FedEx Field, Home of the Redskins

The day before the game, we drove down to see the Redskins' stadium, FedEx Field.  It's a modern marvel of steel, glass, and billboards.

 The StubHub Club is behind the glass and the Verizon sign.  It looks out over the parking lots.

Outside the main gate, there's this statue of Joe Theissman right before his leg was broken on national TV.

Inside the StubHub club, it's like a posh food court, with bars. And an Audi dealership inside.

The stadium seating is rather strange.  The red seats have black bottom cushions, but the yellow ones do not.

Our seats in section 322 were near the 50 yd line, and gave a good view of the field.  Right above us were sky boxes, which were equipped with windows that could be opened.  The row we were seated in had a couple inches more leg room between rows than the seats in Soldier Field, but about the same width.  Overall, not a bad stadium.  Except that they played a lot of commercials on their jumbotron, even during the time outs.

Washington food - better than Pittsburg?

I won't keep you in suspense.  Yes.   Yes the signature dish for Washington DC is better than the Pittsburg Sandwich.   Keep in mind that Pittsburg did not set the bar too high.   After doing some extensive research the Washington DC signature item was either the Half Smoke sandwich or the Chicken Wings in Mambo Sauce or Senate Navy Bean Soup.   In digging some more I found that the Wings in Mambo sauce seem to have lost their popularity in recent times and the Senate Navy Bean soup was more of a political statement than a dish of the people of the city.   So the Half Smoke it is.   And without doubt the consensus location for getting a half smoke is Ben's Chili Bowl.   So off we went to the original Ben's Chili Bowl.   To describe this place you need to imagine a storefront with with bright Red and Yellow signs set against the interior of White Linoleum and Formica table tops.   You walk in and the food preparation and order taking is on the right.   On the left side is a row of tables, and in the middle is a long line of people snaking their way along to get to the order counter and place their orders.   These are prepared and most often delivered to you at the counter before you are able to work your way down to the cashier.   Cash only in this place - I don't think they have gotten to the credit card era yet.   I am not altogether sure they have gotten to the electric toaster era yet.

All of this aside if you don't have your food by the time you pay, they ask you where you are sitting - basically this room, the next room (5 tables) or the back room (about 6 more tables) and they will bring your food out to you.

Now a half smoke for those of you who don't know is a smoked sausage on a hotdog bun with some chili on top.   Surprisingly it was quite good, which I would tell you explains why Ben's has been serving them since 1958, but given what we experienced in Pittsburg we know that longevity does not necessarily equate to good.   But, in this case we were pleasantly surprised as the food was tasty and filling and reasonably inexpensive.     Ben's claims to have about 25 items on the menu, but if you break it down it comes out as Sausages, Hot Dogs, Burgers (beef or turkey), Tuna Salad, Chili and Fries.  They just put them together in a bunch of different ways.  For instance one dish the Half Smoke.   A Sausage topped with Chili.  Another is the Rice Bowl.  It consists of Rice topped with Chili.  Another is the Salad Bowl.  It consists of Salad topped with Chili.  They also have burgers topped with chili, fries topped with chili,  a sub sandwich which is a sub bun topped with veggies and chili.     Get the picture?

Along with the half smoke we ordered an order of cheese fries and chili cheese fries.   The three sausages and two orders of fries proved to be more than the three of us there could hope to have finished.

 

Now as long as we were in the area we decided to stop in by Baltimore and check out the stadium there.   Now the Coach will do a detailed entry on the stadium in Baltimore as well as the FedEx stadium in Washington, but let me give you my impression.   Purple.  Purple with Purple accents and Purple lights and so much Purple that and pre-teenage girl would be in heaven.

As long as we were in Baltimore we decided to check out their signature dish.  There was no question here.  It was Blue Crabs.  So after doing some more research we ended up at LP Steamers.   We ordered a standard dozen of the critters and they bring them to you on a lunch room tray.  They don't give you the tray, no they throw them on a piece of paper on your table and hand you a wooden mallet and say - have fun.   And fun was had.  We banged and pounded and ripped and tugged and enjoyed a ton of great crab cooked in Old Bay seasoning.   We also had one of their crab cakes and it was outstanding as well.   The place is a little short on atmosphere.   It is basically a bar with tables, but they have really good crabs and that was the point of the whole expedition anyway.


So to sum up - Washington - Good, Baltimore - Good, Detroit (can't figure out their signature item, but the BBQ was good, Pittsburg - Bad.

Coping with Loss - Part II - Reflection

I have had several days to reflect upon my last post on the loss at the Lions game and I have come to the conclusion I was wrong.   The fault was not with "bad Jay" or with the team, the fault was ours - the fans.   We gave up hope.  We lost faith.   We didn't believe hard enough.  We stopped singing after every score because we were embarrassed and worried they might lose and we would look silly.  We didn't shout even louder as the game went on and the Detroit fans left to give our team heart and to let them know we were still there.   We didn't believe in the miracle of a last second score hard enough.   We let them down.    As I sit here getting ready to go support the team in the contest against the Saint's I am reminded that we must believe in Monsters.    We must believe to the end.  We must know in our hearts that they will find a way to win.   Good teams always do.   And great fans must support them to do it.   We failed in Detroit.  We didn't clap hard enough and we let Tinkerbell die.   We need to Believe, and we need to ensure that our faith is strong and our voices stronger, and we need to clap no matter how sore our hands are getting, and we need to shout no matter how hoarse our voices are getting, and we need to believe.

Believe in Monsters - the Chicago Bears are coming and we are going to cheer and they are going to WIN.

Coping with Loss

It is inevitable.   Unless you happen to have been a Dolphins fan for only one season and that the 1972 season, you are going to have to face up to having watched your beloved team lose.   This is always worse if you happen to be at the game.  It is worse yet if that game happens to be in another team's stadium.  If you were being a bit "rambunctious" before the game - well let's just say you are probably going to deserve whatever you get.   And get it we did.   The Bears lost.   No wait, they were destroyed.   The score may have only shown an 8 point loss at the end and it may have been a whole different thing if they had recovered the on-side kick, but the reality is that other than a couple of small bright spots, they were handled by the Lions.   And all the bluster, all the "well as a Lion's fan I guess you are used to being at the bottom so everything must look up up to you.", all the swagger in the world is not going to provide a bit of defense when your quarterback seems to have drunk from the "Bad Rex" fountain.    I am not sure what it is with the Bears and quarterbacks and why consistency seems to be a four letter word, but while the rest of the team certainly didn't help much, there isn't anything you can say about 3 picks and a fumble leading directly to 17 points that is going to shift much blame anywhere else.    Anyway - tomorrow is another day, and Sunday is another game and hope springs eternal as we are counting on "Good Rex" - no wait - Good Cutler to show up and give Drew Brees a run for his money in the quarterbacking show.

The Culinary Trail

One of the things we like to do is to try the "food of the city".   Many of the cities and regions in our country have items that are either unique to that area, or at least strongly identified with a particular place.   Think of Philadelphia cheesesteak, Chicago style pizza, hot dogs and italian beef, Buffalo chicken wings and the like.   So when we were in Pittsburgh we checked out the local fare.   They have something called a Pittsburgh style sandwich.  Originally made famous by a local restaurant called Primanti Brothers.   Primanti Brothers has been serving up these "delicacies" since 1933 and has locations all around Pittsburgh and a few in Florida.    Being traditionalists we headed for the original home of the Pittsburgh style sandwich at their first location.   I could wax poetic about this place for pages.   None of it would be true, but I could.   The location was a bit sketchy.  The restaurant was a dump.  More a bar with a room added on and very heavy with "atmosphere".   The service was somewhere between horrible and rude. Unfortunately those were the highlights of the visit to Pittsburgh culinary heaven.   A Pittsburgh style sandwich is meat (your choice) with coleslaw, a thin slice of tomato,  and greasy french fries all loaded on a thick slice of crusty white bread and covered by a second slice of the same tasteless bread.   The recommended meat choice is "Angus Strip" steak.   I believe the strip they picked came from the hide.   The other choices were ground meat, pastrami, knockwurst, tuna fish and many others.   As you are probably guessing, I was not overly fond of this creation.   It was TERRIBLE.   The best part was......There was no best part.   I have a picture below.

Trust me - it is not as tasty as it looks.
Coach's comment: Served on sheets of paper, not plates. Part of the "charm".

The next place we stopped on our culinary tour was Delaware, OH.   It is sort of on the way from Pittsburgh to Detroit by way of the Hall of Fame in Canton and a stop we needed to make near Delaware for the Coach to meet with someone for work.   Delaware, and Columbus in general, does not have a food that is special to the city, but anyone who goes through Ohio has to have heard of Skyline Chili.   As it happens there was a Skyline chili near where we were camped and so off to try this staple we went.   Now I am not going to tell you that Skyline chili is the finest thing I have eaten.  I am not totally sure I even like the sweet chili flavor they have, though cinnamon in your chili is an interesting twist.  (Note they won't confirm that there is cinnamon in their secret recipe, but it certainly tastes like there is.)  What I will tell you is that it is a satisfying meal and if someone told me that was where we were going for dinner I would not say no.   What I will also tell you is I have never been to a restaurant anywhere that took better care of me, was more interested in having me as a customer or provided better service then this Skyline Chili.  From the cherry hello when we walked in the door, to the enthusiastic way they explained to the "5 way chili virgins" their menu, to the service from the waitress, the manager coming over to see how we liked our first experience all the way to the thank you and come back to see us at the end it was a delightful experience.  

Now one of the most interesting things about Skyline is that if this is your first visit, and you take their recommendation to order one of the house specialties, that item is on the house.  Since we ordered the 4-way and 5-way chili  and a pair of coney dogs, our tab for that, and our drinks, was zero.  All we paid for were the exceptional funnel cake fries we had for desert.  They also give you a goody bag with some of their stuff to take with you.   I was already over the top about the great service we were getting and so this was just the frosting on the cake if you will, but it made me want to figure out a way to come back on one of the other trips to stop in again.    The end result is that the total bill for the two of us was under $3 for our meal.   And if there is anyone I can tell about Skyline I will.   The experience was that great and we were made to feel that welcome.  

Now when I contrast the Skyline experience with the Primanti Brothers experience.  Well lets just say there is only one of them I would ever consider sending anyone I know to visit.   I don't even dislike Packer fans enough to send them to Primanti Brothers and that is saying something.

Odd Couples: Unlikely Matchups Among Fans

Sitting outside Heinz Field, Thurston and I had the perfect vantage point to spot fans arriving for the game. When we saw a pedicab cruise by with one guy in a Roethlisberger and another guy in a Cutler jersey, we decided to feature some of these die hard fans and game day frenemy pairs in our blog.  So here we have the Odd Couples for the Steelers vs Bears matchup.

These two ladies are best friends - except on game day.

This pair inspired us to show the rest.

View from the Visitors' Side: Heinz Field

Heinz Field, Where the Steelers Play Ketchup

Coming into Pittsburg from the southwest, you first catch a glimpse of the field as you emerge from a tunnel –  how appropriate!  There it is, in glowing, garish yellow, right on the river front.  It’s a tall stadium, horseshoe shaped, and open on the end facing the river. Did they run out of money or just know they couldn’t sell out tickets if they had seats all around their stadium?  They filled in the empty space with a scoreboard array that pictures just don’t do justice.  Not only is there a tacky Heinz label right in the center, but there are giant ketchup bottles on both sides.  When the Steelers have the ball, the caps of these giant bottles open up.  If the Steelers make it into the Red Zone, then the jumbotron animates the ketchup pouring into it to create the Red Zone screen.  Words escape me.

Our seats were great, on the Club level at the 40. Fans around us were fairly tolerant of the cheering and victory-song-singing of the approx 8% Bears fans in the stadium.  Toward the end of the game, Steelers fans were getting pretty frustrated, and unhappy with the constant Bears celebrations. They love their team – until they are hopelessly behind, at which point they head for the door like a stampeding herd of buffalo.

Fortunately, we were in the gray seat section.  It is a very bright "road hazard sign" yellow!

The open end of the stadium, filled with food stands, etc.

4th quarter exodus ...

Giant Ketchup Bottles!