Walt's - the classic

Can't have a fun friend list without Walt's on it. It's definitely NOT a foodie place, but one we love and return to nonetheless. In fact, it's where we kicked off Tim's birthday weekend.  Well, a few of us.  Sara and Heather joined Joe and Tim on Friday, January 25.  Had a few drinks, lots of laughs and of course, sang a few songs.  Well, Tim did. And, there was a duet with Dawn the bartender. Adorable, it's captured on video, just ask Tim to see it. The four of us did "sing" together, if Sara and Heather ducking from the microphones counts as singing.  Brought back many fond memories of our weekly visits and Tim's regular play list.  No grain alcohol-soaked cherries were consumed that night.

I'm sure this will not be the last visit in 2013 and next time we'll have a larger crew.  Start thinking of your favorite karaoke songs, I'm sure Tim will join you.

Behold the List!

The Fun Friend Fifty, 2013 style:

1 Krispy Kreme bread pudding

2 Food truck

3 Smith Island Cake

4 Exotic beer at a Beer Bar

5 picnic - Ft. McHenry

6 Deli

7 Exotic cocktail

8 Lexington Market

9 Vegetarian restaurant

10 Sushi at Pabu happy hour

11 Groupon crawl

12 Retaurant within first month of opening

13 somewhere/something in annapolis

14 circulator or water taxi to a bar

15 bocce @la scala                                Feb 1

16 mums or other dive bar

17 oysters (or oyster night/hh/festival)

18 a steakhouse

19 mr bills or other crab place

20 outside @waterfront kitchen

21 belvedere square

22 dim sum or pho

23 samos

24 pumpkin @helmand

25 a drink in dewey

26 volt

27 pitango gelato

28 dogwood woodberry kitchen

29 tio pepe sangria or coffee drink

30 salt

31 peters inn

32 farmers market

33 joe squared or iggys or Matthews

34 outdoor movie

35 sweet potato fries @annabel lee or redstar

36 tues night@Gertrudes

37 papermoon, blue moon, sip n bite, miss shirleys

38 attend 3 festivals (fed hill, honfest, flowermart, etc)

39 walts or any karaoke

40 charleston for HH or a meal or beverage

41 1/2 price wine night anywhere

42 A wine/sake/beer tasting

43 trinacria (or dispasquales)

44 breastfest/tyanna event

45 a winery or brewery tour

46 duckpin bowling/ski ball/pinball

47 Cat's Eye

48 O's game

49 a pub crawl (could be new years day)              January 1!!!

50 Brewers art (resurrection/garlic fries)

51 Grand marnier @Oem/shot in the dark

52 Restaurant week meal anywhere

A new year a new challenge - first item of 2013

We didn't waste any time checking off one of the Friend Fifty items.  Of course, knowing this crew, only a pub crawl (#49) would do.

January 1, 2013 - the fourth annual new years day pub crawl. I joined the group around 1:30 (they hadn't gotten very far, bar #2 or 3 for them). Met up at The Point, where Kate was having a riveting conversation with some drunk girls spilling their secrets to Kate the Sex Therapist. And, next to that was Shelley and some drunk girls, who friended her on Facebook and she made a dentist appointment for one of them. And, some drunk girls bought Cathy a shot of patron right as she walked in the door. With all of that, I was ready to go!  Mimosas all around and then off to John Stevens.

Place looked kind of tame, so we deemed it a "shot" bar. One espresso vodka later we were at Wharf Rat. Spent a fair amount of time there, a few of us needed food to make sure we could last the day. The new year's day tiara made its rounds. At this point we were at full strength with Julie, Cathy, Sara, Heather, Shelley, Carrie, Jeff, Dustin, Gautam (minus Kate - too much merriment the night before) and Kent and Kate (who actually started around 9am). Tried to go to Bar, but when we walked in, realized it was closed. Settled for Max's where we ran into another group of new years day revelers who some knew Sara and some knew Julie. It truly is Smalltimore!  After a long stop at Max's (where I had a beer buddy, split a beer w/Kate) off to Bertha's for a shot, to keep the day moving.  XL fireballs all around and on the move again. Kent, Kate and Gautam dropped off at this point.

Next up, Ledbetters where it was the girls and Dustin. And, he got an earful thanks to Shelley's colorful stories. Cheap beers and lots of laughter (and we were pretty much the only patrons). Derrick joined us to give Dustin a respite. We realized it was time for food and hopped over to Dudas. A few of us had the complimentary egg nog while we awaited food and drink. Heather and Sara split food (shocker!) and Cathy loved her burger.  Derrick's friend Jon joined us and the hilarity continued.

Hunger satisfied, or at least food in system so drinking could continue, it was  off to the Horse for one last beverage before calling it a day.  Really bad '80s singer (who was definitely NOT around in the '80s and another successful kick off to a fun year!  And of course, a perfect way to kick off the Fun Friend Fifty in fabulous style!

Its back...Foodie Challenge 2013 or the Fun Friend Fifty

After a much too long hiatus, the foodie friends are back with a new challenge for 2013.  This list of 52 (because 50 just wasn't enough, but 100 is still far too many) represents what we think are the best and most eclectic items Baltimore has to offer.  We invite you to join us on this journey of food, drink, friendship and of course, lots of fun.

We will be planning some events, but highly encourage all of you to do some of these on your own and blog about it as well.  We are still working on that functionality on this sight so stay tuned for more info.

Many of you already have one to cross off - #49 - pub crawl and New Year's Day definitely counts for those of you who joined us then.

Rules (there aren't many but we do need a few)

1 - Eat, drink and have a great time
2 - Let us know if you want to be notified of group outings and considered for prizes at the end
3 - Someone blogs about the said great time.  Include everyone's name who attended to get "credit" for the outing.
4 - Extra points where noted on the list and extremely fun comments on the blog
5 - Did we say have fun?

Happy eating and drinking!