Motorin' to Mo-town

Kristy took me on a drive to Morgantown. WV on Saturday for a flashback trip through the college days. We visited the sites of my first and second restaurant jobs as well as a couple of old college haunts. We had lunch at the venerable Boston Beanery, an Irish-themed eatery where I used to bartend. We commented on how it seemed smaller whereas when I worked there the bar seemed to go on forever. My friend Gigi still works there, but alas, she was not there that day. Kristy had the Filet Mignon Salad and I had an old Bean standby, the Turkey, Bacon and Cheddar sandwich with Russian dressing on grilled Italian bread. We started off with a creamy Crab dip. I kept peering up at the bar and seeing images of me, John Thorn, Leslie Kaba and Randy Fields slingin' drinks.

We drove off toward downtown and stopped to visit the site of my first restaurant job which was a fine-dining restaurant named Etchings at the Seneca Center. It's now called the Glasshouse Grille. We then headed off to crash a wedding shower being held at Oliverio's on the Wharf that was attended by one of my favorite people, MariElena Baldini Oliverio. Lena,or Vogue as we used to call her was Kristy's old college roommates. The pic is of Kristy and Lena or the Banger Sisters, as they're now known. The Bevy of Beautiful Baldinis pictured are from left to right, Gram, Lena, Lena's mom Sue, Lena's daughter Bronwyn and Lena's sister Ursula. I've attended a few Baldini soirees as well as attended the Italian Heritage Festival with them and this family has a rich food history all their own. One such story I witnessed was Lena's spectacular wedding and her wedding cake collapsing as she was about to cut it.

On our way out of town, we stopped to take a pic of Crockett's Lodge, one of my old Mo-town haunts. When they weren't bar-surfing, they served some of the best Buffalo wings in town. Mo-town actually introduced me to Buffalo wings but that's a story for another day....