Globe Book Club!

Gotta be honest folks....I feel bad for giving Thursday a bad rap. Thursday can be cool, too. Sorry, Thursday.

For instance, the Globe Book Club takes place on the very first Thursday of every month. "What?!" you might exclaim, "The Globe has wondrous food, music, art, AND literary enrichment?!" It's true! The Globe hosts a book club once a month right upstairs in the Gallery. A group of about 10-15 intelligent folks like yourself meet and discuss a book, maybe enjoying a glass of wine and definitely enjoying one Globe appetizer on the house. It's a lovely, thoughtful way to spend a Thursday if you ask me.

This coming Thursday (August 7th) at 6pm, the Globe Book Club will convene to discuss All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. It's a New York bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross in occupied France as they attempt survival in the throes of World War II. Now, I haven't read it, but that sounds like

 War Horse - Horse x Atonement = Heart-Wrenching and Compelling

Or, in other words, complete awesomeness. Doerr has brought us books such as About Grace: a novel, Four Seasons in Rome: a memoir, and Memory Wall: a story collection, but this would appear to be his coup de grace.

 

Look at it. I'm compelled already. 

The Book Club will meet at 6pm to discuss Doerr's book, which will be the latest at a long list of awesome books they've read. Last month they read The Gold Finch, and on September 4th they'll meet again to discuss Tempting Fate by Jane Green. So get your reading glasses out! It's a welcoming, intelligent group of book-discussers who would love to have you, and so would we. 

The Book Club, though hosted by us, is organized by Lisa Challenger. If you have any questions about Book Club, she can be reached via email at lisac6221@gmail.com.

Art art art, vote vote vote

I know it's summertime, but I'm about to give you guys some homework. Don't worry though, it's pretty cool homework.

As we speak, lovely, lovely artwork is gracing the walls of The Balcony Art Gallery upstairs in the Globe. Not only is it lovely, it's art we've never seen before! It's work by talented local artists who are debuting their work for us for the first time. We sent out a message to all local artists to send us a few pieces of their work to display in the Gallery (on the condition that we'd never displayed it before), and the rest is up to you. Go vote for your favorite! The winner gets a month-long private show. This is how we discovered some of our new favorites, like Patti Backer and Evan Fitzgerald. Voting runs right up until the evening of August 3rd.

I'd like to point out what a great idea this was and how it represents the spirit of Berlin. Encouraging artists to do what they do is so important, and everybody wins. We get brand new art to admire and draw inspiration from, and aspiring artists get the exposure they were looking for. I see Berlin as a community of artists. We've got Jeff Auxer and his glass blowing studio, Patrick Henry who graces us with exhibitions more frequently than we deserve, Patti Backer and her whimsical paintings, Peggy Hagy (who totally does awesome and hilarious colored-pencil work) and even the saints at Baked with those freaking cannolis - I am grateful and terribly upset that I didn't try one until a month before I moved across the bridge, if I'd gotten on that train any sooner I'd weigh 800lbs. Artists see the world in new and beautiful ways and we're lucky to have so

many of them in Berlin to brighten things up for us.

If YOU are an artist, first of all thank you for being so cool and being brave enough to put your talent on display, but get yourself on our email list! You'll hear about our next Call to Local Artists and maybe it'll be your work in the Gallery. I'd like that. Wouldn't you like that?

Sundays, Globe Style

Alright, so I was thinking about what my favorite day of the week is. On paper, it's Thursday.

Look at it. It just looks nice. 

But then I realized, that's not actually true. By and large, Thursdays have not held too many exciting things. The TV shows I liked aired on Monday and Tuesday. Thursday is not included in the weekend,  it's not early enough to be part of the productive week, either. Thursday didn't hold up. It's not Thursday's fault, I guess I should never have put it on that pedestal. 

So I had to challenge my own beliefs, which is hard, and decide what my favorite day of the week actually is. And hands down, it's Sunday. 

Sunday is when football happens, which is great. Sunday is also when people make great food, at least in my experience. People gather on Sundays, to eat that great food they made and to gather confidence from each other about the coming week. People sleep in on Sunday mornings. You're recovering from Saturday, you're recharging for the week. Sundays are the best.

So, what do you do with your newly-crowned-best-day-of-the-week Sunday? At some point you sit down for that Sunday meal, right? OH MY GOD GO DO THAT AT THE GLOBE. I'm telling you, human to human, it's a great idea. 

You want classic breakfast food? French toast. Eggs benedict. Want some special breakfast? There's gonna be some crazy specialty french toast and there's always the seafood omelet, also known as The Destroyer of Previously Held Notions of What Breakfast Could Be. Let's be honest, are you hungover? Mitch's Mess. Mitch's mess all the way. Throw a $2 Bloody Mary in there. There's gonna be great music from 10am-1pm. Sit down, listen to Hilari do her English accent (why? I don't know but it's magical), and bask in Sunday. 

But Becky, you say, Brunch ends at 3pm and I begin at 4pm. You know what else begins at 4pm? Pint & Pizza Night. $10 pizza, easily enough for three or four people (or one ambitious person, it's your Sunday), and $4 drafts. Good drafts, too; Flying Dog, Dogfish Head, Fin City. Put off Monday a little longer, have some good brews, it's a great time. Football is right around the corner, too - The Giants and The Bills play on August 3rd. 

Yes, this is a flagrant plug for the Globe, but it's also how I feel. I listened to my heart, and it said, "Becky, you're lying to yourself about Thursday. You love Sunday, and you love Brunch. Also pizza." 

Ode to Globe, Where I Grew Up

Alright dear reader, full disclosure. The post you are about to read about The Globe is being written by someone who technically no longer works there.

It's true. After 2 years at The Globe, I moved to Baltimore yesterday. (Insert lots of emotions.) But I thought anyone who's reading this knows how I feel about eating at The Globe (swoon), or going to see the artwork, or listening to some music on a weekend night, but what about working there? So hey I'll tell ya. I would say I'm qualified.

It's not easy. Working at The Globe is not for those who want to get comfortable, or turn their brain off for a shift. It is not a place where you can throw your hands up and say, "Whatever, good enough." Everybody working at The Globe is working hard. For instance, the reservation book is airtight. The front desk staff has been trained to get the most detailed reservations they possibly can. They strive to pinpoint exactly what table would best suit the needs of the guest on the phone (stairs/no stairs, high chair/booster seat, upstairs or downstairs, etc.), and then they make sure that even if the restaurant is packed to the gills with people that table will be available at the correct time. The waitstaff can describe anything on the menu (which is huge) and anything on the specials sheet (which changes daily). They have been drilled on which items are gluten-free, the spiceyness factor of each dish, how each cheese on the cheese plate tastes and what country it is from, you name it. That's not to mention the drink menu - the servers can tell you which beers on tap are hoppy, citrusy, nutty, heavy, light, summery, etc. and probably a little bit about the brewery each beer is from. And the beers on tap change almost weekly. The bartenders have an encyclopedic knowledge of every drink ever - how an Old Fashioned is traditionally made, what fruit garnish each drink usually takes, the body of each glass of wine. I asked Hilari how the new Pinot Noir tastes (as a plebe, I was looking for descriptors like "dark red," "dry," or "really winey," and I got a run down on where Bridlewood Pinot Noir is made, a little bit about the grape itself, and what food it best pairs with.

You get the idea. A lot of knowledge and hard labor goes on in that building. But here's the thing:  you'd think we all stay on our toes to avoid getting in trouble - that's how it goes with jobs, right? You do your job right so you get a pat on the back from your boss and your weekly paycheck. But at The Globe, people work hard to know their stuff so that they can do their jobs well and best accomodate the guest. It's true! They care! Not to say they're the only restaurant that does - Berlin is blessed with an array of awesome places to eat - but I was blown away almost daily by the lengths our staff would go to to accommodate folks that joined us for a meal.

So, I'll miss it. I would not be amiss to say that The Globe is one of the places where I grew up. If you work somewhere that continually encourages betterment you can't help but improve a little as a person. Thanks, Globe staff and Globe guests. You all reading better go get a margarita and a seafood burrito so I can live vicariously through you.