Sapori: B-

Food: 8/10 Presentation: 4/5 Decor: 4/5 Service: 1/5
Total: 17 of 25: B-

First, Sapori is an Italian restaurant. It is not Japanese! That confused us, including other Italians in the party.

I went to Sapori for a holiday party. It was a large party and we took up about a third of the restaurant. The owner gave us a sitting from 6 to 8:30. This all comes very important later on in the review.

First thing you notice is the beautiful brickwork throughout the restaurant. The owner laid it himself. It gives a very warm feeling to the restaurant. They also have very unique and distinctive lighting.

We were served a variety of appetizers. The anitpasto platter was fantastic with high quality ingredients and oil. I could have eaten that all night. Next was calamari. I'm not a fan but they were lightly battered and cooked perfectly. The dipping sauces were good but a bit light on flavor. Next were mussels. I found them to be great. They were a bit strong which had some put off. I gladly ate theirs. Next was gnocchi in a light duck meat sauce. It was absolutely great. Again, I could have eaten this for dinner. Finally, a salad. Now, these were essentially 5 courses served separately. Remember we have 2 and half hours for dinner. Also, the owner picked out the appetizer courses, not us. We just picked what entree we wanted. Everything else was taken care of for us.

The entrees were served. I had a veal cutlet which was very good. My wife had pork chops which were also very good. Most of the meals are very complicated. They come in a variety of sauces and additional ingredients. No clean and simple entrees. Luckily everyone really liked their meal.

Finally was coffee and dessert. We passed on dessert but everyone liked the squash cheesecake.

The entire meal took 3 and half hours. It's not that we ate slowly. It's that the service was very slow. We basically had a 7 course meal. There is no way to do a 7 course meal for 25 people in 2 and half hours. But that's what the owner did. Extremely bad time management. There was a line out the door of people waiting for their 8:30 reservation. Of course, they shot us the evil eye but it really was a management mistake. I saw no attempt by the staff to ease the crowd. But they did get anxious and finally at hour 3 try and "hurry us along". Terrible.

Finally, with any large party, usually they get priority treatment and the rest of the room suffers. Not this time. It was kind of opposite. We had horrible service at our end of the table. The servers would pour wine for half the table and then walk away. Others were finishing their dessert and we hadn't even gotten our coffee yet. And then just the poor pacing of the meal.

I honestly think that the owner just didn't know how to deal with such a large party. We had personally worked out the details with him a week in advance so there was no excuse for the poor pacing or overly complicated appetizer service. In fact we had 4 people not show up so the party was smaller than expected.

Would I eat there again with a dinner for two? Maybe not. The food was very good and reasonably priced for an upper-scale restaurant. You can get an excellent meal there for under $80 for two. It is BYOB which helps. But I'd probably drop another $20 and go to Catelli's.

New Pornographers - Challengers: A-

Music: 7 Vocals: 5 Lyrics: 4 Production: 4
Total: 20 of 25: A-

Sometimes you just want really well written pop music that isn't prechewed for you. Sometimes you want good male/female harmonies. Sometimes you want lyrics written for adults by adults. And sometimes you want subtle but infections melodies and hooks that will keep humming throughout the day. Enter The New Pornographers' album Challengers.

Upon first listen you won't get pulled in. It's a very simple album that is mildly interesting. After a few listens though, you won't be able to get the melodies out of your head. The songs are perfectly constructed using acoustic and electric guitar, bass, keyboards, piano, strings, horns, some kind of whistle, maybe a metal bar on a wood block?! All of these instruments weave in and out in the songs. Usually just the guitar and drums hold the songs together with very simple chord progressions and rhythms. It's all the layers and textures that make the music interesting.

By far the best aspect are the vocals. Songs are roughly split between the male and female singer but they trade back and forth with pitch perfect harmonies. They both write very singable choruses. They use very interesting and unique inflections and pacing. And both have a wide range of emotions in their voice. Particularly memorable is "Adventures in Solitude" where the vocals are very staccato until the swelling and sweeping break which just grabs you and carries you along for the ride. Awesome.

If you want good adult music that will keep you humming, get Challengers. But do yourself a favor, listen a few times before making your assessment. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Octopus Project - One Hundred Thousand Million: C

After loving their new album, Hello Avalanche, I was very eager to get their first album to see how they began. First the good. There some excellent jams, rhythms, and riffs throughout the album. It ranges from laid back to frenetic paces. Overall it's a lot of fun. The bad? The song writing. Although you can here the genius behind the musicians, at this point they hadn't figured out how to turn that into 4 minute songs. Many compositions here meander aimlessly or stay stuck on one riff too long. Another distraction is their deliberate attempt to be "lo-fi". Too much on purpose noise infiltrates the mix. At one point I thought my speaker was blown. Nope, just a "cool" sound effect. One song would be great if it weren't for the incessant cymbal hiss masking the great work beneath it.

I wanted to love this album. Instead it was an interesting and promising beginning for Octopus Project. But ultimately, get Hello Avalanche and enjoy their unique mix of music and pass on this one.