ARRIVAL:
A friend and I got to the venue around 1:50pm. Parking was a breeze and right on the side of the venue but it wasn't free. For the 7 hours that I put on the parking app, I'd say the parking was very affordable. It was $10.83. There was no line by the time we finished with parking and walked to the event. By now it was about 2pm. Got inside and it was a little empty. I won't lie, it wasn't what I was expecting. I expected to see tables set with knives and forks, signature glasses and some type of decor that screamed BRUNCH but it didn't. However, there were tables set up in the middle for people to sit down and enjoy their food.
It was early, I know... but am I not to take advantage of the unlimited Mimosa's? We got white tickets that said "Mimosa" and this is what we were to use until the official Mimosa bands came. The bartender saw that it was 3 of us who had the tickets but she brought us 1 pitcher. She allowed all three of us to drink from the one pitcher which made no sense as we ran through that one pitcher quickly. It was later when one of my friends had to tell her that we EACH had unlimited drinks and he'd like for us each to have our own pitchers which only made sense rather than us having to call her every 15 minutes. I thought the Mimosa's were tasty, I had no complaints and by the time we were on pitcher number 2 our wristbands came. To now get a wristband, we had to surrender our Mimosa ticket. I can tell this was an unforseen hiccup but it was handled quickly enough so that once others came they would not have known. It's not always the hiccup but how it is handled that I pay attention to.
THE FOOD:
The food was served in portions. I was under the impresson that we would be eating everything as we walked through the door but there was a little more order to it. To start, there was pholourie, accra (fish cake), pone, a sauce for both the pholourie and accra, coconut bake, fried bake and saltfish buljol. I didn't see them advertise pone on the flyer but I was appreciative. I took a plate of only accra and the sauce for myself and my friend took pholourie and accra. I didn't care for the accra. Although it was flavorful, they were really hard. I want to believe that is was because of the size and maybe if they were bigger they would have been softer. My friend said that he didn't care for neither the pholourie nor the accra for the same reason as I. By now I'm panicked because after all, this is a brunch and this was the first thing we were tasting. Because of that, I didn't bother with any of the bake or buljol. I stuck to drinking. After becoming hungry (because before I was just going to eat for the hell of it/ greed), I got some fried rice, Chinese styled chicken, potato salad, Creole shrimp and some type of chicken. It looked like a barbeque but I wasn't sure, I had to taste it. EVERYTHING was ON POINT! The chicken that I didn't recognize turned out to actually be a sesame barbeque but it had a Chinese finish to it. I don't know what it was exactly because this was the only thing I saw that I wasn't expecting and it was a pleasant surprise. The Creole shrimp was cooked to perfection. Shrimp has to be cooked perfectly (like most seafood) and usually never is. This is something that's just accepted as most people don't know how to properly cook seafood but that shrimp, was very very well done. Kudos. The Chinese chicken didn't have the oyster sauce that I am accustomed to. It was a sauce that looked kind of redish. Because I'm a creature of habit, I put the sauce to the side. When I dipped the chicken into the sauce it didn't taste aweful but I rather oyster sauce BUT the chicken without sauce was actually a win so I was good. The picture quality was not of the best because Kona Lounge was dimly lit and flash would have ruined the entire thing.
As usual, once I'm entertained I don't really know who is playing. It's when I don't like musical selections or how songs are being mixed that I make it my business to know who's on the 1's and 2's. There were a handful of DJ's and they did their thing. ALL OF THEM! There was no pause inbetween, there was no unnecessary chatter on the mic, most genres were played, tunes from 'way back when' brought right up to today. Hearing songs that made my pores raise is a wonderful night for Kim. I was enjoying myself so much that I didn't realize just how many people ended up inside Kona Lounge. The turnout was amazing! Big up to all the DJ's..... there was DJ Exquisite, DJ J Rocca, DJ Mistic and DJ GlamaaFyah. Job VERY well done guys!
I mixed and mingled with so many different people at the SocaDemons Brunch. I met people I've never seen before and seeing faces that I haven't seen in a while was refreshing. The crowd was mature, not old and everyone was there to have a good time. There were no stush vibes and I lived for every minute of it. Hopefully there will be others and I won't have to wait around until Bubbles n Brunch.
(The Kisha and The Kischa)
(DJ Exquisite)
(Army Boyz Clem)
Great blog great read
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