Post VP Visit Vittles!

Hey there! Well, it's the morning after and I'm still totally not even believing I was at the Vice President's residence for such a special occasion. I met veterans and active duty members that have made sacrifice's to keep us free and then also met the brave families that support them. It was a pretty awesome event. I took photos to share, but need to get them approved by his staff before I put them up. Totally understandable, so in the meantime ... Jacob over at FoodNetworkAddict.com has a couple of pictures up from the Associated Press. There we were just leaving the Vice Presidential residence after the cook out, when I got an email from him that he had a post up ... with pictures. I was like ... huh? How'd you do that so fast? I just left! And where'd you get the pictures??? Jacob's on his stuff!

So, as I wait to get some of the photos I took approved, I thought I'd share what we did after hanging with the VP and his crew ... BTW Dr. Biden, our Second Lady is a joy. A total joy. I've seen her discuss military veterans and her efforts to make changes in the way we treat our war heroes, but to see it and hear it up close, it truly touched me as a veteran, military brat and honestly ... as an American. I am pretty happy to live and see these times. Ok, more when the photos get approved ...

Where do you go after feeding the Vice Prezo? Well ... you go eat where the President sometimes stops for a bite ... Spike Mendelsohn's Good Stuff Eatery!! He and I met a coupla years back and since then we've kept in touch and I've made several attempts to get to his place, finally I made it and feel it's almost poetically meant to be that I'd catch him after I went through what he must have felt the first time he made something for our First Family. Here we are actually in his new pizza place next door ...
That's one of his partners on the left, Mike. I've met Mike a few times, but he told me last night that he used to skip class to listen to me on the radio in NYC ... made me feel old lol. Spike's new pizza place isn't open yet, but he has a cool name for it ... "We The Pizza". Get it? Cute for a D.C. pizza joint name. He's gonna have soda jerks and he's even getting serious about the dough on the pizza, doing several tests with different flours. I suggested he just ship in some good ol' NYC tap!! It's the best! Here's the line ordering ...
Then I looked down to figure out which brew I was going to drink with my Obama burger and Spike's Village Fries and saw his trophy!!
Here's my burger ...
Man oh Man oh Man! What a juicy, squishy, meaty burger! It was so good I knew it wasn't just chuck, so I asked and it's chuck, sirloin and brisket and I think I remember him saying he grinds in fat from the brisket as well, whatever it is, it's crazy delicious like Mr. Pibb and Red Vines. (A lil SNL humor, which was also a topic of discussion over beer and burgers). Anyway, the burger was also perfectly hand blended and loose, but not fall apart loose. That's key in a good burger. Ha! "Good" Burger. Quite appropriate word, eh? As for the bun it was perfect and the texture of the brown toasted area was like heaven, it was so chewy and the lightest hint of stiff and crunch from what I think was a quick ride on the flat top grill. What a foodie pleasure. I ordered two, but was more than happy to pass my other one on to new arriving guest at the table, Jacob ...

That's the Colletti's Smokehouse burger. We passed our last bits for a bite and it was just as yummy as the Obama burger, but I favor the Obama burger. I forgot to mention it has blue cheese on it ... yummy and the perfect level of blue, not too strong. We all sat and chatted up a bit and then Spike dropped off his first cook book!!!
The Good Stuff Cookbook, click away on the title to order straight from Amazon. The pictures remind me of a book I like called Zest. His food pictures are so close up they feel like they are on a plate in front of you and the typeface is easy on the eyes. Gooooo Spike!!! I checked the book out and when I looked up there was a delivery of dessert!!
That's his toasted marshmallow shake. It was thick and had a custard flavor like no other! I already knew from this past year's South Beach Food and Wine Festival that he knew how to make a shake, so this was a nice treat.
I sipped half at the table and took the rest back to my hotel room for a slow-sip I.V. the rest of the night.

I'm actually pulling into NYC's Penn station now ... gotta get off my lapper ... more later on the event!!