It made me question my suitcase full of comfortable and stretchy clothing. I loved the Muslim womens’ sense of style, which was fashionable, sophisticated, and modest. And as for the Muslim neighborhood, I could not help but people watch as we drove through it. But in retrospect, of course there were white people everywhere, this is where they all come from, after all. I thought London would be more diverse like New York where every other person is a POC. This may seem silly, but I honestly wasn’t expecting so many white people. Notable sights seen: Buckingham Palace, St James Park, a surprising amount of bike riders everywhere sharing the same roads my cab barreled down, a Muslim neighborhood, and, well, I’ll just say it, A LOT of white people. My cabbie took us on a circuitous route through London. I opted to take the Heathrow Rail to Little Paddington Station where I grabbed a cab to my hotel. The flight was long, I mean really really long, but the upgraded amenities available through Comfort Plus were well worth the extra cost and legroom, and surprisingly, affordable. I took a non-stop red eye from Las Vegas to London’s Heathrow Airport on British Airways, opting for Comfort Plus, because why the hell not. And that’s how I made the impossible, possible. Spreading out the cost over 8 months made this trip doable. Over the next 8 months, I began booking my hotel rooms, museum passes, and train tickets. I bought my airline ticket through a discount travel website using Affirm to pay, which lets you pay for your trip over several months if you can’t pay it all upfront (not a paid advertisement). In the end, I decided to ignore my hesitations, and instead, I jumped! I was done waiting for the “right time,” and saying, “next year.” I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t the time or the year for a big trip having just purchased a new home, it’s not the responsible thing to do, I told myself. Around 8 months before, on a cold January day, I was notified by a google travel alert that tickets to London were cheap. Last year was the year I decided to finally do the thing. For the more die hard Anglophiles, we devour every guidebook and watch every Rick Steve’s special to plan out the entire trip to the minutiae details. Where to begin…Īs any self respecting Anglophile will tell you, a trip to London is that dream vacation we obsess over. And due to my tendency to procrastinate, and life, I’m just getting around to posting about my whirlwind, years in the making, check off the bucket list, trip of a lifetime to Europe. Vocal participants in Salem’s mutual aid network and racial justice efforts, Jones and Ryan use the restaurant as a hub to celebrate inclusivity and equality, all while serving some of the most distinctive plates in town.This trip took place prior to Covid. Washington’s Up From Slavery or Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give. Epilogue also operates what the restaurant calls a lending library of Black excellence: Along with your meal, for a $15 refundable deposit, you can borrow Booker T. Friday night fish fry and the ever-present brandy Old Fashioned on the cocktail menu toast their years in Wisconsin. Pimento cheese, served with bread and butter pickles and a legendarily flaky biscuit, speaks to the couple’s time in North Carolina. The menu at the small, emerald-hued dining room pulls inspiration from co-owners Jonathan Jones and Maura Ryan’s history: The crab cakes with Old Bay remoulade eschew Dungeness for the briny sweetness of blue crab, like the ones Jones grew up eating in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Read MoreĪ meal at Epilogue comes with a story both figuratively and sometimes literally. Please be aware of changing local rules, and check individual restaurant websites for any additional restrictions such as mask requirements. The latest CDC guidance for vaccinated diners during the COVID-19 outbreak is here dining out still carries serious risks for unvaccinated diners and workers. Haven’t been to Salem in a minute? Here’s where to eat when you go. And Salem overall - and specifically the thoroughfares of Portland Road and Lancaster Drive Northeast - is an absolute destination for Mexican cuisine. A robust food truck scene incubates new businesses. Breweries that once outsourced food service now offer menus of their own designed to accompany their beers. In recent years, however, that’s changed, in the city center and extending out into Salem’s farthest corners: Wander through downtown Salem and nearly every block is full of dining options. There was a time when Salem’s downtown dining scene was pretty stifled, catering almost entirely to the needs of state workers on hurried lunch breaks, a ghost town once dusk began to fall.
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