Whaddup?, notes from the Target.

Digging out in knee-plus churn, 66th Street and Holiday's. 6/7/2018

   What's up with the surf? Another chopped, knee to thigh affair out of the nor'east. The waves were only passable but Watt had a decent night. With a stubborn perseverance, he fought to find a right, letting go of more than he caught. I'm sure the return of his full suit (thanks to the drop in water temps) didn't help. And speaking of, whaddup with these temps as of late? The onshore winds were steady...not a hard blow, but enough of a continuous breeze off the ocean that both LWatt and myself found the chill became increasingly difficult to fight off as the sun dropped behind us. However, back out in the lineup some of the primo rides of the evening were keeping Wattman warmed up, the best being a badass, short lefty that held up to be the longest and sweetest...considering the conditions. He'd finally decided to let go and go left. We are still early in the season. No doubt the best surfing Watt had done so far. The wind picked up, and as the tide moved out, so did the swell and Wattman was forced to call it a night. Good for us. We needed to get warm.  

   We headed to an OC staple from our past, Mother's Cantina. When you think dive bar this place certainly personifies the atmosphere of such. Mother's has grown over the years to include a take out and second dining room, however we headed to the original bar and collared three seats. Having lucked out, we arrived just in time for the Stanley Cup and beat the growing Caps crowd to see what all was hoping to be the finale and series winning game. Soon enough it was standing room only.

I caught the ad posters everywhere and gave the new Natty Boh shandy style a try. Watt went with a Pacifico. The best I can say is the can was cold and the price was cheap. And hey, who really needs a glass when an aluminum can is available? With the increasing crowd, service slowed to a crawl but it was not very fast to begin with. We placed our order for Sweet Hot Wings, Mother's Chicken Burrito, and LWatt put in for the Blackened Ahi Salad. The meal itself took forever to arrive. As we waited Wattman finally got the bartender's attention to wrangled us some free chips and salsa which was a good thing as they were the highlight of the meal.The small wings were crispy and had a smokey flavor, but more the overwhelming taste of a sweet hot sauce.

The burrito was large but bland, with more cheese than chicken. The black beans and rice on the side were the only upside of the plate. The Ahi in the salad was supposedly sushi grade but looked more like previously frozen than blackened, leaving LWatt a bit leery of what she was eating.

As to the game, though we watched an uneventful scoreless first period, the Caps suddenly turned on scoring early in the 2nd period as we called it a night. Were we disappointed? Well this is Mother's, so it's kind of what we expected. It is a right of passage for anyone who lives in the OC. Less the quality of the food and more the quantity, as well as the low drink prices in an intriguing environment. The Patrol, job done, moved on.

THE RATINGS-

Blackened Ahi Tuna Salad: C-

Sweet-Hot Wings: C

Mother's Chicken Burrito: C

Beer: C+

Atmosphere: B-

Value: B

Overall Score = 2.29

And wait, and wait, and wait...