I've been in consulting for four-plus years now, and in that time, because of the type of Consulting I've done, I've been in a lot of random, random, rural places all around our great acountry (and one in Mexico - ironically maybe the most 'urban' location in this group). I grew to love these little towns, where your expense budget goes higher, where you have to take small EMB-145 jets (1-2 seating), and where the hotel staff learn your name within a coupel visits because 'who the hell vistis week after week?'.
Anyway, my enjoyment of some of these small towns was enough that I even dreamed of hosting a Travel Channel or NatGeo type show where I would go to random suburban towns across the country and explore. Sounds boring, I know, but sometimes life in the slower suburbs is just as fun. Anyway, without further adieu, my rankings of all the suburban client sites that I've been posted to. This does't include the few times I was based in a honest-to-goodness city.
**One omission is the good year I spent working on a client that was located in my hometown. Obviously, I am too close to the source to accurately judge it against the others**
7.) Meriden, Connecticut (May, 2017 - February, 2018)
Local Restaurants; J. Christian's, The Library, Ola!, Gianni's
Bars: Wood-n-Tap; Knucklehead's
Meriden is a nothing town. The neighboring town of Wallingford is at least a place that had a main street, a few nice restaurants, and a really nice, if a it dingy, beer bar. It is staggering how much my appreciation of each place I went to depeded on if it had a workable, usable, weekly bar I could go to on days that work got too busy. Meriden's place was called Knuckleheads, normally patronized with people that would normally look like, well, knuckleheads. It took about a month before they remembered me each Wednesday night, when the pain of three straight days started to get to me. Meriden is also probably hurt because I had to drive there, a painful three hours every Monday morning, where I definutely came close to falling asleep on the road multiple times.
6.) Horsham, Pennsylvania (February, 2018 - June, 2018)
Restaurants: The Farm + Fisherman, Nara Thai, Tony's Place, Ooka Sushi
Bars; Magerk's Pub, Miller's Ale HouseIron Abbey Gastropub
Horsham was the only other driving client I had, but unlike Meriden, which was three hours away, this was 45 minutes away, and was close enough that I somewhat felt like I was at home. Horsham was a blue-collar town, one that the local pizza bar was open during multiple blizzards in the winter of 2018, which allowed me to get some sustenance while hte rest of hte town was snowed under. my nightly bar became Magerk's, which is actually a Western Pennsylvania chain, but the one in Horsham had a really good seelction of rotating taps - some that used to switch in and out each week, and had a couple nice bartenders I got to know. For actual restaurants, my favorite palce actually closed down when I was there, a lunch place that served really good Mexican food. But in its place, was multiple asian restaurants and a few nice upscale gastropubs. Itwas close to home, but since I like home it wasn't that bad.
5.) Spring, Texas (September, 2018 - present)
Restaurants: TRIS, Fieldings Local, Del Frisco's, EAD Vietnamise, Roberto's Cocina
Bars: Hop Scholar Ale House, Bar Louie, Buffalo Wild Wings (sadly)
Unlike one unfair ranking to come, I'm not going to include Houston in this ranking. Given the disaster that is Houston traffic, downtown or the Galeria area is just too far away for me to go to enough. Anyway, Spring and The Woodlands, is a nice little posh suburb of Houston, that has a little slice of Houston, without the irascible traffic, namely great ehtnic food, great modern restaurants, and nice bar spots. The one downside which hurts it is that everything closes early. The only bar that was open after midnight was Buffalo Wild Wings (seriously). The restaurants are really nice though, if a tad expensive being a suburb - but I guess that's what posh gets you in one of the silently richest parts of the country. The one upside is their best local tap-house was really great. Hop Scholar Ale House was so good at rotating taps, and putting up a lot of stouts - a place after my heart.
4.) Battle Creek, Michigan (November, 2013 - May, 2014)
Restaurants: Acadia Brewing Company (now closed), Pastrami Joe's, Maru Sushi, La Cocina Mexicana
Bars: Griffin's Pub, Arcadia Brewing Company (now closed)
Battle Creek was the location of my first project as a consultant. It was a truly Michigan outpost, a place I learned how to deal with negative temperatures, as I was there in the middle of the polar vortex in the winter of 2013-14. My go-to place was Arcadia Brewing Company, which I know have learned has since closed - a development that really burns me. That place was great for its food in isolation, and when you add to it pure Michigan craft-beer, you get something special. Honestly, this news really depressed me. They truly had great food. Anyway, outside of Arcadia, they had a great sandwhich place for lunch, some nice ethnic food, a casino in driving distance, and the city of Kalamazoo, which had some nice food to match its great namem about 30 minutes away. It was the most remote place I went to, which by itself lent some mystery. ALso, they had those giant midwest-sized beers.
3.) San Ramon, California (September, 2017 - March, 2018)
Restaurants: Beer Baron Bar, Blue Agave, Walnut Creek Yacht Club, Sauced BBQ, Vanessa;s Bistro
Bars; Beer Baron Bar, Mr. Lucky's, OL Beercafe
San Ramon, located in the East Bay in the Valley, itself has nothing, other than rapidly becoming unaffordable housing. However, it was 15-20 minutes away from Pleasantville and Walnut Creek, two great suburban towns with great restaurants (everything from top-market Asian, to Barbecue, to gastropubs), great bars, a micro-brewery or two, and the cool air of the inner valley, a palce that rarely experienced anyhthing other than 70 degrees in winter. If you were to venture at all towards SF or Oakland, the traffic did become nightmarish, but therer was enough locally to ensure that it wasn't needed to go to the big city.
2.) Vaughan, Canada (November, 2016 - April, 2017)
Restaurants: The Keg, Bellwood's Brewery Gastropub, La Compagna (lunch), Rodney's Oyster House (Toronto).
Bars: Moose & Firkin, Bar Hop Brew Co (Toronto), C'est What (Toronto),
:there's massive cheating on this pick, as I'm basically putting into play all of Toronto. I was on this project at the time I knew I was changing jobs, so I kind of slacked off (still did well on the project), and used to drive into Toronto 2-4 times a week to have meals, despite the 1hr round trip. Still, I did go to a few places in Vaughan or other suburbs of Toronto, so I think it still counts. Ok, this is totally cheating. Anyway, Toronto, when you are on an expense account, and the USD/CAD conversion is in your favor, is a fucking fantastic city. I used to have a nice routie, with Monday's at Bar Hop where they had 50% off beers, and Thursady before my flight at Bellwood's, one of the best gastropubs in any client location. Vaughan itself wasn't awful, with a couple nice bars, including an outpost of the 'Firkin' bar chain throughout the six, and a nice strip mall or two with good ethnic lunch options. Vaughan itself would be way below this. Include Richmond Hill and Toronto, it was swell.
1.) Queretaro, Mexico (April, 2014 - July, 2014)
Restaurants: Pampas, La Casa Verde, Chucho el Roto, Tikua Sereste
Bars: Hotel Real de Minas Bar, Brewer Pub, Odric's Beer House
In a way, Queretaro is cheating, as it is a city, with a good city center (which doubles as a UNESCO World Heritage Site) right there. It houses a top university in Mexico, and has many US companies that have set up shop (including my client). But given it was in Mexico, and not in Mexico City, I feel like it deserves its spot. Queretaro was lovely, my first experience in Mexico outside of tourist traps. The city center was amazing. THe restaurants were all great, going from street tacos, to Mexican takes on Brazilian Stakehouses, to upmarket fare (that still generally landed within my expense budget). Queretaro also had a nice bull ring which I got to watch one concert (bull fighting is more or less dead un Mexico). Being the home to many US company's operations, it is largely middle class, which helps as well. It was just a great place to get lost in for three months.
Anyway, my enjoyment of some of these small towns was enough that I even dreamed of hosting a Travel Channel or NatGeo type show where I would go to random suburban towns across the country and explore. Sounds boring, I know, but sometimes life in the slower suburbs is just as fun. Anyway, without further adieu, my rankings of all the suburban client sites that I've been posted to. This does't include the few times I was based in a honest-to-goodness city.
**One omission is the good year I spent working on a client that was located in my hometown. Obviously, I am too close to the source to accurately judge it against the others**
7.) Meriden, Connecticut (May, 2017 - February, 2018)
Local Restaurants; J. Christian's, The Library, Ola!, Gianni's
Bars: Wood-n-Tap; Knucklehead's
Meriden is a nothing town. The neighboring town of Wallingford is at least a place that had a main street, a few nice restaurants, and a really nice, if a it dingy, beer bar. It is staggering how much my appreciation of each place I went to depeded on if it had a workable, usable, weekly bar I could go to on days that work got too busy. Meriden's place was called Knuckleheads, normally patronized with people that would normally look like, well, knuckleheads. It took about a month before they remembered me each Wednesday night, when the pain of three straight days started to get to me. Meriden is also probably hurt because I had to drive there, a painful three hours every Monday morning, where I definutely came close to falling asleep on the road multiple times.
6.) Horsham, Pennsylvania (February, 2018 - June, 2018)
Restaurants: The Farm + Fisherman, Nara Thai, Tony's Place, Ooka Sushi
Bars; Magerk's Pub, Miller's Ale HouseIron Abbey Gastropub
Horsham was the only other driving client I had, but unlike Meriden, which was three hours away, this was 45 minutes away, and was close enough that I somewhat felt like I was at home. Horsham was a blue-collar town, one that the local pizza bar was open during multiple blizzards in the winter of 2018, which allowed me to get some sustenance while hte rest of hte town was snowed under. my nightly bar became Magerk's, which is actually a Western Pennsylvania chain, but the one in Horsham had a really good seelction of rotating taps - some that used to switch in and out each week, and had a couple nice bartenders I got to know. For actual restaurants, my favorite palce actually closed down when I was there, a lunch place that served really good Mexican food. But in its place, was multiple asian restaurants and a few nice upscale gastropubs. Itwas close to home, but since I like home it wasn't that bad.
5.) Spring, Texas (September, 2018 - present)
Restaurants: TRIS, Fieldings Local, Del Frisco's, EAD Vietnamise, Roberto's Cocina
Bars: Hop Scholar Ale House, Bar Louie, Buffalo Wild Wings (sadly)
Unlike one unfair ranking to come, I'm not going to include Houston in this ranking. Given the disaster that is Houston traffic, downtown or the Galeria area is just too far away for me to go to enough. Anyway, Spring and The Woodlands, is a nice little posh suburb of Houston, that has a little slice of Houston, without the irascible traffic, namely great ehtnic food, great modern restaurants, and nice bar spots. The one downside which hurts it is that everything closes early. The only bar that was open after midnight was Buffalo Wild Wings (seriously). The restaurants are really nice though, if a tad expensive being a suburb - but I guess that's what posh gets you in one of the silently richest parts of the country. The one upside is their best local tap-house was really great. Hop Scholar Ale House was so good at rotating taps, and putting up a lot of stouts - a place after my heart.
4.) Battle Creek, Michigan (November, 2013 - May, 2014)
Restaurants: Acadia Brewing Company (now closed), Pastrami Joe's, Maru Sushi, La Cocina Mexicana
Bars: Griffin's Pub, Arcadia Brewing Company (now closed)
Battle Creek was the location of my first project as a consultant. It was a truly Michigan outpost, a place I learned how to deal with negative temperatures, as I was there in the middle of the polar vortex in the winter of 2013-14. My go-to place was Arcadia Brewing Company, which I know have learned has since closed - a development that really burns me. That place was great for its food in isolation, and when you add to it pure Michigan craft-beer, you get something special. Honestly, this news really depressed me. They truly had great food. Anyway, outside of Arcadia, they had a great sandwhich place for lunch, some nice ethnic food, a casino in driving distance, and the city of Kalamazoo, which had some nice food to match its great namem about 30 minutes away. It was the most remote place I went to, which by itself lent some mystery. ALso, they had those giant midwest-sized beers.
3.) San Ramon, California (September, 2017 - March, 2018)
Restaurants: Beer Baron Bar, Blue Agave, Walnut Creek Yacht Club, Sauced BBQ, Vanessa;s Bistro
Bars; Beer Baron Bar, Mr. Lucky's, OL Beercafe
San Ramon, located in the East Bay in the Valley, itself has nothing, other than rapidly becoming unaffordable housing. However, it was 15-20 minutes away from Pleasantville and Walnut Creek, two great suburban towns with great restaurants (everything from top-market Asian, to Barbecue, to gastropubs), great bars, a micro-brewery or two, and the cool air of the inner valley, a palce that rarely experienced anyhthing other than 70 degrees in winter. If you were to venture at all towards SF or Oakland, the traffic did become nightmarish, but therer was enough locally to ensure that it wasn't needed to go to the big city.
2.) Vaughan, Canada (November, 2016 - April, 2017)
Restaurants: The Keg, Bellwood's Brewery Gastropub, La Compagna (lunch), Rodney's Oyster House (Toronto).
Bars: Moose & Firkin, Bar Hop Brew Co (Toronto), C'est What (Toronto),
:there's massive cheating on this pick, as I'm basically putting into play all of Toronto. I was on this project at the time I knew I was changing jobs, so I kind of slacked off (still did well on the project), and used to drive into Toronto 2-4 times a week to have meals, despite the 1hr round trip. Still, I did go to a few places in Vaughan or other suburbs of Toronto, so I think it still counts. Ok, this is totally cheating. Anyway, Toronto, when you are on an expense account, and the USD/CAD conversion is in your favor, is a fucking fantastic city. I used to have a nice routie, with Monday's at Bar Hop where they had 50% off beers, and Thursady before my flight at Bellwood's, one of the best gastropubs in any client location. Vaughan itself wasn't awful, with a couple nice bars, including an outpost of the 'Firkin' bar chain throughout the six, and a nice strip mall or two with good ethnic lunch options. Vaughan itself would be way below this. Include Richmond Hill and Toronto, it was swell.
1.) Queretaro, Mexico (April, 2014 - July, 2014)
Restaurants: Pampas, La Casa Verde, Chucho el Roto, Tikua Sereste
Bars: Hotel Real de Minas Bar, Brewer Pub, Odric's Beer House
In a way, Queretaro is cheating, as it is a city, with a good city center (which doubles as a UNESCO World Heritage Site) right there. It houses a top university in Mexico, and has many US companies that have set up shop (including my client). But given it was in Mexico, and not in Mexico City, I feel like it deserves its spot. Queretaro was lovely, my first experience in Mexico outside of tourist traps. The city center was amazing. THe restaurants were all great, going from street tacos, to Mexican takes on Brazilian Stakehouses, to upmarket fare (that still generally landed within my expense budget). Queretaro also had a nice bull ring which I got to watch one concert (bull fighting is more or less dead un Mexico). Being the home to many US company's operations, it is largely middle class, which helps as well. It was just a great place to get lost in for three months.
