croatia + montenegro

recently, i learned that a friend i met in dubrovnik, croatia passed away. though i can't do our trip justice via blog, i still dedicate this story to him.

rip, cameron wilson.

note: i began this story shortly after our trip but i just finished it today, july 7.

here we go.

who thinks of going to croatia for vacatia? for many years it was on my list, the dalmation coast and dubrovnik. my besties and i did a good amount of research on how to get to the adriatic islands off the southern coast of croatia to enjoy the outta this world spectacular views of the dalmatian coast in perfect 80 degree weather. preferably from a hugeass yacht. with goodlooking crew.

well 5 years ago it proved to be too costly to get there: a layover in frankfurt, followed by one in vienna and a boatride from there down the coast through the adriatic. blah blah blah. it seemed too convoluted so we scrapped the idea for the time [to have an equally complicated trip to spain instead].

i still can't tell you how to get to the islands, because i didn't make it to the islands this time either. it's not the season, november. but when a girlfriend organized the trip, it only took me minutes to say da, da, da [yes, yes, yes]. learn something here, people.

so, off to dubrovnik, the old city. thanksgiving-ish. site-seeing and enjoying a city not too many on this side of the atlantic know much about.

it's not easy to get here to the big city either, by the way. though dubrovnik has its own international airport, we flew from dulles to paris, from paris to zagreb (the capitol of croatia), from zagreb to dubrovnik. approximately 17 hours total. easy breezy.

old dubrovnik from the outside looks like an enormous fortress. your driver drops you outside the colossal walls of the ancient city and it's not at all indicative of how really big it is inside them. you then drag your sickly overpacked luggage over the drawbridge through the massive gates, and over its uneven marble cobblestone streets. not quite home yet, you carry those bags up some 100 steps which look charming and all but they're supersteep. well, whatev, never hurts to get a workout in.

we opted to stay in an apartment since we'll be city girls this trip. i.e. no beach time. as you know, normally i'm a girl who likes to stay in a hotel with all the amenities, only occassionally exploring villas and private apartments. for this time of year and in this city, an apartment is perfect. it's mildly chilly in the month of november (50-60 degrees). we're sightseers here this week.

our apartment, it's very european of course. charismatic, old, tidy, two-storied. the spiral staircase adds to the charm except when the luggage is involved. we must've looked like buffoons dragging all those bags through the city. funny now. not as funny that day.

all streets are tiny, dimly lit and staircased alleyways that run directly into the stadun or the main street which is lined with boutiques [sans haute couture thankfully], gelato shops, taverns and restos. we arrived early evening and people in europe don't get out and about until 9pm, whereas americans have to have our arses on the sofa to watch reality tv by 8/7 central.

i'm hungry and need a cocktail like it's my job. i'm happy to take full blame for the executive resto decision, "captain's restaurant". elvis, the proprietor, is pleading with us to eat at his restaurant. he's missing many of his teeth, his shirt is open, revealing a gold chain and he's promising a free bottle of wine with our dinner. using every last drop of his charm to entice us, he later turned into quite an annoying ogre.

you know i don't give a rat's ass about free but he was the only proprietor asking for our patronage so we fell for it. note: avoid these places, friends.

we ordered a platter of seafood including grilled octopus, shrimp, mussels. seafood [canned clam] risotto. prosciutto. our free bottle of wine came as well. we thought the glass smelled like dead fish. but i'm pretty sure it was the free wine that was fish scented. the food was well below average and that's being generous.

onward, in search of what to do next, as the three of us were waiting on two others, who were stuck in germany. we were so tired and wanted to get to bed when alas, we stumbled upon a wine bar, d'vino. and as you know, this girl doesn't pass up a wine bar.

d'vino is tended by a rather attractive croatian, frano, and wouldn't you know, owned by a young canadian ex-pat. how happy we are that they can help us with our wine selections. and cameron does. we were served some lovely croatian wines here and had a night that would linger on until the rest of our party made it in from germany and a few other stops, and a bus ride, perhaps a ferry. they were real happy to find us at this sweet spot.

the highlight here, besides the wine of course, and meeting a couple of new gents to chat with, was cameron's beagle, emma. emma is the mascot, maitre d' and busboy (as she's anxiously awaiting any crumb that may drop). cameron says she's not that social, however she warms up to these three dog-owners rather quickly and i taught her high-five and shake before the night was up.

heading back to our apartment, more than slightly inebriated, we find that our apartment is situated in an alleyway nestled between 5 bars. yep, innocent looking doors by daylight turned into open doors leading to bars full of young croatian men by night.

remember the hot guy on ER? croatian. and most of the gentlemen here look much the same.

only two of us ventured into our neighborbars. i'm sorry to report that i was one of them because i was in no condition by this point to be doing so. both in appearance and my conduct after several glasses/bottles of wine. we hobbled around with some newfound friends though until they took us to a bar with a 20 kuna cover. enough was enough. i'm quite sure i had one eye closed to maintain proper balance.

i woke up feeling like someone was taking a hammer to my head. before you feel sorry for me though, one of us girls was sick - food poisoning no doubt from elvis' joint.


after a shower and as i start to get ready, i too am troubled with the same affliction and find myself hugging the porcelain god of croatian cuisine as well. sorry to be gross. be careful of what you eat out there people. and i have an iron stomach. mostly.

only a minor speedbump though and we head out for the day of exploring within the walls of our city and out. up the road a few blocks, just outside the city we happen upon the excelsior hotel where we hope to find a fabulous view of the adriatic sea - and an absurd sunset from their vast terrace.



we find here that you can get more standard fare: the [later we determine] indespensible club sandwich and french fries. sometimes that's what you need [when the cuisine doesn't meet your expectations]. the hotel is really a ghost town. we're out of season like linen and white shoes.

back inside the walls of the old city we found another wine bar - they're all the rage since cameron opened d'vino, these wine bars. it was empty except for us and our tranny bartender who from all accounts looked like a fairly attractive woman but sounded like a man. or a barking seal.

a late night dinner and a lot more pulled together, we went up to the hilton. hey, don't judge, people. all the local resto menus looked exactly the same. while i don't like to hate on anyone's cuisine, we found the food to be not so good. and these girls needed a decent meal. we were really happy with the hilton - not to mention it's a really lovely hotel [though not on the beach]. they had 13 guests.

side note: we even tried a pizza joint one night. doused with hot sauce the pizza was edible. but the wine they gave us there undrinkable. oh, we're supposed to add water to the wine, according to proprietor. have you ever heard of such a thing? perhaps you can see why our favorite wine bar was so crucial. croatia is a wine-growing nation. i unreservedly suggest you take advantage of the wine bars and hotels however, and don't necessarily trust the mom and pops places for wine recs.

we got into bed quite early afterwards. as we had an early 8 am meeting with a driver who would take us to visit montenegro the tiny neighboring country about 40 km away.

early a.m. after a stop for coffee over at the hilton (thankfully i'm never the only one who must get her day jumpstarted with little roasted beans) our van is ready. at first i was bumming to ride shotgun with malden, our bald-headed, post-middle-aged tour guide. turns out he's a real doll-baby and he speaks very good english and knows a thing or two about montenegro, i'm in the right seat.

about one hour later, entering montenegro, it's just picturesque. kotor bay is surrounded by the mountains and in the center of the bay is a church and a monestary, accessible by boat. we drive along the coast until we stop at a tiny fishing village. situated here is an adorable cafe. we indulge in another coffee at the base of these green and gray mountains on a crisp morning. we're told by malden that michael douglas and catherine zeta-jones are contemplating buying property here.

20 minutes down the old road and we arrive at a walled city, kotor. through the giant gates, we couldn't believe our eyes. people. [finally, people.] enjoying coffee and beers and wine and cigarettes in this tiny piazza lined with restaurants and shops. i think we could have stayed all day, especially once we found what was to come but we spent only one hour. curiously, though the men here are also quite good looking, nearly every one of them had sweatpants on. not 2009 sweatpants, whatever those are. joey buttafuoco sopranos, weird too-thick gray sweatpants with pockets. it was like a sea of brody jenners from the neck up and a jc penney advertisement for athletic pants from the waist down.

we coffee'd for a bit then back in the van. an hour-long wind to the top of the mountain, 2522m. for a ham sandwich. we're told by malden that we can't miss what everyone travels to the top for, a cured pork sandwich and a glass of honey wine. along the lonely road we stop and photograph the the unspoiled beauty of the valley below. and the cows in the road. the ham sandwich is nothing to write about but the sweet cafe we enjoyed it in and the conversation with malden made up for it.

back at the bottom of the mountain we meandered through the town of budva, the other touristy spot of shops and eats. we met a dog there too, we called him monty, who followed us through the streets as we shopped and joined us for dinner and wine. i did not enjoy leaving that scruffy dog behind.

the following day we spent on top of the wall of the old city, back in dubrovnik, which was a fantastic idea and cost about 8 kuna. you can enjoy the complete view of orange-tiled rooftops in a couple of hours, walking along the tops of the walls. today, it's stunning. and you wouldn't know just by looking that in 1991 this old city was besieged by serb forces for 7 months and heavily damaged by shelling. it has been fully restored.

later that evening found us at our local watering hole, d'vino where we felt very at home. we had some joiners that night to add color. i'm certain we solved a lot of the world's problems that night during our discussions. once again, our sweet friend cameron generously provided bottomless bottles of croatian wine along with plates of charcuterie and cheeses. he even let me use his laptop to check email. i couldn't resist facebook friending him. even philippe and emma became dogbook friends.

the trip was made so much more fun by our friends, bar manager frano and cameron and the beloved beagle emma. imagine the surprise last week as i went to wish him happy birthday on facebook. cameron died a few weeks ago. and so, what should have been 34th birthday wishes on his facebook page were actually messages of love and missing him. my heart stopped.

his heart stopped.

so my friends, a toast to cameron wilson. i didn't know him long. to me, his lesson in his life and death is to dream and do. don't wait. it could be over tomorrow. be in the world.

cork, 1720 14th street nw, u street corridor, washington dc

my two new and now obsessions: the u street corridor and vampires. what the? i know you're thinking vampires don't really have a place in this blog. but i don't really give a bat's ass about that. humor me, please. i'm gonna give it a whirl, incorporating them. you'll see it's not too difficult for my overactive and fantasizing pea-brain. i'm not embarrassed too much to admit that i wish i could figure out how to bump into a vampire on 14th street between p and u.

[hee, p-u]

so cork. not just any old wine bar. wine bars back in the day seemed like a particularly snobbish trend to some. now the wine bar is as routinely seen as reality tv, leggings and vampires - and, i know you're with me in hoping none of these trends fade out with time.

if there's not a cozy wine bar in your 'hood, well i advise venturing out to explore. here in dc there's a profusion of them to visit and get your drink on. they're definitely my preferred setting.

cork opened up in the logan/shaw neighborhood about 1 1/2 years ago. the girls and i celebrated my pre-vampire-loving birthday there just days after they opened. serving small plates designed for sharing, we experienced lots of goodies that night, as i recollect. so why haven't i been back? pure stupidity with a dash of laziness mixed in, that's why. silly me.

cork was opened by former politicos and couple, diane gross and khalid pitts [who could totally btw be badass looking vampires from the enemy coven - and i mean that in a sickly good way. check 'em out].

i love stories of brave people who leave their old careers behind for a new passion that affects their lifestyles so drastically as this endeavor must. this saturday night, khalid and diane are both running around attending to customers, constantly making sure we're taken care of. charmers they are, especially the sweetiepie, diane.

chef ron tanaka, formerly of cityzen, creates the simple looking dishes which are actually not your run-of-the-mill standards, but instead leave [me] thinking, why didn't i think of that?

i also discovered that tom brown is the bartender. he's the brother of my former colleague, derek brown - cocktail craftsman and renaissance man of the gibson. must've been in their dna. i'm just sayin' there's much more than meets the eye here. cork is a real easy-going place. so if you're thinkin' even for one second it's intimidating to visit a wine bar in this eclectic neigborhood, think again, silly geese.

can we talk twilight for a sec? i know i'm slow to get on board with it, but thank goodness i did not acquire this unquenchable thirst sooner. you mustn't have anything else going on in your life when you get a grip on these books. let me assure you that this teenybopper drama has taken a hold of me like nothing else has, except for cooking, and probably new york. and maybe prada - well and bergdorf goodman's in general. whatever, you get the point.

and thank heavens twilight books are cheap, especially when your friends already own them. this is how i'll justify my comcast on demand charges of watching twilight the movie three times in 10 days.

omg. i know.

i hope i never come across rob pattinson because i too would be puma-pawing him like a 13-year-old. seriously, this girl needs a summer romance like like i needed that winter snuggie.

so that's why i'm out saturday night. it's not too late to activate a summer romance. my friend and i ventured over to 14th street nw. she: looking for a suitable amount of trouble with the goal of escaping the stress of bad relationship gone increasingly bad. me: i respect that plus i always like to toy with new accessories like lampshades. plus i've been holed up with vampire books and movies of late.

yay, cork wasn't jam-packed with oenophiles. [another good thing about having so many choices now on 14th is that they're all just a tad less crowded.] it's cozy, cork. the tiny main room with the bar is where you wanna be, unless you're with a group, or not as interested in opportunities as i am. very dimly lit. the bar, bounded by cubby shelves exhibiting wine bottles in perfect organized manner. cork is comforting and traditional-old in feel but still clean and tidy crisp. i like that. i think it's not easy to achieve this vibe but cork does it flawlessly.

seated in a little booth with prime access view of the room, exposed brick, austere lightbulbs, chalkboards with tonight's flights of wine. our modelesque waitress comes around with every attention on us seconds later. she's very professionally helpful with wine and food questions.

cork features small plates. [insert sound of angels singing] how many things can i try? a lot - very inexpensive plates each implausibly priced from $3-$11. huh?

we opt for the chicken liver mousse with caramelized shallot marmelade. i'm so happyproud of my girlfriend who claims to be a picky eater, though she's always toe-to-toe experimenting with my love of all things liver. we also get a small cheese board served with honey and a drizzle of balsamic reduction. i highly recommend you try the simply titled "avocado" plate. slices of fresh buttery vivid pure avocado served on crunchy warm bread with a sprinkling of toasted pistachios and orange-pistachio oil [i'm guessing]. also, i do recommend the lemon-dusted calimari served with caper remoulade. crisp and warms your heart. here i think i can't be any happier.

well sometimes - you can be happier, friends. yep we sashayed outta there, with minimal financial damage i think - around $90 for the two of us. an unheard-of bargain, no?

[we wanted to pop in to the gibson for a cocktail. as you know, there's no popping in to the gibson - even in august. the doorgentleman took my number and said he'd text me when our table was ready. are they ahead of their time, or what? i later missed my text due to fun i was in the middle of but i'll report back from the gibson another night very soon.]

next door is marvin [not marvin's, as it's sometimes mistakenly referred to]. and directly up to the roof deck. we made instafriends with a few people, including a little version of jacob black for my friend. seriously. so innocently cute and naively sweet he was.

enough about jacob black, though.

imagine the electrifying thrill that nearly sent my heart pounding out of my chest when i got a visual on my own personal edward cullen lookalike. it took all of 8 seconds to craft a reason and nestle myself into his personal space at the bar. and it took all of 3 seconds for him to ditch the ladies he was previously angling to be taken in by the scent of my blood [or my lotion]. fixated the remainder of the night we were.

a tousled-yet product-kissed chaos of imperfectly perfect hair. tall, smooth and dreamy he was and with graceful, cheetahfast attentiveness to my every bar-need. did i mention that he's french? not that it would've mattered. because he was not only stunning to look at, but tirelessly gentlemanly and intriguing. and intrigued.



summersmitten kitten. all caps. i got a few lovely surprise kisses as we meandered around outside after departing marvin. he texted me [the obligatory] three days later.
oh boy. sigh.

ray's the steaks, 2300 wilson blvd, arlington, va

there's always been a buzz about ray's the steaks. people who've tried ray's either love it or hate it for reasons that mostly boil down to expectations and ambience. what's not to love? here's a cluebird for ya: read reviews before you dine out. not every resto should offer the same old sheet. it's what makes the world go round. i like to embrace these differences.

recently ray's moved down the street from its not-so-attractive stripmall location, allowing owner michael landrum to triple the number of covers he served in a night. bonus for you: the address of the new ray's the steaks is horsepuckey. don't let its wilson blvd address fool you into thinking it's actually on wilson. it's on clarendon blvd. for the love of arlington's 19 starbucks in a 2-mile radius, i give up trying to understand the whole clarendon wilson blvd thing.

so here's how i wind up at ray's a coupla thursdays ago. i bumped in to some friends on the way to the dogpark one afternoon; a coolio fun easygoing couple who used to be my neighbors. they suggested dinner at ray's the steaks. how nice is it that? i haven't been in moons. plus i love having dinner parties with people i don't see very often. keeps life interesting, no? they said they'd arrange everything and text me the deets. which they did. well in advance of the reservation.

well, i didn't have it on my calendar, because my assistant had taken the week off. silly ditzy girl.

kidding. come on, people. i am my assistant and my life is an effing trainwreck.

turns out, i double-booked myself, having scheduled yet another mind-numbing blind date the same night. [cut me some slack before you judge. i'm trying to gather some more material for this lame-ass blog.]

i couldn't postpone the blind date because he was driving [horse and buggy] from amish-country lancaster, pennsylvania. what the? i know, i know. one of these days i'll come across a charming gentleman who lives between 1 and 6 miles from me.

i couldn't cancel dinner with friends and look like a flakasaurus rex. well that and they mentioned something about a hottie single friend joining.

how smart am i? dinner at 6:30; blind date at 8:30.

if you know anything about ray's, besides the fact that it's a well-regarded and reasonably-priced steak house, you know it's a get 'em in getemoutasfastaspossible burn and churn kind of resto. an hour an half for dinner here is totally doable.

most people know that anytime you double-book yourself, things don't go exactly as your pea brain intends. you end up having unforeseen best time of your life at engagement #1 and subsequently visualizing ways to dodge engagement #2.

we'll call that jt's law of double-booking. it has an equal and opposite outcome too, which is when you want to disengage from a boring situation to mosey along to a merrier one.

just as i'm sashaying through the door, i see my friend and favorite dc sommelier, james beard foundation award-winner, mark slater. he recently left michel richard citronelle after 12 years and joined ray's as wine director for all of michael landrum's restos, ray's the steaks, ray's hellburger and ray's the classics. what a doll baby.

and while he's a wine-stud he is not the supercilious sommelier he could be - even though his brain holds a $hit-ton of viniferous information. mark has a legendary talent for discovering fascinating wines under $40. if you see him when you visit ray's, by all means, enlist his assistance in choosing a great bottle. that's what he's there for. for us, he sent us some yummy bubbly followed by a lovely bold malbec for dinner.

so we're seated at the best table in the house - right in the middle of all the action. i should mention here that the fellow with my neighbors is indeed, hot. all caps. not only is he terribly attractive, he's california dude rockstar trendy. and healthy looking. trust me when i tell you we don't have these creatures running rampant in dc. not straight ones anyway.

i don't know why all the people on yelp, donrockwell.com and tripadvisor blah, blah, blah are always talking about the lack of decor at ray's. who gives a frog's fat ass? i find it refreshing that it's minimalistic. it's simple. clean. what if when there's not a bunch of cluttery filling up all possible white space, you actually focus on the food and conversation [and getting the hell out as fast as ray's can get you gone]. ray's is totally family-friendly too btw. there's all sorts of clientele here - and yes, mark confirms that they do indeed serve 300-400 people a night here. standard ops.

even though he talks incessantly, i find the brawny chap next to me really interesting because he's in the process of opening a few restaurants in dc. smart and pretty? and stylish? crap i have a blind date in an hour with a guy from amish country.

it would be really rude of me to call in sick, wouldn't it? even if guy next to me is really shiny and pretty?

back to the food. ray's offers a crazygood deal: 3 courses for $23.95. first course of salad or soup, main course of either the scallops, the top sirloin or the hanger steak and choice of dessert. how oklahoma of them - i love it. i'm totally here for beef. that's what they do. really well.

the lovely mr. slater is reading my appetizer-loving mind and takes charge in sending us a few: the steak tartare "deviled" eggs. i love steak tartare with all my heart, i do. so flippin cute this is, i can barely stand it. i'm stealing this idea. deviled eggs are all the rage now if you haven't heard. you can stuff anything into a boiled egg right? they needed a little more salt. surprise, surprise. he also has the kitchen deliver a demitasse cup of the crab soup. full of flavor and muy delicioso. and, where on earth can you get bacon as an appetizer? here, friends. uber-thick slices of applewood smoked bacon perched atop a sweet tuft of sauerkraut. an order of angry shrimp comes as well, or shrimp diablo - super spicy, i warn you. but i like it. in moments our salads come and minutes after that (remember, they're all business at ray's and they want to fill your seat with someone else's arse as soon as they can) steaks arrive. mine, i went for the hanger steak - slightly tougher than other cuts and not as juicy, but bursting with meatiness. you have your choice of varied sauces and other things like roasted garlic or roquefort to top your steak. i chose a port reduction along with roasted garlic. it's likely i'm not kissing anyone tonight. who doesn't love garlic anyway? i was real happy with my choices.

i look at my watch to discover it's 8 and we haven't ordered dessert. "i've got a blind date at 8:30," i inform mr. pretty.

"what? cancel." is his response. as tempting as this is, i must adhere to my prior commitment but promise to ditch out of blind date if i'm not enjoying amish country. upon my return from powdering my nose and checking my pearly whites, desserts have arrived. i manage to capture a bite of each. do try the key lime pie. it was the winner. the chocolate and white chocolate mousses (meese?) are so-so, though i'm not that much of a mousse girl anyhow. cheesecake was good i think but i really needed more time with it to be sure. tiny peanut butter chocolate petit fours are a perfect touch that come - next to the check of course.

hate to eat and run but hey, it's ray's and if you're not running out they'll probably run you out.

i'll have to reinvestigate mr. pretty another time.