I visited the Greenbrier on the Fourth of July to see Maroon 5 play. It was a crazy busy day, but my friends and I wanted to make the best of it. The concert series is part of the Greenbrier Classic, and it's held at the Fairgrounds - so not right at the hotel. We took a shuttle to the golf course area and walked up to the hotel for some grub.

Draper's at the Greenbrier is one of the few places in the hotel that has a more casual dress code, so we figured this would be our best bet.

The only problem was that there was an hour and fifteen minute wait. We couldn't do that, so we opted for the ice cream bar only area.


We walked in and took a seat at the bar. The interior of this place is awesome. It's bright and colorful and has floral patterns on everything. They are open 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. for breakfast, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. for lunch and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. for dinner daily.

I ordered a caramel sundae with butter pecan ice cream. Good lord. Super rich, but also super great.

It gets a little hectic here, so if you really wanna check it out (and I would love to try the fried green tomato sandwich), definitely get here early. Especially if there's a large event going on. But definitely worth it to check out. Pretty tasty.

Grade: A

A quick weekday getaway to Pittsburgh landed Afton and I at Osaka, a sushi and Chinese restaurant located on Greentree Road. From the outside, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, with it being in a plaza with giant lettering that reads "Chinese Restaurant." Hmph.

On the sushi side, I wanted to go with their namesake - the Osaka Roll. It is a tempura roll with crab and spicy tuna. I was thinking for some reason it would be crab tempura, as opposed to the whole thing being fried. And that's my fault. But it was still good.

Fish was good, flavor was good - a little heavy on soy - but overall pretty tasty. I'd go back again and try some other dishes.

Grade: B

Finally finished with my tour of farmers markets in Morgantown.

Monday - Cheat Lake Farmers Market
Tuesday - Westover Farmers Market
Wednesday - Health Sciences Center Farmers Market
Thursday - South Morgantown Community Farmers Market 
Friday - XXXXXXXXX
Saturday - Morgantown Farmers Market

This one actually has a pretty nice little space - it's in a small pavilion near the Community United Methodist Church at 1966 Grafton Road.

There are a handful of vendors - with vegetables, baked goods, coffee and more. Check it out.

After attending a church service (I know) in Washington, Pa., my family and I were starved. I always look for the best restaurant in the area, and I was surprised to see "Al an' Rubens" toward the top of the list. I pass by this place every time I head home and always assumed it was a bar. You know what they say about people who assume...


It's not. It's a decent Italian place, actually. We walked in and saw all the staff sitting to the right - either they just opened or weren't very busy. I felt everyone's eyes on me as a waitress led us to our table.

I looked over the menu as our waitress brought us drinks. I asked if they had just opened, and she said no, so I was concerned why we were the only patrons in the restaurant. Luckily, it filled in pretty quickly as it got a little later and into "dinner time" territory.

We were brought bread and butter, and the butter was a different kind blended with some seasonings. Not bad.

I ordered their Tortellini Al Fonze, which had sautéed spinach, bacon and mushrooms in a garlic parmesan cream sauce tossed with cheese tortellini.

But first, a salad. Actually, a pretty decent salad with a pepper, some tomatoes, olives and mixed greens.


My entree was pretty good. It was $18, but that seems on par with meals in Morgantown. Tortellini was tasty, cheese sauce was on point, and I love the bacon and spinach. I mean, this is really kind of a dish made for me. Creamy and cheesey and amazing. Love this.



The service could be a tad bit more professional and polished (how odd to have servers standing around and watching you while you eat), the prices could be a little lower for the area, and the outside could be a bit more inviting -- but overall, decent food.

Grade: A

When I first heard of "Spicy Gringo's," I thought to myself ... isn't that a derogatory term? I thought "gringo" was something Spanish-speaking folks called non-Spanish-speaking folks in a disparaging way. But what do I know.

This new-ish place is located in downtown Wellsburg in the location of a previous restaurant. It's the only Mexican place in Wellsburg - as far as I know - so my mother has to be happy. (My dad and I love Asian food, but my mom tends to go toward Mexican. Two against one. We won a lot.)


Walking in, we were immediately greeted. The gentleman waiting on us was lovely. After some conversation, I went ahead and ordered the chicken quesadilla. We started with some chips and salsa. The chips were pretty thick - I dig that.


My quesadilla was fairly average. Kinda boring, really, but I like chicken and I love cheese, so how bad can it be? I did ask for some sauces (do this!), and they brought out a trio ranging from not too spicy to very spicy. I actually really enjoyed the green one. It really added a punch of flavor to my quesadilla.

After the quesadilla, we ordered dessert. They have "chimmies," which are fried candy bars. Good god. I had a Snickers one. It was so good - melty chocolate and caramel, but then I found a toothpick. I'm assuming they use those to fry them. But it was OK. It didn't affect me too much, and it was still good.

Our waiter took away our plates and actually saw the toothpick, apologized profusely, and took that off my check. Wow. I don't think service gets much better than that.

Not super mind-blowing Mexican food, but basic, simple and with some good sauces. And awesome people. Oh, and for SUPER cheap.



Grade: B