More words about buildings and food

There used to be a little crepe shop in my neighborhood called Cafe Dada. It was staffed by the people who owned it, and they took a lot of pride in what they did. When you told the woman who worked there that you liked the crepes, she just beamed. The decor was a bit spartan, but if they were truly Dadaists, that didn't necessarily mean anything.

Alas, the owners of Cafe Dada couldn't make it into a profitable enterprise, and they sold it. The new owners made some changes, but they also failed, and the restaurant closed. It reopened as Royal Cafe #2. I never tried it -- and never will, since the last time I went past it, it was closed. What a shame.

My neighbors had a Memorial Day Weekend cookout yesterday. I brought some hot dogs from Romanian Kosher Sausage Company (7200 N. Clark) and dolma from the Middle Eastern Bakery (1512 W. Foster).

At the party they had this beer from Pittsburgh called Iron City. When I asked my neighbor if it was any good, he said, "It's kind of like, you know... what's that beer?" Old Style? I suggested. "Yeah," he said, "like Old Style, but without the bitterness." I thought, what do you have left when you take the bitter out of Old Style? So I tried some. It's kind of like seltzer with a dash of ethanol, which isn't all bad; fizzy water can be refreshing on a hot day.

Finally, the title of this posting is a reference to a Talking Heads album. Not long ago, I found out that David Byrne, former lead singer of the Talking Heads, has a blog. In it, he talks about buildings and food and music and other cool stuff. Highly recommended.