AlbanyNick

I feel myself reverting back to the way I was years ago- recentering myself if you will. It feels great. One thing I used to do is post lyrics on my AIM away message. Since I don’t even remember my login, I’ll post it here:

I’ve tried to cut these corners
Try to take the easy way out
I kept on falling short of something

I coulda gave up then but
Then again I couldn’t have ’cause
I’ve traveled all this way for something

Now take it in but don’t look down

‘Cause I’m on top of the world, ‘ay
I’m on top of the world, ‘ay
Waiting on this for a while now
Paying my dues to the dirt
I’ve been waiting to smile, ‘ay
Been holding it in for a while, ‘ay
Take it with me if I can
Been dreaming of this since a child
I’m on top of the world.

-”On Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons

Remember that list the TU leaked? Looks like they went with “none of the above.” Per a blast email from the President’s Office today (posted below) Robert J Jones will be the new UAlbany President effective January 2013. I still like my favorites from the TU list, but I’m content with the selection and excited for this next chapter of the University’s history. He has a lot of experience and had been at his last post many years, so I’m happy. Welcome to the greatest University in the world Dr. Jones!

 UPDATE: There is a great quote from Governor Cuomo on the UAlbany webpage announcing the appointment: “As one of our elite university centers and home to the globally renowned College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, UAlbany needs the steady, professional leadership Dr. Jones has developed over his distinguished career,” Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said. “I want to congratulate him on his appointment to this prestigious position within our State University system and thank George Philip for his invaluable contributions, especially his work on UAlbany’s forthcoming NYSUNY 2020 plan. I look forward to working with Dr. Jones and Chancellor Zimpher on continuing our strong efforts to position UAlbany as a premiere economic driver and top academic institution.”

From: All UAlbany Faculty and Staff [mailto:ALLFACSTAFF-L@listserv.albany.edu] On Behalf Of President’s Office-Notices
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2012 2:06 PM
To: ALLFACSTAFF-L@listserv.albany.edu
Subject: MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT GEORGE PHILIP
Importance: High

To the University at Albany Community:

I am very pleased to announce Dr. Robert J. Jones has been appointed the 19^th president of the University at Albany. The State University Board of Trustees made the appointment this afternoon, upon his nomination by Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher, concluding a national search that attracted candidates from leading research universities across the country. Dr. Jones has served as senior vice president for Academic Administration at the University of Minnesota System for the last eight years. He will assume the UAlbany presidency on Jan. 2, 2013.

A native of Dawson, Georgia, Dr. Jones has more than three decades of higher education leadership experience as well as academic expertise spanning plant physiology and urban and international development.

For the past eight years, he has been responsible for the oversight of a broad portfolio of programs and initiatives that provide core support for academic programs across the University of Minnesota system. Prior to that, Dr. Jones served more than 15 years in key administrative leadership positions at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, including vice president and executive vice provost for faculty and academic programs, vice president for campus life and vice provost for faculty and academic personnel, and interim vice president for student development.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State College, a Master of Science degree in crop physiology from the University of Georgia, and a doctorate in crop physiology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. After earning his Ph.D., he joined the University of Minnesota faculty as a professor of agronomy and plant genetics. He is an internationally recognized authority on plant physiology and has published numerous scientific papers, manuscripts and abstracts. His research focuses on the role of cytokinins in stabilizing grain yields of maize against environmental stresses and global climate change. Over his career, he has trained many students who have gone on to leading careers in higher education and research.

Dr. Jones is a fellow of both the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. He has been a visiting professor and featured speaker in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, and from 1984 to 1994 served as an academic and scientific consultant for Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s South African Education Program. In 2010, he was awarded a University of Minnesota endowed chair in urban and international development; he was also named a recipient of the Michael P. Malone International Leadership Award by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU).

Dr. Jones holds a gubernatorial appointment as a commissioner of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact and serves on the boards of directors for the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities, the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities, and the Bush Foundation, among other leadership roles. He is also a member of the Grammy award-winning Sounds of Blackness, a Twin Cities-based choral ensemble.

I am confident Dr. Jones has the experience and talent to lead our University and to strengthen the critical impact we have in preparing students, advancing research and serving our communities. In the months ahead, I look forward to working with him to assure a smooth transition.

On behalf of the University at Albany Search Committee Co-chairs, Dan Tomson and Patricia Caldwell, I extend my deep appreciation to all the members of the University Council and the Presidential Search Committee for their hard work and commitment in fulfilling a successful search for UAlbany’s next president.

Dr. Jones is expected to visit the campus on Friday, Sept. 21 and additional details will be provided in the days ahead.  I hope everyone will join me in welcoming Dr. Jones and introducing him to our remarkable community.

Sincerely yours,

George M. Philip
President

I realized yesterday the campus is ALIVE again. It was freshmen move-in day. Today the upperclassmen start coming back, and opening weekend really kicks off. It also reminded me that it was 8 years ago that I started at UAlbany. That means that I’ve been at UAlbany since the current freshmen were in the 4th grade. As they went through middle school, junior high, and high school, I’ve been here. At the greatest University on the planet.

Why is UAlbany the greatest? Well, I’ve been here, as a student, for 8 years. So it must be good, right? Why else would I stay here?! But it is more than that. I’ll admit I used to be skeptical of the “World Within Reach” tagline. Since high school I’ve always been partial to RPI’s “Why not change the world?” and I really like Maria College’s “Start here. Go anywhere.” But “World Within Reach” combines the two and is growing on me.

Think about it. With a business education from UAlbany you can start the next great Greek Yogurt company. With a criminal justice degree you could become head of the NYS Police and a international expert in crime. You could be a critic or columnist with the New York Times. A star NFL player. Pulitzer prize winning author. An inspirational activist with a movie about your life. A federal judge. An IBM fellow.

How do I know that? Because for the past 160+ years UAlbany alumni have been doing these things. There’s nothing that you can’t do, can’t accomplish, can’t get to, with a UAlbany degree. The world really is within reach- anything you want, it is yours for the taking.

Furthermore, this is an unprecedented time for students. Times are tough, and money is short for families. It is hard to spend thousands of dollars on education. And times are tough for colleges too. They’re strapped for cash too, but they know they need to really deliver for students. I don’t think there has been a time where the University at Albany has been more dedicated to delivering a quality, affordable educational experience. 45 NEW faculty this year (hired, not fired!) New dorms, new academic buildings, updated classrooms, new athletic fields (for students, not just D1 athletes!)

So honestly, new students, welcome. You’re in for a treat. The University is at your service. Take advantage of everything she has to offer and reap the rewards. Get involved, talk to your professors, study hard, and you can follow your dreams. And someday, maybe eight years down the road, you’ll look back and realize what a great experience you had and welcome the next generation of UAlbany students.

I had no plans to go to Trader Joe’s on opening weekend, or opening week, or opening month. I waited at least a month before I visited Shop Rite, and even then only because I had a $10 off coupon. But my fiancee and I had a craving for prosciutto and cheese rice balls that we get on Long Island. I though, hey, Trader Joe’s might have those, and they don’t close for another 90 minutes…

So we went. I half thought there might be long lines of cars to get in and we might give up, but it wasn’t bad. We got a parking spot in like 2 minutes, and we were able to move around inside pretty well. It was crowded, and I wish more people used baskets instead of a cart for 3 items, and I wish they didn’t abandon their carts randomly, but all in all it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was.

I also wasn’t that excited for Trader Joe’s. I had been to one in Boston and… eh… But I started browsing the 6 aisles and I started to get excited. I found a bunch of stuff that looked goooooood. And it wasn’t too expensive. I picked up a Tapas Spanish Cheese pack (three small servings of different Spanish cheeses), two different kinds of Asian noodles, some Kim Chi rice, two kinds of Tikka Masala, corn dog shrimp, some other Indian dish, beef pho, some chicken enchiladas and, of course, some fontina cheese filled rice balls. I’m excited that I was able to pick up enough food to feed myself dinner for a week (with INTERESTING food) for $30. Of course, I’ll probably share with my fiancee and spread it out over 2 or 3 weeks.

So, Trader Joe’s isn’t that bad. I think I get why people are excited about it. I still do get the crazy fanatics, but I get that it is a pretty cool place. I would suggest checking it out at some point (when it isn’t packed if you can!)

The TU updated their story this week noting that RPI (former) Provost Palazzo, UAlbany Provost Phillips, Morgan State University President Wilson and SUNYIT/Morrisville President Yeigh were all out. The Albany Student Press also had a blog post comparing the search to “The Apprentice” without much new information. An email was just sent out today on behalf of University Senate Chair Professor Fessler and written by search committee staffer Dr. Chesin basically stating that the search committee met after the TU article was published with the names of the candidates. (The jist of the email can be found posted on the search committee site.) Basically, the co-chair Ms. Caldwell was (understandably) disappointed in the leak, and the committee agreed to accelerate the pace of the search. Which I think is awesome. Sooner rather than later!

I will say I’m a little worried that Palazza and Phillips are out. I had thought they would not have removed their names and we’d be sure to have a new President. With them out, and two others out, I’m frankly scared the rest could drop out. I’ll also note that my three top choices (Montemagno, Ballard, Hardcastle) are still there, so that makes me hopeful. Let’s just hope they don’t drop out and we have to start all over again!

If you’ve been to my blog before you know I complain a lot about bad customer service. In general you will find more stories of bad customer service than good customer service because usually good customer service isn’t something to write home about. You… expect it. But I want to draw your attention to two instances of (not just good but) GREAT customer service. In general, I’m really satisfied because these companies not only did what they could to make things right, but they were proactive instead of reactive.

First, and I mentioned this one a few weeks ago is Lexmark. We have a Lexmark all-in-one at home that we got from Staples maybe 2-3 years ago. Last year we started having issues where the colors looked misaligned. I worked with Lexmark support to try a bunch of different things, and in the end they sent me a new print head and ink cartridges for free! I never ended up getting upset or frustrating, and they didn’t even try to get me to pay for the new part. Then, a few weeks ago we started having the same issue. I went through all the trouble shooting steps I did last time with no luck. I contacted Lexmark support, explained everything, and they again said they would ship out a new print head and ink cartridge. The best part was they didn’t religiously stick to their script. I didn’t get “check that the cables are securely plugged in…” They believed me when I told them the steps I took. AWESOME. Thank you Lexmark!

Then, today I took to Facebook and Twitter to ask how much everyone’s National Grid bill went up this month. My goal was to find out if mine went up much more than it should as a result of my A/C being broken since April so I could complain to my landlord. Not two hours later I got a phone call on my cell phone. It was National Grid! They saw my tweet and said they would send someone to double check the reading. Wow! I wasn’t even blaming them, or complaining about their service, but they went out of their way to see my tweet, find how to contact me, and contact me to make sure I was happy. Good job National Grid!

So, I’d just like to go on record that there are companies out there that have good customer service, and in these two cases: outstanding customer service.

What this post isn’t:

First and foremost, I’m not on the presidential search committee, was never on any presidential search committee, and have no knowledge of the search committee’s deliberations. I was a graduate student representative to the University Council, which the search committee reports to, but I had and have no involvement with the search. This is important because I also want to note I’m not leaking any information. Anything below is now public knowledge because of someone leaking the names. This kind of bothers me. I wish, for once, the committee could actually be confidential. Remember the last search fell apart after the names were leaked… Also, I’m not going to tell you who I think should be President because you and I can’t base that on their names and Google search results alone. That said, “here are the nominees” per the Times Union and some thoughts.

• Susan Phillips, UAlbany’s provost and vice president for academic affairs;
• Robert Palazzo, former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute provost;
• Carlos Santiago, chief executive officer of the Hispanic College Fund and a former UAlbany provost;
• Bjong Wolf Yeigh, president of the State University of New York Institute of Technology in Utica and Morrisville State College;
• David Wilson, president of Morgan State University;
• John Roberts, dean of University of Houston’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences;
• Valeria Hardcastle, dean of the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati;
• Carlo Montemagno, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Cincinnati;
• Steve Ballard, chancellor of East Carolina University.

First, there are some interesting potential rivalries here. There are two University of Cincinnati deans under consideration (Hardcastle and Montemagno) and two people who have served as Provost of UAlbany (Phillips and Santiago). In fact, Phillips and Santiago were both under consideration for the UMass Amherst Chancellorship. They were two of the four semi-finalists before Phillips and another candidate dropped out. In the final two Santiago ended up not getting appointed.

Second, I strongly believe that one of these nine will be the next President. In the past, like I mentioned, all the applicants dropped out after their names were leaked publically (and perhaps after getting wind of the turmoil to come in New York State). This time I feel like there are enough candidates that aren’t going to be concerned about their names leaking. There is nothing wrong with Phillips’ name being out there since it’s the same institution. Santiago has been actively looking so it won’t surprise his current employer and Palazzo is no longer Provost at RPI so it won’t be a shock to them that he is trying to get a new job. The rest, though, you don’t know. All the dean’s and current presidents could end up getting counter offers to stay. But, at least there are three that I feel like would take the job if they were offered.

Third, there are a lot of connections to SUNY Chancellor Zimpher. There are the two Cincinnati deans (where Zimpher was previously), and Yeigh who is one of the dual-campus Presidents that Zimpher created. Technically, the search committee recommends the next President to the University Council who recommends to the SUNY Board but the Chancellor is the one who actually makes the appointment. So I’m curious what if any dynamic she will have on this process. Also of note, SUNYIT is disputing that Yeigh is being considered. He was previously a candidate for another Presidency and withdrew his name. I have no idea, but it could be a way for a sitting President to get a raise. I mean, that’s what I would do! Or, he may be genuinely interested, or he might not be in the running. Who knows!

Fourth, I’m concerned about the pace at which some of the candidates appear to be “moving up”. Wilson, for example, has only been President for 2 years (although he does have two Harvard degrees!) Dean Roberts has also only been in that post for 2 years. One of my biggest concerns is getting someone who will be here for a while. I see that in Hardcastle (dean for 5 years), Montemagno (dean for 6 years), and Ballard (chancellor for 8 years).

Fifth, some of these candidates are not going to sit well with the UAlbany faculty. Phillips was involved with program deactivations so there will be people that don’t want her there. I’m not one of them, I think she’s awesome. Some faculty will not like Palazzo because of him disbanding the faculty senate at RPI. I can’t blame them, but I also see where he was coming from. Santiago was before my time, but based on my experience with faculty, I’m sure some of them will dislike him for some reason. No one ever pleases everyone so it would be hard for him to make a return to Albany.

OK, I lied; I will tell you who I like. Top three in no particular order: Montemagno, Ballard, Hardcastle. A close 4th would be Palazzo or Phillips. I don’t know if the committee will go for either Phillips or Palazzo. I do kind of think we need an outsider to come in and bring us forward, which is unfortunate because I think we would lose Phillips, and I really like and respect her. I don’t think the faculty would go for Palazzo because of the Faculty Senate issue at RPI, but maybe they will. Like I said, tenure length is very important for me which is why I would really like to see those top three. But, I will say they all are great candidates, and I’m confident one of them will be President soon.

UPDATE: Provost Phillips was kind enough to email me. She states: “I wanted to let you know that I am not a finalist as the TU suggests, and in fact have withdrawn my name from consideration in the search.” As I replied to her, I never envied her or President Philip in the hard issues they’ve had to deal with, but I did admire and respect their leadership. I would note that the TU hasn’t updated their story to reflect that Phillips and Yeigh have stated they are NOT under consideration.

I should really just rename this blog to “complaining about Verizon” and while I hate to do it, I’m writing another rant. To recap: getting Verizon FiOS installed was a two week ordeal- I actually had to convince Verizon that I could, indeed, have their service, then getting it installed was a mess. Then, in the year or so since then, whenever someone else in my building gets FiOS, my internet gets disconnected. So I have to take a day off from work every time someone else gets FiOS so they can screw around and fix mine. The last time this happened my internet speeds dropped. When I first signed up for FiOS they could only promise my 10 Mbps downstream, and 2 upstream (or “10/2″). I was used to 5/1 on Time Warner so that was still an improvement. BUT, speed tests showed I was getting 13/5! That’s awesome!

But, since the last repair visit in February my speeds have been 5/2. Not cool. So last Sunday I spend 4 hours with tech support trying to fix it, with no luck. They have to send someone out. I decide to “put my foot down” that I’m not going to take off more time from work for this. So they do offer weekend appointments. Trouble was I had a busy weekend coming up. Saturday I was busy all day with work and a volunteer shift at the Ronald McDonald House. Sunday I was meeting my uncle to do some work on my fiancee’s car at noon. So I ask for Sunday, first thing in the AM. They tell me dispatch is closed so they can’t promise a specific time, but I’m on for Sunday and if I call back during the week they can pin down a time. I ask for the number for dispatch and they explain they can’t give me it. So how do I contact them? Call tech support, and tech support will contact dispatch. That seems efficient. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Note: I intentionally used chat so that there was a written record of what I was promised. This becomes important.

I get a phone call Tuesday at like 7:45am from Verizon asking if they could stop by now. Um, no, I have to go to work.

I had a busy week and didn’t get to contact tech support until Friday. I chat with them, explain everything, and they tell me they don’t have a morning appointment for me. BUT, they could have the guy be there at 5PM. Well, actually, that works. I should be done by then! Great!

Saturday while at the Ronald McDonald House I saw I had a missed call and voicemail. It was Verizon saying they were at my apartment and I wasn’t. Well, yeah, because my appointment was on Sunday. I called the 1-800 number quickly and they explained they were probably just trying to get a jump start on Sunday, but I’m still set for Sunday at 5PM. Whew!

Saturday night I get an email stating my appointment was for MONDAY before 5PM. Um, NO. So Sunday first thing I chat again and they guy tells me that it is for Sunday, but it is an all day appointment- any time between 8am and 5pm. I explain that doesn’t work, and he reiterates that it is an all day appointment. I get that, I really do, but that wasn’t what I agreed to. I ask him to go look at the past chat logs and show me where I agreed to an all day appointment. He comes back and says I agreed to a Sunday at 5PM. Yup! He assures me I have nothing to worry about.

All day I’m waiting for a phone call from Verizon telling me they’re at my apartment. But nothing. I get home at 4:30pm and start waiting. By 7pm I’m getting nervous, but decide to wait until 8pm before calling. At 7:30pm I get an email again saying my appointment is for Monday before 5pm. I’m livid. I call up and again explain my situation, and have them pull up the chat logs. The first guy must have realized the issue and gets me a supervisor, named Erin. Erin was awesome, by the way. Best person I’ve interacted with at Verizon in a long time. She apologizes, and genuinely seemed confused why I was told those things. She sees that I was promised Sunday at 5PM, multiple times, but whoever it was put me in for Saturday, and then Monday. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do now, and schedules me a visit for Wednesday AM, with a note for the tech to come as soon as possible in the AM so I miss as little of work as possible. She also spends some time with me trying to fix it remotely, which I really appreciate. She trusted me that I might be able to do some trouble shooting on my own besides “try restarting your computer”. She also called Billing on my behalf to get me a credit, but the best she could get me was $13. I appreciate her effort because it is out of her control.

That said, I’m about to call and leave a message with Verizon escalations. They need to stop wasting my time. I spent three hours sitting around doing nothing. I could have replaced the brakes on my car, instead I waited on that project because I had to be home for Verizon. I could have done my food shopping for the week. I could have been in the lab catching up on work. Instead I sat around waiting for Verizon, and despite my best efforts will have to take off time from work for them to come fix it. I mean, I sat around for three hours, and my internet still isn’t fixed! I get paid $32 an hour at my real job and charge $25 when I’m doing contract work, I think I need to get reimbursed for that time.

UPDATE: A nice lady from escalations finally called me back and offered me a nice credit. I’m still waiting for the tech to come out and fix my internet though. I will say this: when you get past the front line call center people Verizon is actually helpful. And when it works, their service is awesome. Can’t win them all I guess?

MORE UPDATE: Tech finally showed up, shockingly, it wasn’t my computer, router, modem, or ONT. It was something they had to provision remotely. LIKE I TOLD THEM. I kept saying “is there ANYTHING else you can do remotely?” Nope, needs a tech visit. Tech gets here and has to call someone to fix it remotely. ::sigh:: Anyways, they set me to get 10/2 now (no 13/5 like I used to get, oh well) and get this: the WHOLE BUILDING was set for this speed. So everyone was paying for slow internet since February, and now they’ll all get a speed boost. You’re all welcome. Meanwhile, it looks like Verizon’s Twitter support is getting angry:

On Sunday I tweet at them and get:

@AlbanyNick Is there something we can help with? ^FM

@VerizonSupport Yes, for starters reimburse me for the time I’ve wasted sitting at home waiting for tech support. 3 hours at $32 an hour.

{Silence}

So today, Tuesday:

Still no answer from @VerizonSupport but a lady at escalations called me back and gave me a nice credit. At least someone there is helpful!

@AlbanyNick Nick, FM from our team reached out to you 3 days ago and you never responded How can I help you ^PC

@VerizonSupport I responded three days ago: https://t.co/bWxYAoR2

@AlbanyNick Yes and that in no way tells me who you are or what your issue is please DM me your info ^PC

I would have sent my name and issue if they asked for that. They asked how they could help!

I don’t want to make a big deal out of this and turn this into a “Verizon Sucks” blog because I’m sure they exist elsewhere.

But seriously, right now, Verizon sucks.

As of yesterday we no longer get WXXA FOX23 in the Albany, NY area. Other markets also lost some local affiliates that are owned by Newport TV. Verizon replaced the local FOX affiliate with a screen shot urging us to call Newport TV and demand fair prices. Their Twitter people are pushing the same thing. Their goal of course is to make people upset, or at least direct their anger towards Newport TV.

I don’t have a stake in Newport TV, and I don’t know all the details, but I’m really pissed off that customers get shafted yet again. Let’s be real. Newport wants to make more money, and Verizon wants to pay less money for those stations. That is, they both want to increase their profits. Fine.

But who loses in this standoff?

Newport TV loses a few subscribers. They own dozens of stations in dozens of markets. Not a big deal for them at all. WXXA-FOX23 loses a those same subscribers but that’s a bigger percentage of their viewership- but let’s be real it is still a small percentage of their viewers (and they can still watch FOX- see below).

The customers lose FOX23 live on FiOS- but they can still get the programming live using OTA antennas. Plus, they can watch things online and VOD. So for them it is an inconvenience. Customers tend to get annoyed by inconveniences and complain with their wallets. But, since we pay Verizon, that’s who we’ll take it out on, and that’s who has the most to lose.

Maybe it isn’t fair but that’s the reality. People are upset they’ve lost the local FOX station and if they do anything besides complain they’re going to take it out on Verizon. Verizon has the most to lose. Plus, Verizon currently has a small subscriber base so it doesn’t matter to Newport if they lose that handful. So not only does Verizon have the most to lose, they have little to no bargaining power. They need to suck it up, pay the fees, and keep their customers happy. If they don’t keep customers happy they’re not going to grow.

Just my thoughts, /rant.

I mentioned in my New Year’s Resolution post that a bunch of my classmates/coworkers have frequent lunch outings, often with amazing results. One of the best outings ever was a holiday lunch buffet at a more upscale restaurant in downtown Albany last December. It was such a nice place marred by an over the hill “working lady” at the bar, and a young hoodlum who checked his hoodie at the coat check, wandered around the dining room, and had a LOT of trouble getting it back on once he was kicked out. Plus, the waiter said goodbye to me and my buddy with his hands on our shoulders… and then down our backs… Awkward, but hilarious.

We wanted to do another holiday lunch buffet outing, but upon further reflection another visit to that place would never live up. Luckily Steve on Table Hopping shared that TASTE was doing a lunch buffet. I haven’t had the greatest experience with TASTE in the past. The menu was:

• Roasted Pear and Shallot Soup – tasted kind of weird, not bad per se, but didn’t really make me want to finish the bowl
• Seafood Carbonara, Penne Pasta, Grilled Calamari, Shrimp – awesome, best dish of the lunch. My friends complained there wasn’t enough seafood, but to be fair I had just raided it!
• Roasted Tomato Bolognese, Jasmine Sticky Rice, Grilled Asparagus – also very good and was worth seconds
• Yukon Gold Potato Salad, Grilled Red Onion, Dijon Vinaigrette – not bad, but you can only make a potato salad so good.

Overall, it was good, not outstanding, but at $13 it was a great value- and no touchy/feely servers!

My fiancee and I have been meaning to check out the Capital City Gastropub, so a few days after Christmas we headed out. I was a little worried since they don’t take reservations, but on that Wednesday around 5PM is was rather empty, and never completely filled up. At lot of the food looked really good (which is why we wanted to go) but we settled on sharing the:

• Fish Tacos; fried haddock, hand chopped salsa, avocado, sweet chili aioli – two chock full tacos. We noticed the tortillas were not what we expected, they were a little harder, but still good. The fish was fried nicely and no bones (bones in fried fish is a pet peeve of my fiancee!)
• Wagyu Beef Chicago Dogs; rocket peppers, tomato and onion relish, dill pickle – again, two hot dogs, and they were very tasty, but not as memorable as I expected. But again, how much can you dress up a hot dog?
• Poutine; cheese curd, duck gravy – I’m a huge cheese fries fan, so when I first learned about this Canadian dish I was intrigued, and I needed to try it. From what I understand, poutine often includes protein which I thing would have really added a lot.

Overall, it was tasty, and a really good value: our bill after drinks was only $44. Next time I would like to try the Kilcoyne Farm Beef Swedish Meatballs and the Pork Belly Banh-mi. The Gastropub would be an outstanding place for a few drinks after work and a bite to eat, or some drunk food. I would go to town on their menu! But it also worked out as a casual dinner spot.

Last up of my holiday food adventure was New Year’s Eve dinner at Marche at 74 State. This was the place that we got engaged back and had an engagement/birthday party back in February so we were excited to return (also since the food the last time was AMAZING). They were running a pre-fixe menu including an appetizer, a salad, an entree and a dessert. For the appetizer course we shared:

• Beef Carpaccio with Petite Frisée Salad, Truffle Vinaigrette, and Shaved Parmesan Regiano
• Tuna tartare with wasabi tobiko, soy sherry vinaigrette, peppercress, crisp wonton

Both of these were AWESOME. As usual, we typically like the appetizers the best. The two salad choices (baby arugula and goat cheese/roasted cauliflower) were good, and generous. For the entree we both went with the pan-seared diver scallops, risotto of lump crab and caramelized fennel, lobster butter. Four, large sea scallops, cooked well and still hot inside, plus a generous portion of the risotto left us stuffed and satisfied. We only were able to eat half of our flourless chocolate cake. Needless to say, we really enjoyed our dinner. $74 a person for those four courses was a little steep however.