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It's a quality setup, and the brisket I've had from it is the proof.
Sounds great. Nothing really like a perfectly cooked piece of beef. I would imagine that where you live, you have the space, and you could have something like that also.
Jim, if I thought that it could fit you, I would deliver the romper myself. No taking chances in the Asian guy getting it. Or I drive down there, and hand it to him by mistake, just like UPS.
Morning gents. We had a great weekend with the Shelby crew. I signed Candice and I up for the "Team Shelby Monterey VIP Experience," which is a fancy name for a weekend of events lined up by an arm of Shelby American for Ford and Shelby enthusiasts.
Thursday- Lunch in the Rose Garden at the Bernardus Lodge in Carmel Valley. We got to see the new Shelby Super Snake Sport truck ahead of the press release. https://www.shelby.com/Vehicles/F-150-Super-Snake-Sport Later that day we got a spectacular 2.5 hour tour of the RM-Sotheby's auction in Monterey. The tour guide was the best ever, for any occasion. Ramsey was his name and his enthusiasm for giving us the tour was only exceeded by his passion for all things automotive. His job is lining up multi-million dollar cars for the auctions. In this case he had 14 cars lined up for the weekend's auction. We saw the inner workings of how the cars are arranged, how the documentation is kept and tracked for each car, and a private tour of the finest cars, some of which sold for close to $10M.
Friday- We met for a private tour of the Talbott Motorcycle Museum in Carmel Valley. Moto Talbott Museum?Official Site Just an incredible collection of motorcycles and memorabilia. After the museum, we conga-lined it down to Big Sur for lunch. HWY 1 between Carmel and Big Sur is spectacular, and what my GT350 convertible was made for!
Saturday was the main event. We met at Laguna Seca and got a private tour of the Ford Performance display by Jim Owens, marketing manager for all things Mustang. While he was speaking to us, I looked over and standing right next to me taking it all in was Hau Thai-Tang. For those who don't know his story, he was evacuated from Vietnam as a child and has since worked his way up the ladder at Ford to now running all product development and operations. Quite the career arc. https://media.ford.com/content/fordm...thai-tang.html Oh, and while we were there Jim Farley hopped into one of the Boss 302's and headed out on track for the Trans Am race. That evening, I knew we'd have a nice dinner outside under the stars- this much was known in advance. What I didn't know is we were dining with Jim Farley, HTT, Jim Owens, Craig Jackson (yeah that Jackson), the Shelby executive team, several remaining members of the Shelby "Original Venice Crew," Allen Grant (1965 Shelby World Champion), Camillo Pardo (former chief designer at Ford and designer of the 2005 Ford GT), and some others I'm sure I'm forgetting. Heard some great stories about ol' Shel and just had a great time soaking it all in. At the end, Camillo handed out prints of a watercolor he did specifically for attendees of the dinner, and he numbered each one. I'll be getting mine framed for sure.
With the fog, and an ocean breeze blowing in off The Pacific, an August evening might as well be February. It's cold here, every night. Only somebody committed to being drunk every night would be out on a night like this. With Covid, The City has allowed bars and restaurants to build out parking spaces into little seating areas. They call them "parklets". So in Chinatown, the very few street parking spots have been reduced by maybe half. No way can I drive down there. No parking.
Merchants have gotten creative. Where you were maybe allotted the parking space in front of your business, some have taken as much as they could. Nobody says anything. The police leave it alone. City Hall doesn't really have anyone who is in charge of that. The bar I drink at has taken about 100' from the corner, down to the alleyway. An unnamed person with a pickup truck, delivered a few police riot barricades.....with the official police department logo placards removed so as it appears to not be stolen city property. The bar owners block off the alleyway from both ends when the bar is open. Tables and chairs are set up so that you can have drinks, and enjoy food from Pork Chop House next door. A DJ sets up and plays music. Police never bother the bar or restaurant about serving liquor on the street, even though their "on sale liquor license" means that alcohol cannot go out the door. Nor do the police ever bother the merchants about noise from the DJ or the "dance floor" in the alleyway making it into an illegal street party.
I still ride my motorcycle to Chinatown, and park in the red zone in front of the bar, just as I did in high school. I grew up eating next door at Pork Chop House. I've been drinking in that bar since I was in high school. And parking in the same red zone, since my feet were long enough to ride a bike.
The bar is really just a neighborhood bar. Probably 100 years old. Most of the area has been Chinatown since The Gold Rush, so most of the buildings and businesses were probably there since The Earthquake. A real dive. Dark. Dingy. Permanent odor cigarette smoke, stale beer, and whatever cheap perfume the bartender is wearing. The sort of place that used to be populated by seniors drinking away their Social Security checks, which hipsters now find charming. It's safe to go there now. Not like when I was a kid, and people got killed there.
Pork Chop House has probably been there for 100 years, serving the same food. As some older people once told me, back in those days, you couldn't really open a "Chinese restaurant". All of the restaurants back then had an American food menu. When Chinese came, they would simply tell the waitress what they wanted, and the kitchen would make it. No menu for the Chinese food. So this place is known for an entire bone-in pork loin, which is the pork chop, slow roasted until tender and smothered in gravy. It's served over a bed of rice, and whatever vegetable.....usually cabbage or canned corn....sometimes both. Just like they have always done, it's a huge plate of food that could feed 2 people.....or eat half, and take the other half in a doggie bag.
The Earthquake in 1906 knocked down and/or burned down a lot of San Francisco. Some buildings did survive. A lot of The City as we know it today was built during the 1910's, 1920's, and 1930's. So most of the buildings are somewhere around 100 years old. Not surprising that some of those businesses have stayed over the years, even with transfers of ownership. A neighborhood bar, restaurants, corner stores......those kinds of places could still be there 100 years from now. Unless nobody needs to eat, drink, or buy a pack of smokes in the future. What I don't see anymore are shoe shine stands, and news stands. Nobody buys newspapers or racing forms anymore. And how many people actually shine their shoes? Which leads me to believe that shoe repair shops are also on the way out. I am the only person I know who has ever resoled a pair a shoes. Might as well buy a new car every 5 years, instead of buying tires.
Rob from the city, Thanks for all the info about China town.
I have new soles put on my work boots at least twice before I have to get new ones. The last pair after the second set of soles wore out I sent them back to Danner for a complete rebuild. Your right about the boot repair guy going down the road. My friend that owns the boot store can not find anyone wanting to learn the trade.
It looks like a cross between a Prius and a Tesla. Smart. It competed with those cars. Maybe Ford could have named it E-Pinto. As the car is not a Mustang.
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