mary and i love going out to dinner with chris (death donkey) and his lovely wife courtney. last night we headed to pcg in solana beach. mary and i had been there before, but chris and courtney hadnt. our first choice was sake house in leucadia, but they were too busy. anyway we were seated right away and the pre-dinner drinks were good. mary had a raspberry mojito i drank half of and i had a glass of zin (i think it was random ridge) that featured a fruit on the flavor profile i cant put my finger on… was light bodied, but very good.

 appetizers featured a weird spring roll that had sweet applewood bacon covered in maple syrup that was as weird and kind of gross as it sounds but we ate it anyway. the rib sliders which were little pulled pork sandwiches basically were really good especially with the sauce they came with. there was something else unexciting. i had a thick and pretty delicious shrimp chowder we all shared. me and chris each ordered a special reserve pinot noir they were serving by the glass that was too cold and very closed. it had opened up a little by the end of the night, but by then i had had plenty to drink. i dont remember the name of it, but i would avoid it again if i had. been having bad luck with pinots lately, about 5+ bad ones in a row. although i do like them in general, the best wine i ever had was a sine qua non pn, you can find it in my cellar tracker ratings here im on there as mike l. unfortunately i dont know how you can search by just username on there…

 anyway the entrees: i had ribs which was basically a big rack of small ribs with some sauce on the side and some mashed potatoes. the ribs were okay although not super tender, they were very plain but great with the sauce that came with them. mary had some mahi that was really fishy tasting to me and she didnt love either. it had a lot of mushy vegetables and sauce and stuff on the plate, pretty underwhelming. the white chocolate bread pudding is really good. i had a rombauer cab sauvignon with my ribs that was big and bold.

 so all in all that was better than i remembered it being having been there a few times before. nowhere in the realm of arterra or market, which are still the best SD area restaurants we’ve been too, but defintely serviceable in a pinch.

oh at some point people put on their blogs something like:

 i am mike landucci

professional poker player 7.5 years

live in oceanside, ca

4 kids, lovely wife

love wine

my brother tom wants to go to a hockey game so it’s off to ebay

plugs for deucescracked.com who made this blog possible and winelibrary.tv run by the rad gary vaynerchuck. or has tom calls him bary vanderchuck.

 yeah.

$2.99 at trader joe’s, this wine is just killer. im very picky about wine, but this one is all the right things about aussie shiraz. the fruit is really big and balanced (rare for cheap wine), vanilla oak all over the place but no oak monster craziness. alcohol is in balance. nice finish. gonna go back for a couple cases more soon before it’s gone.

a little break from poker lately, not really feeling it. had a good coaching session saturday at commerce and played a lot of 40. was good to hang with damon who is just a sick poker addict. i had to tear him away from the tables at 530 am or we’d still be there.

thinking up some sort of wine dinner/party at my house. need. more. wine. and yes i am drinking wine here at 12:28pm on a thursday.

Or do I need to be formal?

 nah it’s better this way.

commerce tomorrow with damon, about ten hours of 40 and then get to coach my favorite student for 5 hours, hopefully some interesting hands will come up.