The Good People of Utah (and Also the Best Tacos in the United States)

June 20, 2015 by Brigham Barnes

(Before going deep with this post, you might need to revisit my original blog post about Tacos Don Joaquin, the taco shop in Provo and Springville that I am only more and more convinced serves the best tacos in all of the United States)

When I was in Utah I didn't just go up the canyon for wedding events. I also hung out around Kristen and Cory's house with Scout.

And went for car rides with Kristen

And Walker

Thursday I went up to Salt Lake to take Grandma to lunch. I had been thinking about Crown Burger, which I haven't even been to much, and when I suggested burgers to her Grandma said "No, we get Mexican." True. No messing with tradition. So we had Cafe Rio and then started looking for some ice cream, a Wendy's was sighted. I could barely keep up with Grandma when we got there.

Did you know Grandma had never even heard of a Frosty before? She liked it.

Back up to Kristen and Cory's, tried out my tried and true Zeiss 35mm f/2 on the new camera for the first time.

Sentinels.

I gave Rachel the option of making other faces, this was her choice.

(They grow up so fast)

They were having Parade of Homes in the neighborhood, this Scout was keeping everyone crossing the street safe.

If you were wondering where we were heading together, it was the Springville Don Joaquin's.

There had been a lot of discussion over whether or not everyone would get their own soda bottle and who would or wouldn't finish their drink (or even barely start it). By the end of the day, there would be a nearly full Sprite bottle and a nearly full Fanta bottle in the fridge at home.

Not my photo, or my tacos, I stole this picture from Cory's Instagram because it turned out so crazy beautiful. The top two tacos are the Don Joaquin Secret Taco that might be called a "B.I.P." (still not sure about that). They make a taco, then top it with melty quesadilla cheese, and turn it face down on the flat top. The cheese turns crispy on one side, all melty on the other side. It's awesome.

I had it in my mind that my schedule was such that I could eat at a Don Joaquin every night I was in Utah, so I made the goal. While I had been out of Utah Kristen and Cory had become regulars at the place and Cory had struck up a solid friendship with the owner, Ricardo. He'd told Ricardo all about me and introduced us that night. It was a little bit of an "Oh, ok" "Nice to meet you" meeting. Not the instant full-blown best friendship I would've hoped for.

Friday the kids hosted a one-day summer camp at the house.

It was a good time to escape back up to Salt Lake. I had my Crown Burger. I went to Jessica's new house. She fed her dogs pastrami.

And then, later that night, after Round One of the Gordon/Merkley affair, I met up with old pals at my favorite place in the United States: the Provo Don Joaquin, inside the warehouse that says "Salon Eclipse" on it, down by the train tracks.

Christina and Dave were in the house. As a fellow former missionary to Mexico, I was definitely hoping Dave would give Don Joaquin a thumbs up. (He did. I am beginning to think I'm not wrong about this place being the dopest).

Also there that night? Temporary Utahn Emily. Bet you weren't expecting to see her in this post! It was the best.

Jared and Eve came down (if was after their wedding reception that I first ate at Don Joaquin's) as well as the Beans.

The night's tacos (they put pineapple on my chorizo taco, too). I had eaten too much at the wedding party to go hard on the tacos, but I did all right.

Just the family-friendly scene inside the warehouse that night. Fog from a fog machine inside the night club that shares the warehouse would occasionally escape into the room that night. It was fun.

Erin came down too! I don't know if you follow her on Instagram but her house has the best-looking floors and fixtures.

What's a Doriloco? Something to come back and find out later.

Now these aren't two more tacos I ate Friday night but two tacos I ate Saturday night. I was coming down late from the reception and wondering if Don Joaquin would even be open or if I could even eat another bite after all the reception food but I drove by and the Open sign was still on so I went in. Ricardo recognized me and I recognized him and the kitchen was all cleaned up for the night but he had his cook make me two steak tacos and we hung out and talked for half an hour. I learned about Ricardo and Tacos Don Joaquin until my brain was about to burst. I went home so excited to tell Cory and Kristen about it that I couldn't sleep and woke up real early to tell them as soon as they came downstairs. So one year in to my Don Joaquin obsession and I'm friends with the owner. I'm doing ok. Next stop: Either a taquero internship or becoming an investor.

Sunday evening I dropped Cory off at the airport and then went over to Duke and Teresa's for a second dinner. Grandma was there Skyping with her far-away grandchildren and Rachel was there with her new husband. ("New" because they had been married for just a few weeks. No one has been replaced. Yet.)

After that I went to Liberty Park where Lauren had organized a Sunday evening picnic.

The picnic was full of people I knew, like Sara (NY Lexia's sister) and Dana, with whom I ate an Umami Burger in LA a few years ago.

And over on the blanket? Amber formerly of New York and, Holy Smokes, Natalie from London Study abroad 15 years ago.

Dana, Sara and I ventured over the hill...

To the weekly raging hippie drum circle.

I call this sequence "Hullahooping with Hot Dog"

Sara and me.

Just a couple more dancers.

Back up over the hill again to the calmer side.

Listen, if you ever need an engagement photo taken a week or two before your wedding, just let me know. I'm your guy.

And that was my trip to Utah! As usual, it was great, and driving through the canyons with my windows down smelling all the trees and things didn't make me miss watching rats on the subway tracks at all.

Ok and if you got all the way to the bottom and now you feel like you need to take a look at that original Tacos Don Joaquin post from my old blog you can do that down here without scrolling all the way back up. Nice and Easy!

And also, isn't it weird I didn't take any pictures of Cory or Blake while I was out there? I don't know how that happened. They were there! Cory and I even saw San Andreas together.

New York City Line Report

June 17, 2015 by Brigham Barnes

New York loves lines, and last week I was lucky enough to wait in three of its hottest and most exclusive lines. BEHOLD: Some line recommendations:

Morgenstern's - Beloved barely-a-year-old ice creamery Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream caused a tremendous stir by introducing a line of ice creams and concoctions to celebrate Kanye West's birthday all week last week. Curious about Red October sorbets, ice cream croissants, and Kim K Thirst Trap Sundaes, Karrie and I joined many of fellow kitten in line on Rivington last Wednesday night. While we waited Claire happened to pass by. And then Evan. And they invited Alpha over. About 30 minutes into line-standing, they all went and had ice cream somewhere else. But Karrie and I stuck with it, and about 15 minutes later we finally arrived at the counter.

It's when you get to the counter that they tell you they sold out of all their Kanye West ice creams for the day a long time ago. I guess I gotta say bravo to Morgenstern's for being so ballsy in their sneakiness. Who would wait in line for ice cream 45-60 minutes and not order ice cream, right? That's what we did. As we left, the line was much longer than when we arrived. I hope everyone had a great time not getting Kanye West ice cream.

Fuku - Out of nowhere, David Chang opened Fuku, his fried chicken sandwich spot in the former Ko space (you know, the space that was the original noodle bar before that?) last Thursday. For now it's only open for lunch Wed-Sunday, so I had to wait until Saturday to check it out.

I met Renee there, she'd arrived maybe 10 minutes before me when the line seemed totally manageable. Not a big deal at all.

That girl in egg shirt did an awesome job of staging the line.

We were to the door of Fuku pretty quick when suddenly things just seemed to stop. Turns out the credit card system was down and it's a cards only establishment. So they just started taking people's orders down with pen and paper, billing to follow. Not too much later Renee and I had our first Fuku fried chicken sandwiches.

What can I say but "Sandos All Day?" Incredibly crispy on the outside, awesomely juicy on the inside, it's another Momofuku home run.

a few bites in I was like "Oh no, I should've gotten two of these" (and by the way, the sandwiches are gigantic and $8, which seems like a very reasonable price, so getting two would only set you back as much as a ramen next door at the Noodle Bar) and a few moments later one of the fine workers of Fuku dropped us off a third sandwich, on the house, this one topped with a slaw of pickled daikon. Hooray! And when we went to square our whole meal they were like "Naw, it's on the house." Sheesh, you didn't have to do that, Fuku! I was going to come back as soon as I could, anyway.

So yeah, if you could go for a fried chicken sandwich, try this one. You will like.

Mission Chinese Food - Back when the original New York Mission Chinese Food opened on Orchard street it almost instantly began demanding waits of 3+ hours for a table. And now that they've opened in their new, much much larger space on East Broadway, they've still go those monster waits happening. It's like a fishbowl of popularity, the demand will expand to fill whatever the space might be. A few food conversations with Lauri left me finding myself at the head of the line at MCF II fifteen minutes before opening time Saturday evening with Jeff and Tamara.

Many would say that the original Mission Chinese had a bit of an Emperor's Clothes thing going on, and of the half-dozen'ish times I went I'm not sure if I went out of love or compulsion, but I do know that eating their incredibly spicy food ruined the evening for at least two and a half of the dinner companions I went with. But the restaurant gave me such a good rock n roll feeling, I couldn't resist! Or something.

But I've got great news: the new MCF is better than the old, the menu is more varied, they have definitely toned down the spice overall but you can still get yours if you're looking for it, and my table and I had a very fun, very good dinner. A few bites into our first couple dishes we were talking about coming back with an even bigger group for an even better time.

(They saved the old menu board from the old spot and put it up in the downstairs dining room. The upstairs dining room looks like a nice Chinese restaurant)

I like their new menus. Literally. The menus themselves. I like them.

Tamara and Lauri.

Things we ate:

Scrambled Egg and Tapioca Dumplings - a little welcome gift from the kitchen, one little bite of amazement. Scrambled Egg? and tapioca? In a dumpling? Winning combination but who knew that would be the case.

Chewy Brisket and Pork Belly with Ma La Vinagrette. Very nice start, we were using that tingly ma la vinaigrette on our other food through the rest of the meal.

Spicy Peanut Butter Noodles - very nice riff on the Chinese food classic. ("nice riff" -- sheesh, Brigham, what's your problem?)

Green Papaya and Banana Blossom Salad - This is what it looks like after the waitress tosses it for you.

Kung Pao Patrami - an old classic but the only underwhelming dish on the table, it just sorta tasted like Chinese food. A little yawners.

Beef Jerky Fried Rice - Simple, maybe, but I loved it. We ordered too much food and I wound up taking this home. Tasted great at 11pm.

Thrice Cooked Bacon and Rice Cakes - My old favorite, they seem to have simplified it, dropping the bitter melon and tofu skins, but it's still so good.

Koji Fried Chicken - tasty and good, aggressive lemon sauce served there on the side.

Looking up from our seats.

And this is the mirrored and flowered hall out of the downstairs. Photo doesn't do it a drop of justice. It's real cool.

In Conclusion: Fuku and the new Mission Chinese Food were great, Strong Recommendation. And Morgentern's, despite its deviousness, remains a great downtown ice cream resource. So I can't be mad.

And sorry about the formatting in this post. I'm still figuring Squarespace out.

The Gordon/Merkley Affair

June 13, 2015 by Brigham Barnes

(And by "affair" I mean "to-do")

Last weekend I was out in Utah and the keynote event of my being there was Grant and Lauren's wedding celebration. I had the incredible honor of having been asked to do the music at their reception. But I also got to party and see some great New Yorkers and former New Yorkers.

The party was at a beautiful cabin up Hobble Creek Canyon from Springville, the sort of beautiful cabin that rich grandpas build for family gatherings. Or for renting out to strangers' wedding celebrations.

Was there an in-ground trampoline? Of course.

Kim shares a story that must be head to be believed.

I call this sequence "Amigas (starring Maria and Lauren)"

Party moved into the cabin for a moment

So Grant and Lauren could welcome us from the balcony and invite us to go back outside and eat.

Look how much everyone loved being welcomed!

This picture is called "Proud Father of the Bride"

Back outside to eat, we receive a visit from the father of the groom.

Tamara.

Lauren's sportswriter brother-in-law, Matt.

The parking lot. I only got stuck a little on my way out.

And then it was back up that cabin again Saturday to celebrate Grant and Lauren's wedding earlier that day.

Grant's dad invents inflatable play items and there were a ton of them on hand for playing on.

Here they are. The marrieds.

Everyone's laughing and corn-holing except for Buster!

Off in the distance...the traditional Husband/Wife Canoe Ride

Seats ready for the Ring Ceremony, people slowly filling them.

See this horse? He was in a corral right by the ceremony site. Just before everything started he got down on his back and started rolling around, sending dirt clouds a'flying. Lucky for everyone he got the rolling around out of his system pretty quick and didn't dust up the ceremony.

Here comes the groom.

Ceremony assembled.

A couple behind-the-scenes photos from the reception.

Vote on your favorite Loren and Adrienne photo:

Jenny, Kim. Old roommates reunited and laughing.

Ian.

Rebekah.

Some hero brought a whole plate of extra mac and cheese to the table for everyone to share because as crazy as we were about all the food, no one could get enough macaroni and cheese!

Oh just showing off rings.

Moved indoors for some toasts and cake-cutting.

I moved up into the loft-area to handle the music. Oh! All while we were eating outside? Music was playing. But I was too far away from the speakers to notice I hadn't hit "shuffle" on my "Cocktail Time" playlist and that it was playing by Artist. Whoops! Oh well, didn't hear any complaints. Any major complains. HARDLY any major complaints. Ok a negligence lawsuit has been filed.