appreciation for wine.

P.F. Changs

A friend gave me a gift card to P.F. Changs a while back and Hedgehog and I never used it (although we greatly appreciate them, we are really horrible about using things like gift cards and always end up using them a really long time after they've been given to us!). I decided to ask a couple of friends, The Stuff Guy (TSG) and Vegas Girl, to join me in using the gift card in Hedgehog's absence. I decided on a week night since I thought the crowds might be kinda crazy on a weekend, so I made a reservation for Thursday at 7:15.

Parking is located behind the restaurant in the Hokua condo. There is a convenient entrance to the restaurant from the parking lot, though you still need to walk to the podium at the front of the restaurant to be seated.


We were seated immediately upon checking in and were given a table. There are a handful of booths, but most of the seating is table seating, and there is also an outdoor seating area. Diners can see into the kitchen, although there is glass separating the dining are from the kitchen, which probably keeps out excess noise. Upon being seated, a server showed up and immediately brought us 3 glasses of water while we decided on what we really wanted to drink. TSG ordered a beer that sounded very exotic and was supposed to have a hint of orange in it. I ordered a glass of Ste. Michelle Riesling, something fairly standard, but very good and always reliable.

Note that this is not my first experience at P.F. Changs, but the last time I ate there was in Vegas several years ago. I remember the decor and some of the food, including some kind of duck with buns and noodles that we had fun adding sauces to. The most memorable part was the Great Wall of Chocolate that we ordered to go. It literally was a wall of chocolate cake, and the to go box for this was a rotisserie chicken container! Back to the experience here in Honolulu...

The menu is pretty extensive, so it took a little while to navigate and narrow our choices down. We started out with five dishes in mind, but decided it was too much and narrowed it down to four, which was still a lot. These were our selections and what we thought of them:

Vegas Girl's only "must" was the lettuce wraps. The filling is made of chicken and the iceburg lettuce was very cool, crisp, and refreshing. The chicken was served on a bed of nice and crispy bean threads (I know, doesn't sound appetizing, but they're really yummy!). P.F. Chang's provides a plate of sauces and condiments which we experimented with when eating the wraps.

After the lettuce wrap, our remaining dishes came out all together, and rather quickly. We were actually quite amazed at how quickly the dishes arrived! However, the eating part took us a while since the portions were huge.

I was intrigued with the description of Tam's Noodles: "a unique gnocchi-like noodle stir-fried with sliced beef, shrimp, and chili peppers in a subtle abalone sauce." The gnocchi-like noodle sounded interesting to me. However, some of our group cannot eat shrimp, so we asked for it to be left out, which was absolutely not a problem. In fact, our waitress offered to substitute pork or chicken for the shrimp, so we chose the chicken. This was a terrific dish with a bit of heat. The "noodle" was nice and chewy. I would definitely order this again.

When we were looking over the menu, we decided we needed something with vegetables, and I suggested a salad. We pondered the Chicken Chopped Salad, but it sounded very ordinary and we ended up selecting the Warm Duck Spinach Salad. It turned out to be a good choice. Once again, the crispy bean threads served as a bed for the salad. The spinach was appropriately wilted, and the duck was really yummy (for a moment I thought I was eating kalua pig, but wrong animal!) There were some mandarin oranges, and my favorite part was the toasted almonds.

The fourth dish was mu shu pork, which I think was tied for a favorite of mine with Tam's Noodles. It's not something I would normally order in a Chinese restaurant, although I would describe P.F. Changs as Chinese fusion. Don't go here expecting something you would get at your neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Back to the mu shu pork -- the "pancakes" were kind of tortilla-like, and were wrapped for us table side by our server. She made about four of them, and left a dish with the remaining mixture (which was a lot!) and a little bowl of hoisin sauce.

I wasn't going to order dessert, but Vegas Girl mentioned that as we walked in, she noticed a tray with shot glasses on them that were filled with desserts. She asked our server about them, and they're kind of like little sampler desserts, and they're only $2.50 each. Vegas Girl ordered a S'mores and I ordered tiramisu. The size of these were perfect. I would include a picture, but unfortunately the desserts are out of focus, and nothing drives me crazier in a food review than blurry pictures!
With all this food, it's not surprising that we had leftovers. A LOT of leftovers! While the food came out really fast, it took us a long time to eat until we were full. We left the restaurant about 2 hours later. Our bill for all of the food and drink came out to about $70, not including tip. We probably could have done well on three dishes, but it was more fun and allowed for more variety by selecting four.

This probably isn't a place I would frequent, partly because of the prices, and partly because it is a chain. If I were going to select somewhere to have dinner, I would probably choose something more unique. But if you've never tried it and have wanted to, give it a try. Chances are you won't be disappointed. I thought the service was very good too, which always adds to the experience.

Charlie Barlett

"So when you're near me, darlin' can't you hear me, SOS..."

Oh, *ahem*...excuse me...I'm still on my Mamma Mia! kick, which has been renewed upon the arrival of the Soundtrack that I ordered from Amazon this week. I'm playing it for the second time straight and have been singing along for the past two hours.

Anyhoo, so once again, I have way more things to share than I have time to write. I haven't downloaded my pictures yet, so I'm going to stick to a movie review which doesn't involve pictures.

As I mentioned a couple posts ago, I love Netflix. Even when they make boo-boos, they make things right. If you've been living under a rock, a couple weeks ago there was some kind of major glitch in the Netflix distribution system which resulted in a LOT of people not receiving their movies for days. I was one of those people. The first movie I received following this glitch which left me movie-less for about five days was Charlie Bartlett. I know what you're thinking..."I've never heard of it." I said the same thing. I read about it in a magazine, either Time or Entertainment Weekly. I read so much crap that I can't remember where I read things anymore. And sometimes I just make stuff up. But Charlie Bartlett is real, very real.

Whatever I read or made up made the movie sound like it was pretty good. Besides, Robert Downey, Jr. (RDJ) is in it, so how bad can it be? When I looked it up on Netflix, it was listed as a comedy, a plus in my book. So I took a chance. I didn't regret my decision.

I watched in on Wednesday night and kept it so I can watch it once more before I return it. That's how much I enjoyed it. RDJ is not the main character in the movie, that would be Anton Yelchin who plays Charlie Bartlett, a teenager. RDJ plays a school principal. I have to say that I was extremely impressed with Yelchin's performance in this movie. I can see great things coming from that young man and I think he's someone to keep an eye on.

So Charlie is a bit of a misfit. He's been expelled from a number of private schools and his main goal in life is to be popular. And he obviously comes from wealth. After getting expelled for the umpteeth time, he and his mother discuss their options and it seems that public school is it. So he goes in looking like the spoiled rich brat that he is and everyone hates him and the school bully immediately selects him as his favorite punching bag. But Charlie finds his niche.

Charlie gets prescribed ritalin and quickly figures out that it makes you high. So what do teenagers like to do? That's right, get high. Charlie ends up selling his ritalin to fellow students, but he also ends up being the school psychiatrist. He actually listens to the students, in addition to "prescribing" them drugs. This of course makes him popular.

However, his new career gets him into a bit of hot water with Principal Gardner, whose daughter also happens to be a student at the school. I don't need to tell you that means that she and Charlie have a thing for each other, further adding fuel to the fire for Principal Gardner. Charlie's popularity comes at a price.

While this movie was very funny, it was also quite touching because of the relationships Charlie ends up forming. He is the only person who listens to everyone, and he offers his advice and tries to help people solve their problems. Charlie also has some of his own personal psychological things to sort out, so there's a lot of irony in this movie as well.

I'll leave my review at that because I think the movie needs to be watched to truly be appreciated. While there are a few heavy moments, for the most part it is very funny and a well-made movie overall. If you're looking for something to put in your Netflix queue, give Charlie Barlett a chance.

Burgers on the Edge

I have a number of things I'd like to share with you that I've been doing over the past couple of weeks, but the first thing I want to talk about is Burgers on the Edge. If you're not familiar with it, it's a relatively new burger joint that opened in what's referred to as "Safeway Center" on Kapahulu Avenue. I read about this place, which is owned by the owners of Formaggio, and a friend of mine recommended it highly. He forewarned me that ordering can be complicated because of the various choices, and he suggested I get the truffled fries. He also forewarned me that it's a little pricey.

This is kind of a quasi-counter service place, similar to the way Kakaako Kitchen is run. You place your order and pay at the counter, they take your name and give you a number, and they'll bring the food out to you. I like this kind of set up. I neglected to take a picture of the outside, but I ordered my food to go, so here's a picture of the bag:

The style of the bag is actually pretty reflective of the decor and ambiance you can expect from BOTE. It's kind of chic and modern, especially when you see the digital menu on the lcd tv screens as you walk in. There are a lot of stainless steel touches as well. There's limited seating in the building, but quite a number of tables can be found just outside, some lining Kapahulu Avenue, and some on a patio area between Kapahulu and the Safeway parking lot.

As a side note, I don't care for the parking fronting Safeway. It's always super crowded there, and I just feel it wasn't designed very well. However, I LOVE the rooftop parking. Everyone is so busy trying to get a prime spot downstairs that it's rarely crowded on the roof. And besides, the stalls are much bigger, and there's a nice view from the glass elevator.

Back to BOTE...because my friend warned me about the complicated menu, I did some advance research and found the website (see the link above) and studied the menu. There are 4 steps:
(1) Choose a burger: the "standard" is a 1/2 lb. ground chuck patty, which starts at $8.49, and this is what I got.
(2) Choose one cheese: there are ten to choose from. I selected the gruyere.
(3) Choose a sauce: there are 12 to choose from. These are fancy sauces. If you just want ketchup and mustard, they have that readily available at a condiment station. I chose the roasted garlic aioli.
(4) Choose up to four toppings: there are 16+ toppings! These range from veggies to fruit to more meat. You can even add an egg! I selected only three: apple wood smoked bacon, romaine hearts, and roasted red peppers. The cashier asked if I was sure I didn't want a fourth topping, but I was sure -- my mind was made up before I arrived.

So, let's put it all together in one place -- I had an on the edge burger with gruyere cheese, roasted garlic aioli, topped with apple wood smoked bacon, romaine hearts, and roasted red peppers. this turned out to be a great combination! The bread is kind of focaccia-like. Different for a burger, but good. It can be a little hard to eat since it's softer and more crumbly than a traditional hamburger bun, but I still liked it.

The burger itself may not have been the best I have ever eaten, but it really worked together with all of the ingredients. The burger was juicy and had a smoky, charred flavor to it, and it was cooked medium, which I was happy to see. One newspaper food reviewer really enjoyed BOTE, but said that on several occasions, the burger was overdone. One thing about BOTE is that they don't ask you how you want it prepared, so if you want it a certain way, be sure to tell them.

With regard to the toppings, the quality and taste of everything was very good, but I have to say that the bacon was particularly yummy! Gruyere makes a nice cheese for a burger too.

I also ordered the truffled fries for $4.89. A little steep for fries, but it was a HUGE order (two people could easily share), and they were mighty tasty! My only slight disappointment was that I hoped they would be fresher when I got them, especially since I had to wait about 10-15 minutes for my order. But they were still good, and tasted like garlic fries. The poor couple in the elevator with me were jealous!

So I spent a total of $14.01 for these two items, which is kind of a lot for one person (and I didn't even order a drink). But I would say that it is worth an occasional splurge. If someone else were with me, we could have easily split the fries and still had leftovers. You can get "plain" fries for $2.89. they even have sweet potato fries! Even though it was pretty pricey, for me, this was a lot of food, and I ended up only eating half the burger (after all, this burger is half a pound!) and less than half the fries. I took the rest to work the next day for lunch, and shared some of the fries with my coworkers. Fries aren't too bad if you heat them up in a toaster oven.

The combinations are endless. if you don't want to make choices, they have some pre-set burgers, although one of the workers commented that she'd rather build her own. They also have an "Off The Edge" burger made of Wagyu beef for $12.40. You can also get a chicken breast sandwich, portabella mushroom sandwich, or turkey burger. I'm already thinking about future orders: an Italian burger w/ mozzarella, Italian marinara, grilled onions, portabella mushroom, and sundried tomatoes. Or BBQ-style: pepper Jack, Smoked Hickory BBQ sauce, apple wood smoked bacon, grilled onions, and dill pickle chips. You could literally have a completely different tasting burger every time you go there just by making different combinations of toppings.

Besides the food being good, the service was good too, although you should prepare to wait at least 10 minutes for your food. They market themselves as "gourmet burgers at a fast food pace," but if I waited 10 minutes for fast food, I'd be pretty ticked and probably would leave. I would compare this to Kakaako Kitchen, gourmet food in a counter service setting. Slower than fast food, but quicker than fine dining. There are people standing at the door ready to help you understand how the menu works. They even have little slips of paper where you can check off the items you want and hand it to them, although I grabbed a couple as menus to share with friends.

I couldn't afford to do this regularly, especially if it's just me eating, but I would definitely go there with a friend and share an order of fries, or treat myself every pay day. I hope you'll find some time to treat yourself to a Burger on the Edge someday soon.