Running Bear's October 2022 Coffee Shop

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troyphoto said:
Well, howdy there internet peeps, and those enjoying a glass of whiskey this evening.

It's Troy (with whiskey) again

Wife and I made it to the distillery for our date night. Rather expensive one, but my bottle of Engine 765 Rye was $65 of it... and it hits the dinner bill, so the autogenerated tip included that. I didn't back out any, since our girl was good, and the place mostly empty for dinner.

Here's the bottle:

View attachment 154751

We did have cocktails made with house-distilled

spirits. Wife had the "Double Apple" cocktail, and I had the Wisconsin Old Fashioned:View attachment 154752
For food, wife had the Mac N Cheese. I had Beef Manhattan.

View attachment 154753
Food was good, but the facility is noisy due to hard concrete floors, masonry walls, and such. Be a decent place in when the weather is better for patio sitting. We'll go back, but save it for date nights, not normal dining out.

The special Engine 765 Rye is good. It will have to be a once-a-year purchase at $65/750ml. I top out at $35 a bottle except for specials like this.

Definitely smokey, with a sharp Rye bite. Caramel notes on the finish. Overall I like it.
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Scotch for me lately, and balanced (well) with a cold chai and milk concoction. We have a place here in town: "The Sherpa Bar and Restaurant (started by two Sherpas, coincidentally)," and I went to school with the gal who works bar. I ordered a "tradition chai" one evening, in which the chai concentrate is mixed half and half with milk and over ice. "Good stuff, Maynard." Works even better with about 15% Scotch, and even if it's cheap Scotch, you won't notice.

The bar theme is interesting too: They have a climbing/mountaineering lending library, and ice axes, crampons, etc. mounted above the bar and around the walls. Not for nothing either: One of the two Sherpas who started the place has summited Everest TEN times...and lived to tell about it.
 
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troyphoto said:
Well, howdy there internet peeps, and those enjoying a glass of whiskey this evening.

It's Troy (with whiskey) again

Wife and I made it to the distillery for our date night. Rather expensive one, but my bottle of Engine 765 Rye was $65 of it... and it hits the dinner bill, so the autogenerated tip included that. I didn't back out any, since our girl was good, and the place mostly empty for dinner.

Here's the bottle:

View attachment 154751

We did have cocktails made with house-distilled

spirits. Wife had the "Double Apple" cocktail, and I had the Wisconsin Old Fashioned:View attachment 154752
For food, wife had the Mac N Cheese. I had Beef Manhattan.

View attachment 154753
Food was good, but the facility is noisy due to hard concrete floors, masonry walls, and such. Be a decent place in when the weather is better for patio sitting. We'll go back, but save it for date nights, not normal dining out.

The special Engine 765 Rye is good. It will have to be a once-a-year purchase at $65/750ml. I top out at $35 a bottle except for specials like this.

Definitely smokey, with a sharp Rye bite. Caramel notes on the finish. Overall I like it.
Click to expand...
Auto generated tip? Not me, I tip on service and if meal is up and beyond expectations, cook gets a visit. I can understand a bigger % when there groups of 5? or more. They can only have my 'extra money' when necessary.
 
Snowman said:
Scotch for me lately, and balanced (well) with a cold chai and milk concoction. We have a place here in town: "The Sherpa Bar and Restaurant (started by two Sherpas, coincidentally)," and I went to school with the gal who works bar. I ordered a "tradition chai" one evening, in which the chai concentrate is mixed half and half with milk and over ice. "Good stuff, Maynard." Works even better with about 15% Scotch, and even if it's cheap Scotch, you won't notice.

The bar theme is interesting too: They have a climbing/mountaineering lending library, and ice axes, crampons, etc. mounted above the bar and around the walls. Not for nothing either: One of the two Sherpas who started the place has summited Everest TEN times...and live to tell about it.
Click to expand...
Just saying -- Scotch should be available in the local store in the Pharmacy as it is NOT ( to me ) something that even tastes good, whether , shot, rocks, mixed or ?

Ya well, suppose that I should give ya something better?
Pendelton ( whiskey ), smooth going down and no after taste, not like the Crown. If Pendelton is not available - Seagram's 7
Beef Eater gin - only way to go with martoonie!
Beer - Kokanie, or LaBlats
Coffee - Cravens ( choose your taste )
Vodka - Absolute.
TukWeela - Patron, Hendersun and another that I can't remember just now. Got tired of worms in the bottom of the bottle.

Wooo Hee-

Later
 


ctclibby said:
Auto generated tip? Not me, I tip on service and if meal is up and beyond expectations, cook gets a visit. I can understand a bigger % when there groups of 5? or more. They can only have my 'extra money' when necessary.
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I was a minimum 20% tipper before Covid. Since Covid my minimum has gone up to 25% and I have been tipping 30% + if the service is worth it. Automatic tips, I have run into a couple times this year. I told the server because both times they were exceptional that the automatic 24% tips were less then I would have given them.
 
Back early from the volleyball games on campus. The #5 Women beat #1 Nebraska 3 games to none.
25/23, 25/23 and 25/18 and the scores don’t reflect the dominance the Badgers had over the Cornhuskers. 8000 sold out seats is normal. But the seats were actually filled for an early season conference game. It was hopping and I am home at least 90 minutes sooner then I had planned
 
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logandsawman said:
Good morning all, 36° and cloudy, a little light rain, gonna be cooler today

KenDJ - your back story, often a bed of thorns in there somewhere

Curt - your crossing pic/video posted a couple days ago, looks GREAT

Guy - swing gate is fine. You may have some fudging to do over time with those close tolerances, the wood has a tendency to shrink/swell some over time

Here is a pic of one of my favorite box cars. I just noticed the big gaps in the rails. Made a nice clickety sound, plus no expensive locomotives on my railroad

View attachment 154438

TomO - so you are Vietnam era. I was in fourth grade during the worst of it, images from the TV and Time magazine still haunt me. I believe it was an awful time for our country. I am sure much worse for the soldiers.


Another shot from the old layout

View attachment 154439

more later, Dave LASM
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Dave- my uncle is, too. His orders were changed so "last minute" that they had to pull him off the stairs. He was never "boots on the ground- in country" , so he had to go through so much red tape to be able to collect his VA benefits, as a Vietnam-era vet. Uncle Sam did not want to admit that we had guys on the ground in the countries in which he was stationed ("other places" in SE Asia).
 
Bruette said:
After the vaccines yesterday, my wife and I are taking a rare day off. Third one this month!

We don't feel bad, only a little fatigued.

I'm taking my day off seriously. Napping on the couch with my beagles in between watching old TV shows. Cannon was good this morning. I feel asleep before the ending, but I have seen them all.

My wife is around somewhere doing something. She acts like the energizer bunny. I made the mistake once of saying "you are not 20 anymore" that did not go over well. Now I just ask her to sit with me when she goes by.
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Louis- my dad(GRHS) believed in "Roses Days", as in take time to smell the roses. They would routinely take a weekday off from work to spend quality time together. It could be going to Longwood Gardens, Lancaster County or even canoeing in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. When I still drove, I would do the same thing with my wife. He also taught me that romance comes from the heart, not the calendar. Which is why I buy my wife flowers & cards on a random day, when she's least expecting, rather than a "Hallmark holiday" like Valentine's or "Sweetest Day"(where's the romance in that?).
 
ctclibby said:
Just saying -- Scotch should be available in the local store in the Pharmacy as it is NOT ( to me ) something that even tastes good, whether , shot, rocks, mixed or ?
Click to expand...
I love whiskey, Jameson is my favorite. Any bourbon or Rye is good. American, Canadian, even the cheap stuff is good. For some reason I don't like Scotch.

I should say I don't drink anymore. At least not until I get my sugar in check.
 
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MikeInHubCity said:
Louis- my dad(GRHS) believed in "Roses Days", as in take time to smell the roses. They would routinely take a weekday off from work to spend quality time together. It could be going to Longwood Gardens, Lancaster County or even canoeing in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. When I still drove, I would do the same thing with my wife. He also taught me that romance comes from the heart, not the calendar. Which is why I buy my wife flowers & cards on a random day, when she's least expecting, rather than a "Hallmark holiday" like Valentine's or "Sweetest Day"(where's the romance in that?).
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I was so happy to read how much you love and appreciate your wife!

My wife and I are "empty nesters" and we work together. We don't have many days off. Less than once a month on average since we have been working together. After being disabled I am grateful to be able to work. I have always enjoyed working and worked every day I was able all my life since I was eleven years old.

My wife is the real energizer bunny and never lets me down. If I'm up to going she goes with me. Thanks be to God I have been going almost every day. We are home no later than 2pm. Usually much earlier. We do some work from home and then watch TV together with our beagles until bedtime. I may be the happiest man alive!

We do have the pleasure of having our youngest grandson (soon to be middle grandson) stay with us every weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, we are always done by 11am, usually by 8am. Usually, no working from home on the weekend.

Looking back, I should have worked less. Seventy to one hundred hours a week and sports were too much, I would always say "plenty of time to sleep, when I'm dead". I almost made that happen, more than once.

Now I do pace myself. No more strenuous work for me. I rest when I'm tired and seldom if ever push myself too far. I'm riding the gravy train.

Today is the perfect example. I woke up not feeling my best and rested on the couch watching old TV shows. I may yet get up and go, but not until I feel better and of course, only if the money is right. We can do some much-needed yard work if the money is not right, and later do some work from home.
 
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For the record: the "auto-generated" tips I'm talking about are the pre-suggested amounts on the bottom of printed receipts, or the button options on the digital keypads some servers are now carrying to swipe your card right in front of you. I like the latter. No more disappearing with my card. I can see if you try to swipe it into a 2nd reader to pull the info.

In this case, it was the digital display card reader at the table. Service was excellent, so I paid another $10 in tip for the bottle of Rye. I would have normally added 25 to 30% tip for this trip without the whiskey. Instead I hit the 20% button since it included the extra bottle.

In this case, I helped her out with a few $$ for excellent service, and we had a nice time. I only had one cocktail there, so it wasn't the alcohol tipping.
 
troyphoto said:
For the record: the "auto-generated" tips I'm talking about are the pre-suggested amounts on the bottom of printed receipts, or the button options on the digital keypads some servers are now carrying to swipe your card right in front of you. I like the latter. No more disappearing with my card. I can see if you try to swipe it into a 2nd reader to pull the info.

In this case, it was the digital display card reader at the table. Service was excellent, so I paid another $10 in tip for the bottle of Rye. I would have normally added 25 to 30% tip for this trip without the whiskey. Instead I hit the 20% button since it included the extra bottle.

In this case, I helped her out with a few $$ for excellent service, and we had a nice time. I only had one cocktail there, so it wasn't the alcohol tipping.
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Those suggested tip things are normal around here. I thought you meant where the tip is put on the bill before it gets to me as a seperate line item. That’s what I am opposed to.

I am getting to the point though that we might go back to tipping in cash, especially since the dinners are no longer deductions for us. No taxes for the server too.

The feed the meter yourself are big in the Madison area. They put the items on then swing the machine around and it says is this total correct and then the suggested tip shows up. Let’s see person behind the counter turned around grabbed a loaded already wrapped hot dog and a Diet Dr Pepper that will cost me $11.00. The dog is lukewarm and the the soda is warm and they want a tip! Those I say no to. Same at our bakery and coffee shops were you also self bus your table and pick up your own silver/plastic ware.
 
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Bruette said:
I don't like to eat out, but I always leave a good tip. If I don't like the service, I don't go back.
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When Terry is home we go out for dinner at least twice a week and once for a Brunch by ourselves. Friday night out for us is tradition since before we married in 1976. It has to be a place that we get served as in the past while working it was a way for Terry to start unwinding from her work week.

In addition now, 2-3 times a month we take the daughter and family out. Those are usually to a brew pub type establishment. Those are all over the City of Madison and it’s suburbs. Generally that happens after the grandson finishes up a game, usually hockey or soccer. The daughter’s family birthdays always are out for a dinner of the person celebrating choice. The daughter has developed some high end choices for her meal! It’s all fun though.

We also have a group of friends that we do dinners out at new to us restaurants once a month. So we do get to see a lot of food servers.

I have had some sorry meals at restaurants but have never blamed a server. I have complained a few times in the past and got to meet the chef though. I no longer hesitate to return a meal that is not warm enough. We always give a second chance to those sorry meal places and if it continues and most have still been lousy the second time, then they are off the list.
 


Morning all,

48° and partly cloudy, temp of 64° and possibility of rain later. A chance of rain through Saturday, but the amount of rain through that period is less than a quarter of an inch. So drizzle for the next few days it is....

On restaurants, the wife and I don't eat out much, especially since we knew she was losing her job. Never anyplace with automatic tips, and I never user the recommended tip they put on the bill as most of the time it includes the tax. Not tipping on the tax....
 
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