signs – thosecoolkims

Roadtrippin’ thru Utah – Snapshots of Salt Lake City

After 4 days of glorious natural wonders, the Kims needed a little civilization. The novelty of nature trails had started to wane for poor little Ruby, and if Ed + I didn’t get some ethnic food into our bellies we were going to go insane. So we trekked up to northern Utah to see what the fuss about Salt Lake City was all about. The drive was long, but pretty – the white, snow-capped mountains with matching puffy white clouds along the way didn’t get old, but a stop at a McDonald’s indoor playground for an hour or so was still necessary to let Ruby climb, play and make a new friend. We ended up rolling into SLC in the late afternoon.

Anxious to get our bearings, we decided to walk to the City Library to explore. It was a win-win, Ed + I were floored by the architecture, and Ruby got to squeeze in some much-needed storytime.

We walked a bit more, grabbed some Vietnamese food for dinner, splurged on THE BEST frozen custard EVER, and ended the evening with a short drive to see a bit of the city by night.

More pics here.

We’ll see what SLC has in store for us tomorrow!

Birthday in Vegas!

For my birthday this year, we bucked our Palm Springs tradition and headed to Vegas. We found a groupon we just couldn’t refuse and decided to jump on it. We stayed downtown a few years ago, and loved the old-school vibe, so we were looking forward to going back. Admittedly, this post makes it sound like we did nothing but eat, but what can we say — there’s a lot happening with food in Vegas!

As we drove into town, we headed straight for eat., which is a new breakfast and lunch joint in downtown Las Vegas. It’s a low key place with a super cool vibe, and features fresh, seasonal comfort food. I had the most delicious asparagus + arugula salad, while Ed had an incredible shrimp and grits dish.

After lunch we got settled in to our room at the Golden Nugget, and cruised around Fremont Street awhile. Then we headed out towards The Strip to fulfill a longtime dream of mine: We saw an Elvis impersonator live in Las Vegas! We went to Trent Carlini’s “The King” at the Las Vegas Hotel. I wish I could say the show was better, but at least now I can say I’ve been. The King did oblige me with a pic after the show, but too bad we were in Vegas about a week too early – we could’ve seen CeeLo Green in Loberace, a Liberace tribute show. Dang!

After The King it was late night dinner time! We were headed to José Andrés’ place, China Poblano at The Cosmopolitan. WHOA. The Cosmopolitan is absolutely amazing. A super hip vibe, great design throughout and so much style in everything there! It feels young and expensive all at the same time. We were in awe. China Poblano was an amazing marriage of Mexican + Chinese food. At one point during the meal, I had a lobster taco and a steamed BBQ Pork bun on my plate at the same time. It was so good!

Also in the Cosmopolitan was an amazing Chandelier Bar (click this link for pics that do it much better justice than any of my dumb pics) and Holstein’s where the menu looked super fun — Korean BBQ Hot Dog and Boozy S’mores milkshake, anyone?

The next day, after enjoying a morning where we could actually sleep in, we decided to explore and find a few places in Vegas outside of the usual tourist stuff. We got a great recommendation for a good coffee shop downtown called The Beat Coffeehouse. The vibe is very Seattle – music, vinyl, strong coffee and low-brow art galleries. We dug it and enjoyed the coffee ’cause we’re not afraid to admit we’re too old for morning booze. We skipped the buffet to save room for lunch!

We played a few slots at The D’s “Vintage Vegas” slot room, where you can actually pull the lever on the slot machines and real money spits out (instead of vouchers)! After working up an appetite, we left Downtown and The Strip for Vegas’ Chinatown and enjoyed some super tasty ramen. They say there’s a ramen revolution happening in Vegas, and it’s legit! His + Hers ramen bowls at Monta Ramen:

Also on our food tour of Vegas, we had dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s BURGR on the Strip at Planet Hollywood. Gordon doesn’t mess around — Ed says his burger was one of the top 5 burgers he’s ever had. I can’t argue, mine was incredible as well. Bonus points for his ridiculous mug on the inside of each menu:

After being extremely full, we headed back to our downtown home base for some real fun. I never tire of all the old school glitz of the neon signage downtown. It’s gorgeous.

Things got epic when we spent some time late night at the El Cortez — seriously old school, somewhat seedy and SUPER cheap! Ed and I even played the Blackjack tables and won, thanks to a very friendly and patient Ukranian dealer named Elena and Ed’s former co-worker Jim, who happened to be in Vegas too and met up with us. We hung at the El Cortez until after 2am, and then ended up at The D for an AUTHENTIC American Coney, a real piece of Detroit in Las Vegas! (Don’t worry, we haven’t turned, we still love Lafayette more than American!)

Last stop before heading out was Beijing No. 9 – a stunningly beautiful noodle house in Caesar’s Palace. I’m a sucker for the white + red!

We had a great time, but we sure were ready to get home to our little Bean. It’s always fun to have time together, but we sure missed that little daughter of ours!

Shots around Detroit

Fun in the Fountains in front of the Ren Center
(p.s. Hey, that’s Canada on the other side!)

The Hotel Yorba is Real! (That White Stripes tribute in my black shirt/red pants is no accident)

A surprise to us, you CAN get good Mexican food in Michigan — you gotta go to Mexicantown. (Jack White’s old stomping grounds in Detroit)

Haunted by the decaying + abandoned Michigan Central Station. One of the saddest, most beautiful things we’ve ever seen. It’s so hard to capture via our pics …

At the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)

Hangin’ inside McNamara terminal at DTW

Battle of the Coney Dogs!

If you didn’t know, Michigan is home to a very specific style of hot dog: The Coney Dog. Everywhere we went in Southeast Michigan, we saw restaurants called “Coney Island“. I was completely confused by this – I had no idea what a Coney Dog was, and I had absolutely no idea why there was a Coney Island shop on practically every street corner in Michigan (because isn’t Coney Island in NY?!). Well, my cousin Rachel + her husband, Brian broke it down for us and decided to hook us up with an original Coney Dog face-off between the infamous American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island in downtown Detroit! You’re either a fan of one or the other – you can’t be a fan of both!

Needless to say, Ed + I were excited for the challenge. These two establishments are right next door to each other and have a serious rivalry going on. The original was Lafayette, which was opened up by two brothers in 1914. They had a dispute, one of the brothers left, and opened up shop with American in 1917, right next door. That’s some serious history. Brian grew up in a family that pledges allegiance to Lafayette, and we couldn’t wait to see which team we’d be favoring …

We started with American and each of us ordered one original Coney: that’s a hot dog with chili (no beans), mustard and onions.

(Top left: American’s Coney Dog, Bottom right: Lafayette’s Coney Dog)

The vibes inside couldn’t be more different.

Lafayette was pure old school – a counter, limited number of tables and chairs, no frills. American was bright, all red, white + blue and happy Americana all around.

I guess it’s no surprise we ended up favoring Lafayette. Aside from the old school vibe, something about that hot dog was just better. A little juicier when you bit into it, a little snappier with the bite. We thought the chili sauce tasted better at Lafayette, too.

All in all – we love a Coney Dog. We will look forward to another one at Lafayette when we return to Detroit!

Tennessee Super Kitschfest! Day 7, Memphis Morning to Nashville Night

Our last day in Tennessee was filled to the brim as we left Memphis to head back to Nashville. We logged 28 hrs., 14 mins. in the car and drove 1093 miles total across Tennessee – it was an amazing trip and we were sad to say goodbye to some of the most heartwarming places we’ve visited in America!

The highlights:

#1: Arcade Restaurant (Memphis)

The Arcade is the oldest diner in Memphis and a place that Elvis himself used to dine at quite frequently. It was the ultimate diner, in the “old” downtown, and we loved it! We managed to sneak into The King’s favorite booth too, for a little photo op.

#2: The Lorraine Motel, Room 306 (Memphis)

As we sat around the breakfast table, my mom reminded us that the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was somewhere nearby, and we should try to see it on our way out. Upon pulling out our phones and checking google maps, we realized it was just around the corner! It was a surreal experience to look at Room 306 with the wreath near the door in memorium of MLK, Jr. and think about that day so long ago.

#3: Ryman Auditorium, aka The O.G. Grand Ole Opry (Nashville)

We made it back to Nashville in time to get one last tour in. We saw a lot of major music stuff at the Ryman – including dressing rooms of Johnny + June, Patsy + Hank and so much more! We were glad we had the chance to see such a legendary performance venue knowing all of the tremendous history behind it!

#4: Robert’s Western World (Nashville)

The nightlife on Broadway in downtown Nashville GOES OFF, and although we aren’t the hugest country music fans, we were told that they do VINTAGE country right down at Robert’s Western World. We were lucky enough to have my parents offer to babysit so Ed + I could experience what a real honky tonk bar is like in Nashville on our last night in town. It was awesome! Brazilbilly is an amazing band that does all old school songs – with a latin/country twist, if you can even imagine! They blew our minds – they played everything from “Girl from Ipanema,” to the Batman theme, to old Hank Williams, and they had everybody out there dancing! Young rockabilly chicks were getting spun around on the dance floor by old white dudes with cowboy hats. We had the best time and wish Brazilbilly would come out and play at Alex’s Bar in the LBC … they’d be AMAZING!

And that concludes our tour! We love you, Tennessee!