LA trip, day uno (one).

Captains Log.
Star date: the day of Saturn, twenty sixth day of the first month of the new year, twenty thirteen.

Ouch, I just got smacked in the back of my head and was told to write normal! So, here’s the boring way; Saturday. January 26, 2013. Blah

We hit the road precisely at 3pm, leaving Charleston South Carolina in our rear view mirror. However, we did not get very far, about 1 hour 20 minutes, as we pulled into Columbia SC for some eats.

Our first official stop was at Maurice’s BBQ. A home brand which was started in the 1950’s by Maurice and it’s still going strong. Side Note; only 20% of the business started in the 50’s are still in operation. So that’s saying something, especially for a restaurant.

That being said, here’s our break down on what we thought. The entry way is filled with old awards and old photos and then we wondered where are the awards from recent years? The place seems pretty large, although has a funky layout with different sections. They have a counter to order, which the cashier is eager to take your order. The menu is pretty large, but somewhat confusing. They also had out a buffet, if you want to call it that. We took a pass on the buffet and just ordered the ¼ chicken and a brisket sandwich. The bbq sauce is mustard based, very Carolina like. It had a nice taste, not too overpowering, as mustard can be.

See Picture (sorry, Webb took a bite before we could snap a pic): 

Once we started eating we looked around the place, read up on the memorabilia of the old Maurice’s and talked to the staff. The kitchen looked clean for the most part, but the décor of the dining areas are tired and a little worn out. Kinda of like the buffet equipment. All the staff were friendly and enjoyed working there. Perhaps a good overhaul on the place could bring in more than just the few locals that frequent there. He hopes for many more years in business for Maurice’s BBQ.

I.E. Forbes still has yellow mustard fingernails.

Enough stuffing our faces, we have to hit the road. So, onto Atlanta Georgia we go.

With the sun going down and blinding us as we headed west, we stopped for some gas and something to get rid of gas…hmmm BBQ returns!
By 9pm the headlights are on and we’re ready to pull off for the night. We chose the La Quinta inn and Suites in Conyers GA (Forbes loves their pet policy), just outside of Atl. This place was just down the street from where they filmed Fast Furious 5, which Webb was lucky to be a part of. The hotel was beautiful on the outside and inside. The front desk staff was very helpful and nice. Al, the manager takes pride in training his employees correctly, customers come first. The lobby has live plants and a great view of the pool.
The King Suite was very large and spacious. With the desk and couch, you could hold your own meeting. The bed was very comfortable and had full sized pillows (what’s with the little pillows these days).

pulling up.     The entry

 (courtesy of La Quinta website)

We received two emails from the La Quinta thanking us for staying with them. We highly recommend this place if you’re in the area.

This is the end of Day 1. Please keep checking back as we will be adding each day of our trip.

also, follow us on Twitter; @forbesmeetswebb

Charleston SC, the truth about the Reader’s Choice 2013 top vacation place

Charleston, SC.

Downtown and surrounding areas.

Our extensive research has come to a close and here’s the real truth about the city with History and Southern Charm.

Over the past 6 months we have done just about all things touristy, as well as ate, explored, shopped and lived as a resident would.

Now on the surface, our first impressions of the Downtown area were impressive and historical.

We walked the darkened streets at night, tip toed in the cemeteries, took in the sites, paid too much for parking, felt up the old walls, snapped too many pictures of old houses, marveled at the preservation of most things and snarled at others.

Then I stepped in a pile of steaming dog poop with one foot and a pile of cigarette butts with the other. Not really, but I’m sure someone has. We’re dog lovers and it disgusts us to see people walking their dogs with no bags in hand to discard waste. Also, the pile of cigarette butts outside of one hospital on the sidewalks makes us gag.

One summer day, the sky grew dark and the rain came and we were trapped inside by the five feet of dirty water flowing down the streets, heading towards the Art district, hospitals and fancy shops. The site of a car floating by did most certainly say, Historical Roads with No drainage. I mean, is this not a major concern for anyone…anyone, hello?

 (courtesy of City Paper) (courtesy of us)

You would think in this day in age that the Mayor (Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. is widely considered one of the most visionary and highly effective governmental leaders in America. First elected Mayor in December 1975, Mayor Riley is serving an unprecedented tenth term) would have had a vision of fixing the roads so that the tourist that come to spend money won’t have a damaged car. Especially since Charleston Average rainfall in July, Aug & Sept is over 6”, national average is roughly 3”. The locals say anything over 5” of rain brings is “High Tide”, and they’re not talking about the beaches people. Having to use your kayak to go shopping may appeal to some, but us non-kayaker’s prefer the more traditional method of walking or driving. When we talked to many people who live and/or work downtown their reply to us was “there’s nothing we can do, this is Charleston.” Many have had their cars flooded and even totaled by insurance. I guess that’s Charleston’s way of cleaning up all the dog poo and cigs? Perhaps this explains all the potholes that are located everywhere in and around the city. We had to fix two tires in six months due to poor road conditions.

Eating:

Moving on to Food…we love food! But we don’t love Charleston’s food. Although we have Not tried every place there is to dine, we’ve tried enough to give an honest opinion. Seafood seems to be the big draw here, with many fine restaurants serving up their flare for the local catch (filled with dog poo and smoking a cigarette after it rains). You can also find plenty of steak and chicken on the menus, but that’s typical of any city. The few times we par took in some seafood it was good, but not great as for the prices are high. Some prices were the same as we paid in larger cities, such as Boston or LA. Most of the servers were pleasant, although a lot of people were transplants and couldn’t tell us much about the local tourist things to do, but they all knew about the flooding. The one thing we noticed was the inconsistency with quality and quantity.

Shopping:

Downtown there seems to be only one street for shopping and that is King Street, which has many upscale stores along with privately owned shops. If the upscale doesn’t suit your needs, then there’s always Walmart. There are more Walmarts in the Charleston area then I dare to mention, but I guess I just mentioned it. There are only two malls, if you want to call them an actual mall, since many of the stores are empty. Your other option would to go to the Outlet mall. The hotels here point you to shop at the Outlet, but most local people say they go to Charlotte NC to shop, but our experience in Charlotte is a whole other story!

Grocery stores; Publix and Foodlion are the most noticeable, with Piggly Wiggly and Harris Teeter here and there. The one thing we found when doing our food shopping is most the employees and managers don’t know their product. When we have to spend ten minutes educating them on a certain product, like Soda or sausage, then something is wrong there. We will say that Harris Teeter is among our favorite, however their prices tend to be higher, but you’re paying for a nicer shopping experience.

Lodging:

Hotels; you will pay a LOT more for a LOT less Downtown and there’s no free parking. On the outskirts, such as North Charleston, MT. Pleasant and West Ashley, you will pay a lot and get even less, but you have to drive everywhere, however the hotels have parking!

The couple Hotels we stayed at Downtown had a nice view and charm, but room service, especially at the Mill House, was terrible. How do you screw up scrambled eggs? When we notified the manager and he was smart enough to offer to remove the cost of the breakfast and throw in some complimentary meals. That does not make it ok to serve a poor quality and expensive meal. The pool deck was nice to relax and it is attached to a parking garage, which made it convenient. Let me mention the parking garages. They charge $1 for every half hour. The Hotel recommended a taxi service back to the airport, which is a huge flat fee of $40 for an 11 mile ride. Most hotels have their recommended taxi service. The other hotels that we visited, most were national chains, were typical, smelly, small and overpriced.

Bed and Breakfast places, OMG some prices of these places are insane. Most of them you will pay around $400 (more than Cali and New York) for a room in someone’s house. Yeah, they may have nice window treatments and the house may be on the historical registry list, but come on! This place isn’t paradise, its Charleston. I guess when one magazine rated Charleston as one of the top places to vacation, the owners of these places saw dollars signs and a tax breaks rather than customer service and a great experience. I’m not talking about all the B and B’s, because there are some good ones, but you really have to do your research before booking.

Rental property; if you’re a student at one of the many colleges, then you may be ok with sharing a room in a house downtown, but I hope your parent have money. One of cheapest places downtown to rent is at The Courtyard on Meeting street. You will pay almost $800 for a very small studio. New Yorker’s right now are saying, Hey that’s a good deal, but this aint New York! Given that the Estimated per capita income in 2009: $28,043 and the Median gross rent in 2009: $914 (I’m sure the rent average is much higher now, but this is an example) that means almost half your income goes to rent. That does not include the high cost of utilities. You will pay roughly $120 in electric during the summer in a 600 sqft place and roughly $54 in water with only two people (that’s without a washer and dryer).

Bottom line is this; Charleston is very expensive for what they provide, which is not much. They expect you to pay bookoo bucks and only offer the basics. When vacationing, if history is your thing, I would consider an alternate location, such as St. Augustine Florida, the oldest city in America. If you have a large budget, I would consider a cleaner place with more to do. If you are considering living here, reconsider! The cost of living here is 11% above average, but the income is slightly below average, you do the math. There’s not too much to do here and after a few weeks Downtown, we were bored and broke!

Our O’Charley’s Review

This is our first time visiting an O’Charley’s, Dec 6, 2012. We’ve seen the t.v. commercials and have heard good things about the restaurant chain.

The location of this O’Charley’s has very high traffic as it sits in a Mall parking lot and near a very busy highway. The exterior of the restaurant is appealing and clean. Although there are two entry doors, one clearly marked and the other almost looks like an emergency exit. However, once inside it opens up to a nice foyer.
We were greeted by a Host and Hostess who were friendly, smiling and ready to seat us and even though we tried to stump them with our 99 guest to follow behind us in a bus, they played right along.
The dining room has a nice casual dining atmosphere with plenty of booths, windows and brick for a pleasant dining experience. There is a bar that allows smoking, that is to the right of the dining room, with a half wall separating the entry way. Although we were not seated near the bar, I’m never one who cares to see or smell smoke when eating at a public restaurant.

Once seated we were greeted immediately by our server to take our request for a beverage. The menus had enough to choose from, but the main dishes were of Chicken or Steak. They have burgers, salads, some seafood and Appetizers.
The server quickly returned with our beverages and fresh hot rolls and offered to take our order. We started with an Appetizer, the Spinach dip, which was on the Lunch special menu for $6.99. We explained to our server that we are picky when it comes to spinach dip, as we have had some Great ones.

Prior to ordering our meal, we took in some of the scenery around the restaurant. It was well laid out, with a large Charleston mural on one wall and plenty of seating which seemed to be about ¾ full. Most people seem to be enjoying themselves as busy servers, runners and the Dining room Manager delivered serve.

Upon our spinach dip arriving to the table, we immediately noticed the portion size was very small, looked like the kitchen staff took a serving spoon full of the dip and placed it into the boat shaped dish. A small sprinkle of grated cheese on the top for looks, I assume, along with a small hand full of chips for dipping. The server was wise and polite enough to wait while we tasted it, to see if we like it or not. I would say, it’s almost like she knew it wasn’t very good, although she has never tasted it herself. And she was right, the spinach tasted like it was frozen prior, the cheese dip was lacking cheese. It tasted like it had been sitting in a pot in the kitchen all morning, which get back to my thinking it was just plopped into the dish with a spoon, as appose to make fresh, topped with cheese and heated to warm it all together. The server was very understanding and took it back and said she would remove it from our order.

We ordered our meal, the Cowboy Sirloin and Tuscan Chicken, along with a side salad. Within roughly three minutes of our server taking our order and removing the dip from our table, we were greeting by the Dining Room Manager. This shows us she’s a professional and caring Manager. She was pleasant and politely asked what we thought about the spinach dip. We explained our dislikes and she gladly offered to notify the Kitchen Manager. She continued on her task of greeting each customer.

The side salad arrived to our table moments later, it was rather larger and we ordered Ranch dressing with it. The salad had several kinds of lettuce, carrot strips, cukes and cherry tomatoes. Quite frankly, it was obvious it comes from a mixed salad bag, pre-made, like you can get at your local grocery store. Although that’s not a bad thing, we still like to see a freshly made salad when we am paying that much for it. The Ranch dressing was horrible. It was watery, as to say it looks and tasted like milk was added to it. It’s not too hard to mess up Ranch dressings, it’s one of the easiest dressings to make.

Once again the Server came over to check on us and to notify us our meal was coming and to ask if we needed a refill of my drink. To me having a drink run empty and then have a server come and ask is not good service. The fact that our Server asked me three times if I needed as refill, which I declined each time, shows attention to her customers. She also asked if we wanted more salad dressing, which we quickly said no.

A Runner brought out our meals. She was nice and knew who had what dish. First appearance of the dishes and the food looked great. Plenty of food, clean and good appeal. Our Server returned to ask if we needed anything, steak sauce, drink. Now if a Steak is done properly it should not need to have additional taste, like a steak sauce, added. So upon the first bite we were glad to note it did Not need a sauce, even though our Server politely placed an A1 sauce on the table.

The steak came with bacon, cheesy mashed potatoes and a small topping of onion straws. The steak was a 6 oz sirloin that was cooked to our liking. The mashed potatoes were less than satisfying as the first bite revealed something tough, like an over cooked part of the potato skin. That aside they were edible, but the bacon was a little much.

The Tuscan Chicken was a larger portion of chicken, thick and quite juicy. It was topped with several kinds of cheese. It came with linguine pasta in a butter sauce. The chicken was very good for the most part, although the parmesan cheese got a little heavy and salty at times, and this coming from someone who likes salt. The pasta was tasteful, but in my opinion it was far too oily in the middle of the dish. The pasta around the sides were fine, as it didn’t sit in the middle where the oil gathered. I just couldn’t eat 80% of the pasta due to the oil.

Soon after we finished our meal, the Manager returned to ask how our meal was. We explained with detail about our meal, which again she offered to relay the message to the kitchen. We engaged her in a light conversation of her restaurant experience and the general concept about O’Charley’s.

Final notes; our overall dining experience was pleasant, the staff is great, the atmosphere is nice, plenty of parking and nice curb appeal. However, the food lacked the taste that would bring us back for another meal. As with so many restaurant chains, Corporate has obviously restricted the Kitchen Manager/Staff to provide a quality meal. Cost control should not always be the deciding factor, you can have great quality meal with meeting the bottom line as well.

So, as we promised the Dining Room Manager, who works hard to maintain a great staff, we will return, but it may only be for a drink.

O’Charley’s
2150 Northwoods Blvd
North Charleston, SC 29406

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