Meat Coma

My son and I went to Chama Gaucha this weekend, which is a local Brazilian steakhouse.  I guess these have been becoming popular for some time now, but being that I'm pop-culture handicapped I had only first heard about them earlier in the year when some of the guys I worked with were talking about going there for Valentine's Day with their wives.  The thing that had put me off going was the price. When its all said and done, provided you don't hit the bar, its about $50 per person. Forget it, the $50 is a steal. 

For those of you in my shoes who don't know what these places are, let me just say two words to describe them:  Meat.  Coma.  You go in and they lay out the ground rules for you.  Help yourself to the salad bar (which was unbelievable on its own) and when ready, turn the little 2-sided color card by your setting over so its green.  Once the wait staff see green the gluttony commences!  They had 15 cuts of meat available cooked every way, from filet or chicken wrapped in bacon to sirloin to my personal favorites leg of lamb and parmesan pork.  When you get a few helpings they recommend you turn the card to red to stem the flow of meat to the table.  Thats really a good idea because you want to get the meat while its hot and fresh out of the kitchen and not have it sitting on your plate for a bit.  It was all fantastic, and yes I tried it all!

The staff is amazing.  I've never seen anything like it.  My son finished his salad and was just reaching to turn his card over for the first time when suddenly a staff member to his left whisked his salad plate away and someone to his right replaced it with a clean plate for dinner.  Every time you came back to your chair you had 2 people running to pull it out for you.  The place was packed yet everyone was constantly being fawned over.  They would come and scrape crumbs off the table and replaced our bread rolls simply because they weren't as fresh anymore.  What was cool was you go to some restaurants and service is poor because they use as few staff as possible to save money.  Not this place.  There were people everywhere, more than enough to make sure everything went well for the customers.  And what was truly beautiful was they don't rush you to finish.  When you begin to make overtures that you might be ready to leave they actually encourage you to wait it out for a bit and see if you get a second (or fifth) wind and want a little more.  There was one downside though: no doggie bags.  Can't have it all, I guess.  :(

So that was a great place to go while doing Atkins!  It was a bummer not getting any of those rolls they brought around (although I did take a tiny spoonful of the garlic mashed they bring you, didn't hurt the diet but not something I would normally do) but I promise I got my $50 worth.  Definitely going again, but not until I'm working.  This is for sure our new "special occasion" place.

Speaking of spending money I don't have I think I might hit the riverboat casino this morning.  I haven't been in over a decade and I'd been meaning to go for some time anyway.  The only thing is it doesn't look like they play Caribbean Stud poker anymore, that was always my favorite.  Seems its been replaced with 3 card poker, might have to check that out.

So Maiden Monday, what are we going to do?  Let's throw out another track from their latest album and a few classics.  Mother of Mercy is a pretty awesome song from TFF, not a lot of singers could pull this one off especially live.  Then I think a live version of Iron Maiden (the song) might be fun.  This is always a highlight of their shows since its a guaranteed appearance by Eddie after the break in the middle.  From a giant mummy shooting fire out of his eyes to an inflatable head lifting up the drum riser, this always gets the crowd going.  I went with the version from the BNW tour complete with wicker virgins (yah, right) trapped in a giant wicker Eddie and getting "burned" at the end.  Always good times.  The last one is a clip from way back in 1988 on the Seventh Son tour, the title track from their second album Killers.  Wish they'd do it live more.

Mother of Mercy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3jUfDPc60Y[/youtube]

Iron Maiden

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2zgyd12Dcc[/youtube]

Killers

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbEzMOLx2ks&feature=related[/youtube]