DE Day 3 - Music, Mussels, and Mics
I started today by exploring Dover a little bit. I got my morning coffee at Governor's Cafe. The cafe was in the first floor of a restored historical building and was easily the coolest looking cafe I've been to so far. The coffee was pretty great too, and there was also a bar and restaurant which looked really good as well. Just look at this place:
Fueled up on caffeine and charming architecture, I went to the Johnson Victrola Museum. The museum is small, but tours are free and well worth the time. Eldridge Johnson was an engineer who helped pioneer techniques for recording and playing sounds. He founded the Victor company and set many business precedents as well. Music playing devices were very expensive, so Johnson came up with the idea of paying for them in installments so that everybody could have access to music. Isn't it crazy to imagine that something as commonplace now as recorded music was only available to the upper echelons of society barely over 100 years ago? He also was the first person to get artists to sign exclusive recording contracts to associate poplar artists with his brand, and he came up with the idea of paying royalties to make the deal worth it for the musicians who were worried their music would just be mass produced without them seeing a dime. He was also the first person to use a cute animal mascot, an english bulldog mix named Nipper, to help sell merchandise. Apparently he sold a few thousand machines in his first year, and after his first year using Nipper the number jumped to millions. Now it's hard to think of major products that haven't used animals in their marketing. Things like that really made the tour worth it to me, and it almost seemed like a cool historical follow up to the music boxes from the Morris Museum in NJ. It's so cool how a seemingly niche thing like a gramophone can branch off into so different fascinating areas.
After that, I went to see Miles the Monster at the Dover International speedway. He's a giant stone monster who loves NASCAR. I'll be honest that NASCAR never really made sense to me, but I bet actually being at the race track must be fun. If there were monsters at every race track, I'd definitely go, but as far I know Miles is the only one.
I accidentally deleted the photo I took but this one's probably better anyway
Spooked out by that scary monster, I had to get some lunch so I went to Grotto Pizza. It's a local chain, but I'd heard good things. I'm certainly not above chain pizza, but if there were Grotto Pizza near me growing up I'd never have even gone to Papa Gino's or a Pizza Hut (still Dominos though because even if it's worse lets be real, their delivery system is fantastic now). I don't know what made the pizza so good, but the bread was fluffy and the cheese was perfectly balanced. They even gave you little packets of parmesan cheese so you wouldn't have to lose out on that experience getting take out. I was pretty darn happy with it.
My culinary adventures continued as I went to some places the couple I met in Revelation Brewing recommended. I went to the Dewey Beer Co. first. It was a great little microbrewery with lots of options and a friendly staff. I got fruited berliner weisse, a kolsch, a porter, and a coffee stout. The coffee stout, Mo's Brewchacho, was one of my favorite beers I've had so far. The coffee in the stout was Mexican coffee with hints of chili, cinnamon, and vanilla. They also used a nitro pour so it was just a perfect creamy light flavorful beer.
From there, I went back to Rehoboth Beach to check out a place that had been recommended called 208 Social. I was a little too early so I got coffee at the Coffee Mill and did some writing. It was good coffee, at a fair price, and there was free wifi. Nothing extraordinary but a very solid place if you want to get some caffeine away from the heat of the beach.
Once 208 Social was open I was happy to go to their social hour. Between 5-7 they have different food and drink specials each day, and I have to say they're pretty incredible. Today there was $2 Narragansett and $5 wines, and almost the entire menu was available for $5 or $7. At the bartender's suggestions, I got the sticky ribs, pork ribs in a teriyaki, sesame and duck confit fat glaze, and the mussels, which came in a garlic cream sauce. Both just $5, and both really delicious. If there weren't other people there, I honestly might have eaten that cream sauce like a soup it was so good. Luckily there were other people there, and it really did live up to the term social hour. There was always a fun conversation going on and everyone there was really nice and happy. Definitely a great recommendation.
To end my day at the beach, I got ice cream from Kilwin's. They might not have had as many crazy flavors as the Ice Cream Store (the other Rehoboth Ice cream I had) but they made it up for it in pure quality. They make their own fudge and chocolate so every part of the ice cream tasted homemade and well crafted. I got their house moose tracks, and they used hand made chocolate peanut butter balls instead of Reeses'. It was spectacular.
After that was the open mic back in Dover at a bar called Tom's Bullpen. It was cool little sports bar, not exactly popping on a Wednesday night but there were some older guys playing pool which was cool to see. The mic said online it was open to all performers, but I was the only comic of the night and the rest were musicians.
The majority of the albeit small to begin with crowd left to take a smoke break right when I got on, so I performed in front of about three people. Just about all my jokes went over okay, but it's still hard to not get anxious and bummed out performing in front of a small crowd. I also psyched myself out a bit, because since there were so few people there I didn't want to do anything that might offend them so I avoided any material which was even a little bit dirty or on a potentially subject. This was probably a good instinct but unnecessary, and the little panic of mentally checking my jokes before actually doing them must have thrown off my rhythm a bit. I also in that moment forgot about half of the clean jokes I do so that didn't help. That being said one liners and self-deprecating stories went over the best, and some of the longer silly bits did fair to good. The one dirtier bit I tried, probably fell the most flat, but I was probably the least confident in it so it's hard to say. The one new joke I tried went over all right which made me feel good, but I also realized that right now its just a one liner so I need to work on the premise a bit more.
As far as the musicians went, the host Trini was the best. She did some Tom Petty covers and some originals, and she just had an impressively powerful voice. Between her voice and her guitar playing, she reminded me a lot of the lead singer from Heart.
Even if the crowd was sparse, it was still a fun, supportive vibe, and you could get beers for $2 all night long so it was still a fun night out.
Favorite Random Sightings: "Unique Hair Creations" (how is that better than hair cuts); Puffin Guns; A license plate that said, "IMSALTY"
Regional Observations: Delaware has rumble strips before toll booths to make you slow down, but they're absolutely terrifying when you don't expect your car to make those noises.
Albums Listened To: Electric Warrior by T.Rex; The Elements of Transition by Edna's Goldfish (Just Invincible); Elgin Avenue Breakdowns by the 101'ers (pre-Clash Joe Strummer); Elsie by the Horrible Crowes; Emily's D+Evolution by Esperanza Spalding
People's Favorite Jokes:
Quoting Mitch Hedberg: I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to too
George W . Bush was in the war room. Rumsfeld was briefing the room and he said, "Yesterday three Brazilian soldiers died." Bush all of sudden got really sad and put his head in his hands. Everyone was very impressed with his empathy. "Just tell me," Bush finally said. "Just how much is a brazillion?"
How do you find Will Smith in the snow? Just look for the Fresh Prints
Why is Ancient History so boring? The teachers just Babble On
Why is Peter Pan always flying? Because he Never Lands
Song of the Day:
