When Blend opened up across the street from MUSC a couple of years ago, it brought a nice refreshing change to the lunch and dinner scene around MUSC.
For being such a busy area, there is a significant lack of lunching spots in the hospital district that aren’t more than a 5 minute walk away. There’s Wickliffe House across the street or Hot Dog Cart guy, but the other options like Hominy Grill, Lana, Norms or the plethora of fast food joints on the Crosstown are a bit of a walk away if you’re limited for lunching time. When Blend opened, it became a very tasty and quick lunch alternative to the cafeteria Their Proscuitto/Cappicola ham sandwich and a root beer was my favourite lunch combo, and I usually managed to make it there every once every few weeks to grab one.
Now there’s a “Temporarily Closed” sign on their door, and their website (blendtogo.com) says the site is unavailable until further notice. Given the history of “temporary” closings for food establishments around here, I’m hoping to see Blend come back eventually, but not terribly optimistic about it.
Let the training begin
As part of my effort to make myself exercise more (and hopefully shed a few kilos in the process), I decided to join some of my fellow bloggers in the i5k run coming up next month.
Today was the first day I got out jogging in a couple of weeks. Now that it’s warmer out (not equipped to run in anything cooler than about 10°C), the dogs and I went for our usual jog/shuffle (they jog, I shuffle) up and down the street. I made it further than I expected before having to stop, considering how long it’s been since I was last out. This is good. It means that while I’m still an out of shape pile of goo, I’m not as much of an out of shape pile of goo as I thought I was.
Temp: 15°C
Distance: ~1 mile
Time: ?
Pace: ?
Green tripe followup
I think I may have rushed the dogs’ green tripe experience in a case of “too much too soon”. They each got about a third of a can at each meal, which I didn’t think they would have a problem with. Although they seemed to enjoy the green tripe, the dogs ended up with upset tummies starting with Simba on Sunday and Nala last night.
Simba is feeling better now and is back to normal and after a late pukey night, I think Nala’s starting to feel a little better.
Even though the dogs seemed to enjoy the tripe, I don’t think it’s something I’ll add on a regular basis. Main reason is the smell. Peeewww. Other reason is that although the dogs liked the tripe, if they’re going to be hitting the eject button the next day, that’s not going to be much fun for them or me.
Barkley’s river adventure
Another update from Barkley’s new family. I think this was his first water adventure. I had him out by a pond at a CSCLRC event in the fall, but he didn’t jump into the water at all. He looked like he wanted to join the other dogs, but just ran around the edge of the water waiting for them to come out so he could grab the bumpers from the dogs.
He was so happy! Maggie immediate ran and jumped into the river, so he followed with a big leap- he looked so startled that he didn’t land on something! He had no problem paddling back to shore but then was too timid to go back in even though he really wanted to- he kept putting his toes and nose I’m and trying from every rock but just couldn’t take the plunge! We’re sure he will when the water is warm enough for us to get in because then he’ll follow. He and Maggie ran and ran over the rocks!
Great American Grill
Tucked away in the back corner of the James Island shopping center at the corner of Maybank and Folly is a little family owned and operated diner called Great American Grill.
Over the years the location has been home to at least 2 other restaurants that I know of, none of which lasted very long. Great American Grill has been around for just over 2 years now, so they’re probably doing something right. It’s the kind of place where unless you work or live in the area, you probably wouldn’t know it’s there. There’s a pretty local crowd, and a lot of regulars.
It’s a diner, so the food is pretty basic and uncomplicated, but tasty. They serve breakfast (which you can get all day) and lunch. Everything is cooked to order, and if you sit at the counter, you can watch all the action. Portions are generous and as it says on the menus, “You’ll never leave hungry”. Service is always friendly, and you can pretty much order anything and get it cooked the way you want.
If you’re there on a weekend, the Country Style Breakfast is hard to beat. Two giant buttermilk pancakes, biscuits and gravy, eggs, and sausage links, patties or bacon. It’ll keep you going pretty much the entire day.
Great American Grill is located at 1739 Maybank Hwy on James Island.