Jamie Thingelstad

Travail Rooftop Patio Cantina

Tammy and I went to the opening night of Travail’s Kitchen and Amusements Rooftop service tonight. We were lucky enough to grab tickets right when they went on sale and it was a southwest tasting menu that looked absolutely delicious to us.

At Travail Rooftop

Travail Rooftop Patio Cantina Tasting Menu

Travail did a very good job managing social distancing, keeping everything outside with fresh air, and making sure that people moved through promptly but not too fast. I love seeing that restaurants are figuring out how to adapt to the pandemic.

Watermelon Slurpee with Tajin
Pinto Bean & Cannellini Bean Salad
lime creme fraiche, roasted pepper salsa, gustavo romero’s nixta tortilla chips

Watermelon Slurpee with Tajin

Ceviche
coconut lime marinade, lime segments, almonds, avocado, green tomatoes, king crab, smoked swordfish, basil, fresno, cilantro, taro root

Ceviche

Mezzo
piña colada slurpee with coconut cream

Mezzo

Mexican Curry Corn & Roasted Poblano
oaxaca cheese tamale, herb and lime crema

Mexican Curry Corn & Roasted Poblano

Pescado ala Talla
cage-grilled mexican striped bass: morita chile sauce, grilled vegetables, gustavo romero’s nixta tortillas

Pescado ala Talla

Mezzo
Strawberry cardamom creamsicle pop

Strawberry cardamom creamsicle pop

Stuffed Smoked Chicken
herbs, mesca bbq sauce, green mole, crema, mexican pickles

Stuffed Smoked Chicken

Mexican Chocolate Mousse
coconut cream, cinnamon waffle round

Mexican Chocolate Mousse*

Dessert
tres leches cake, strawberry flambe, strawberry jam filling, whipped cream

tres leches cake

Take home
churro ice cream with chocolate

churro ice cream

Drinks

I had some delicious drinks along with dinner.

Paloma
Repasado Tequila, Spicy Grapefruit Cordial, Fresh Grapefruit & Lime Juice, Highball Soda Water

El Valiente (The Brave Man)
Tommy’s Margarita, the simple and famous blend of Tequila, Agave, Lime

Music

To top off the beautiful evening on the rooftop patio we also had delightful music from Riverside Unplugged. They played a wide variety and were seemingly ready to play anything. We requested Prince and Brandi Carlile and they did both without hesitation. 🎶

Foo Fighters in Council Bluffs

It has been a day since the Foo Fighters show and my ears are still ringing. This had to be one of the loudest shows I’ve been to, and it was great.

Let me start with the bad news. Kent and I had talked about going to this show specifically because Motörhead was opening for the Foo Fighters. Yeah, we wanted to see the Foo Fighters but we also really wanted to see Lemmy and the gang. Kent put it all together and added a couple of other guys to our gang to head down to the show. Sadly, when we got to the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs there was a sign on the door saying that due to travel problems Motörhead would not be performing. Ugh!

The silver lining though was the 2nd line that said the Foo Fighters would play for 2.5 hours! When Grohl was on stage he said

We’ve got 16 years and a hundred ******* songs. How many of those do you think we can play tonight?

They played all the best of them! I grabbed a couple of video snapshots from the show to give a sense of what it was like. Did I mention it was loud?

I had seen the Foo Fighters play on the Skin & Bones tour. That was nothing like this one. This was a hard, I might even say metal, show. Grohl and the Foos put on an amazing show.

The stage set was pretty cool. They had these 6 “video orbs” on cables that moved around and showed a variety of effects. The stage itself had video projected from underneath on the floor which I still can’t figure out how they did.

There was also a small stage on a platform that lifted about 15 feet in the air toward the back of the main floor. Grohl made a few trips out there and did the solo acoustic songs in the encore on that stage.

I just love this picture that makes the stage look like it’s exploding in light.

If you dig the Foo Fighters, go check out this tour.