Mrs. Grinchley and The Other Side Cafe - Boston, MA

If you live in the Boston or Cape Cod area and you haven't heard of or seen a production by The Gold Dust Orphans, and you like raunchy, fun entertainment filled with drag queens, you need to check them out! I seriously can't think of better entertainment than watching drag parodies of classic movies, plays and books the way TGDO do it. Every time I see one of their shows I crack up the entire time. They are nowhere near politically correct, hysterical and extremely creative with some occasional nakedness. My sister was home from Cali for the holidays so my mom got her, my sis, my brother's gf and myself tickets to go see the most recent production, Mrs. Grinchley's Christmas Carol. It certainly held up to the reputation of their other shows! You can guess by the title what two holiday classics it combined... We had front row center seats on the last night of the performance for the season. I can't say enough good things about TGDO but it's time to move on to the food...

Me, Sis, Mrs. Grinchley(sitting on top of the bar (s)he is really not that tall), Mom, Gillian

Before we went to the show we stopped at The Other Side Cafe on Newbury St. The Other Side is dark, loud and filled with punks, hipsters, and vegans. Definitely my kind of place. They have a good beer and vegan food selection. I've heard from a lot of people that the service sucks, but the both times I went, once on a busy summer afternoon and again a few weeks ago I didn't have any problems or complaints. It's not the best service in the world but definitely no the worst... Honestly, I'd rather not have a server checking on us every few minutes, it interrupts conversation and eating. Give me some space damnit!

Since our group consisted of all vegetarians and a vegan, ordering appetizers was easy. We started out with the Hummus Plate which was loaded with fresh veggies and lavash to dip into the creamy awesomeness that was the hummus.

We also got the Nature Boy which is a sampler plate of the mock chicken salad, the filling for the spicy wraps, a dip and tons of raw beet and carrot chips. I love beets but I had never had, or thought to have, a raw one. They were sliced thin enough that you got the plenty of earthy beet flavor and crunchiness but not so thick that it was like biting into a raw root vegetable. The mock chicken salad is a combination of ground pecans, cashews and sunflower seeds mixed with cucumbers, celery and green apples. I usually hate anything that has celery, especially raw celery in it, but this shit was to die for. For reals. The filling for spicy wraps is just as good. Ground peanuts, carrot, cilantro and garlic all pureed up together makes an excellent little teaser. Last but definitely not least was the dip that comes with the raw chips. The dip is a blend of macadamia and cashews with garlic, lemon and Bragg's. They were all raw and pretty filling. I was starting to think I wasn't going to be able to eat my sandwich. Somehow I made room though =)

Next up were our sandwiches, although I am only going to write about mine because it's the only one I photographed and everyone else's weren't vegan, except mom but she got the same as me. I got the Buffalo Tempeh sandwich with Daiya sprinkled on it. I love anything buffalo and anything with Daiya so this was definitely the perfect sandwich for me. I don't really have much else to say about it except for that it was really filling, delicious and I am now craving one.

Even though we stuffed our faces with apps and sandwiches we couldn't leave without trying the vegan cheesecake. We ordered one slice for the four of us to split and passed it around the table taking turns with it. It definitely didn't remind of me of the non-vegan cheesecakes of my omni past but it was still really friggen good. It had a custardy texture and a mild but sweet flavor. The crust wasn't really like a typical cookie crust where it retains some of its crunchiness but the flavor was awesome, it tasted like oreos and chocolate cake.

After the food and the show we surprised my dad who as at a bar right up the street with my uncle and some of their childhood friends having a few drinks before going to see Zappa play Zappa at the House of Blues. All in all it was a fantastic day with my favorite ladies!