Squid Eats: Pizza 44

via Pizza 44

Pizza 44 is a wood fired pizza joint in Burlington.  It's conveniently located for us as it's right by my wife's work so it's a great place for a quick bite and good beer if we're meeting downtown anyway.   The pizza's lovely: fresh ingredients in interesting combinations.  Sometimes circular, sometimes square, just to keep you on your toes.  On this latest visit, we had a local greens salad to start, then a Classic Margherita (circular) and an Angry Grandpa (square).  The latter included hot peppers, pepperoni and meat sauce.  Both were excellent.  A bit salty but nice.  Did I mention the outstanding beer list?  Definitely helps to wash it down.

We were in town for a concert, one of the Vermont Symphony's Jukebox series featuring its string quartet.  On the docket for the evening were several rock music arrangements and other rock-inspired pieces.  My favorites among the covers were Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" (arr. Vitamin String Quartet) and the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" (arr. John Reed).  Among the originals, I thoroughly enjoyed "Black Run," a solo piece composed by Norwegian cellist Svante Henryson.  Imagine virtuosic bluegrass cello and you'll just about have it.  "Black Run" is the first of three movements in a larger work entitled Colors in D.  Here is the composer himself performing the piece:



"Kashmir" - Vitamin String Quartet



"Paint It Black" - The Hampton String Quartet



The Jukebox series has been a fine supplement to our symphony subscription.  I love small ensembles, so much more intimate than a big orchestra.  The tickets are relatively cheap and the performances are at a hip restaurant/music venue, ArtsRiot, rather than a big concert hall.  Each concert is thoughtfully programmed with a wide variety of music, much of it fairly modern yet also accessible.  The audience is much younger than what we see at the symphony, too - great way to build the audience of the future.  I'd love it if they did more of these sorts of things.  Strings are great but how about brass or woodwind?  A wind quintet would be especially appealing for our clarinetist daughter.


Happy, Healthy Squid

As noted in this post, I'm working on amping up my breakfasts as a means of finding better food balance in my day.  For years, it's been cinnamon raisin toast and coffee - pretty light.  Recently I've added yogurt and granola bars.  I'm actually full after breakfast.  What a concept!  I'm still hungry by lunchtime.  It's a crazy busy morning every day at work.  Maybe I need to carve out time for a quick snack somewhere.

From my walks: