With the Holiday Season behind us, we ventured out to Bloomfield yesterday to have lunch at Tessaro's, a terrific and cozy little neighborhood bar/bistro. The inspiration for this visit was Tessaro's, and specifically the hamburgers at Tessaro's, being featured on Rick Sebak's latest WQED Pittsburgh special, "25 Things I Like About Pittsburgh." After seeing the show last month, I casually mentioned on Facebook my desire to try one of these terrific burgers, and the comment box following my post exploded. "Greatest burger you'll ever eat" said some. "No it isn't," said others, "you should try _____ if you want a REALLY good burger." Sebak himself made a comment when he said that it was not his intention to designate "The Best Burger in Piittsburgh." He was merely listing 25 things that he, personally likes, and Tessaro's was one of them.
Anyway, we tried the burger at Tessaro's and found it perfectly delicious and satisfying. Doesn't it look good?
Is it the "best burger" ever? Not sure I'd go that far, but I would go back to Tessaro's again, and isn't that a good enough testimonial? It has also inspired me to spend 2013 on a hunt for the best burgers in the Pittsburgh area. Suggestions from anyone as to their choice of where to get the Best Burger in Town are welcome, and I shall post them here on The Grandstander.
Too bad that Dave's Lunch is no longer in business.
It was interesting when I asked our waitress if the mention on Sebak's show was a boost for business. It was indeed, she said, as they were packed at lunch hours, way beyond normal, for at least two weeks following the airing. She also told us that two other businesses featured on the show, the Seltzer Company and the lady who researches the history of your house and property, received so many phone calls and inquiries that they practically had to shut off their phones.
Rick Sebak is a powerful man, indeed!
I finally got around to seeing the latest Batman movie, the partially filmed in Pittsburgh "The Dark Knight Rises". I have to be honest, I didn't like it. For one thing, I couldn't understand a word Christian Bale said. Was he supposed to talk in an intelligible whisper, or does he actually talk that way?
Anyway, rather than go on about it, I thought I would turn the review over to another prominent Pittsburgher, whose views on the movie pretty much dovetail with mine.
Happy birthday to Coach Chuck Noll, the true architect of the Steelers Dynasty of the 1970's. He turns 81 today, and is said to be in poor health. Hope it is a great day today for him.
turns out that January 5 is the birth date for lots interesting, if disparate, folks. One of Noll's coaching rivals, Sam Wyche, 68, former Vice President Walter Mondale is 85, and actors Robert Duvall, 82, Diane Keaton, 67, and January "Mrs, Don Draper" Jones, 35, all get to blow out the candles today. It is also the the birth date of Sam Phillips (1923-2003), the owner of Memphis record label Sun Records, and the guy pretty much credited with unleashing Elvis Presley upon an unsuspecting world.
I discovered yesterday that the Pirates are planning on changing their logo for the 2014 season (apparently, you need that much lead time with MLB to make such a change). One blogger who goes by the name of "Kipper" is applauding this as he calls the current one, seen above as the 1997-2011 logo, the "McClatchy Logo" and feels that if they get rid of it, it will end the 20-going-on-21 year losing streak. I didn't realize it was the logo's fault, and like a "Nutting Logo" is going to change the fortunes of the team. Really?
By the way, I don't know why the image above features A.J. Burnett with an eye patch as the 2012 logo. I think you are all astute enough to know that that is NOT an official logo. Wish I could eliminate it, but this image is a good one in that it features all of the officially recognized logos in Pirates history, dating back to 1936. Anyway, while I personally like the current Crossed Bats and Jolly Roger logo, I would hope that the team does not decide to resurrect a previous logo. I'm all for something fresh and new, so I look forward to whatever is revealed for 2014, and I am starting to save my money for all of the new gear that I will have to buy as well.
I also thought it might be fun to see how you rank the logos of the past. My own top Three would be (1) the 1960-67 logo, (2) the current 1997-2013 logo, and (3) the 1946-59 logo. My least favorite one, despite knowing the Bucs won two World Series under this logo, would be the Smiling Pirate of 1968-86. I mean, really, who wants a smiling, happy-faced Pirate?
What do you all think?
The NFL Playoffs begin on Saturday with the Wild Card Round, and there are some interesting match-ups on tap. The Grandstander looks ahead and makes some predictions, a much looked forward to annual tradition. I am trying something different this year and am going to base my predictions largely on the quality of the quarterbacks in each game. As always, watch, but don't bet.
Cincinnati Bengals vs. Houston Texans
For the first three quarters of the season, the Texans were cruising along with an 11-1 record and a seeming lock for a first round bye, if not the #1 seed in the AFC. Then, they turned into the Pittsburgh Pirates and lost three of their last four games, so welcome to the opening round, Texans. The Bengals are in, and in fact clinched their berth in game 15 with a win over the Steelers, a game in which QB Andy Dalton was far from impressive, their offense didn't score a touchdown, and which featured some curious coaching decisions by Marvin Lewis (which were nullified by some equally curious decisions by Mike Tomlin, but I digress). Matt Schaub would appear to be the superior QB in this match-up, and the Texans defense has been among the League's best through the season, so I will call for a TEXANS win in this one.
As a side note, the closest thing that I have to an "NFL Insider" tells me that Houston Coach Gary Kubiak is pretty much one of the biggest jagoffs among all NFL coaches, so there is a reason to root for the Bengals, if you are looking for one.
Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers
Based on the QB's, Christian Ponder and Aaron Rogers, this appears to be an easy call for the Packers, except for the fact that Adrian Peterson has shredded the Packers for over 400 rushing yards in the teams' two games this season, including the final game last week, so that makes this one a bit tougher to forecast. Still, I am going with Rogers and the home field advantage at the Frozen Tundra, and calling for a PACKERS victory. But they better try to do a better job on Peterson than their previous efforts.
Indianapolis Colts vs. Baltimore Ravens
Has there been a better story in the NFL this season than the rise of the Indy Colts? The 2-14 record last year, the glamour rookie QB Andrew Luck, the cancer stricken head coach, Chuck Pagano, the performance of the team under interim head coach Bruce Ariens (fired by Art Rooney II last season, need I remind you), to Pagano's return to the sidelines in the final week of an 11-5, wild card season? At the beginning of the season, I picked the Ravens to meet the Packers in the Super Bowl, but now I'm not so sure about the Ravens. The home field advantage for Baltimore could be big, especially against the Colts, the team Bob Irsay spirited away from Baltimore in the middle of the night all those years ago. However, Baltimore did lose at home a few weeks back to a team led by Charlie Batch, for God's sake, and in an Andrew Luck/Joe Flaco match-up, I'm going to give the advantage to Luck, and call for a COLTS victory.
Seattle Seahawks vs. Washington Redskins
From a quarterback perspective, this may well be the most interesting game of the weekend. Russell Wilson and Robert Griffin III. Certainly, at least in the eastern part of the country, all the Rookie QB Buzz has surrounded Luck and RG III, and they have certainly been deserving of it, but isolated up in the Pacific Northwest, Russell Wilson has put together a season every bit as good as Luck's and RG III's. A Facebook friend of mine has been hyping Wilson and the Seahawks all season, and two Sunday nights ago, I made it a point to watch their game against the 49'ers, a game that Wilson and the Seahawks thoroughly dominated. The Redskins, a really lousy team in 2011, certainly had a great season this year, largely due to Griffin's performance at QB, so this one could well be the best game of the weekend. I am going with the road team in this one and calling it for the SEAHAWKS.
Oh, if you are looking for some historical perspective, NFL PLayoffs Predictions-wise, The Grandstander went 7-4 in 2012 and 6-5 in 2011. In both seasons, I called the Super Bowl winner incorrectly.
As I said at the beginning, watch, but don't bet.
WARNING: Post contains a possible spoiler.
I got around to watching one of my Christmas gifts last night - the DVD of the Clint Eastwood baseball movie, "Trouble With the Curve." Despite the fact that you could see the ending to this one coming like a Kevin Correia hanging curve ball, this was a pretty good movie, one that certainly deserves being a part of your baseball movie library, if you have one. Eastwood was Eastwood, which is always pretty good, unless he's talking to an empty chair, and there were good performances from the charming Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake (who, by the way, has proven himself to be more than just some cute kid from a Boy Band).
Anyway, Pirates fans should be interested to know this little know fact about the movie that was somehow left on the cutting room floor when the final editing of the film was done. Had Timberlake convinced the Red Sox to make Bo Gentry their number one pick, then the next name on the Braves list, a kid who was highly coveted by the team's stats obsessed, computer geek scout, the one who wanted John Goodman's job, was none other than Stetson Allie. Loved his 100 MPH fastball and his "upside."
True story.
And I would have loved to have seen Clint Eastwood's reaction to THAT choice.
First Grandstander post of 2013. What shall I talk about? I'll bet you thought it would be something about the Pirates! Maybe tomorrow, but first, a DVR Alert.
In perusing the Turner Classic Movie program guide for January, the pickings are slim, but here's a couple for the coming Friday, January 4:
1:45 PM (Eastern) - "Night and Day" (1946) This biopic of songwriter Cole Porter is not all that true to life (no mention of the fact that Porter was gay; a taboo topic in 1946), but you do get to watch Cary Grant, and you do get to hear some of those great Porter songs. They're the top!
11:00 PM - "The Incredible Shrinking Man" (1957) I am not a sci-fi guy, but this movie is the pick of the month of TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, and no less than Stephen Spielberg himself calls this "one of the best science fiction movies ever made." Hey, that's good enough for me to set the DVR.
Enjoy!
