JD Vance said that “we have to go to war” against the idea that women can decide not to have children, suggesting that someone who focuses on building their career instead of making babies will be “a sad, lonely, pathetic person.” https://t.co/LxQtdWKhOQpic.twitter.com/CsYe0e1Qd4
If you know one thing about me…you know I absolutely love the sea and everything that comes from it. Over the last couple of years (we passed our two year mark here at Longer Tables and I didn’t say anything! Happy anniversary, friends!) I’ve told you about my love of oysters, and crabs, and octopus, and all kinds of fish, as well as the beauty of drinking seafoam, and watching the stars from the beach at night, and sailing across the ocean on a tall ship. So you know this is true!
And you know something else about me, which is that I love Vegas. It’s a city where anything can truly happen…there’s magic, there’s mystery, there’s great energy, and of course there’s some of the best dining in the world.
So friends—I’m thrilled to be able to share with you the news that my team and I, we are bringing two of my favorite things together: we are opening Bazaar Mar in Vegas! I don’t know if any of you were able to make it to Bazaar Mar in Miami when it was open in Brickell from 2016 to 2019, but I’m not lying when I tell you it was one of my favorite restaurants we ever opened (no offense to the others, of course! I love them all…). The design, these beautiful blue and white tiles everywhere, the art from my friend Sergio Mora, the feeling like you’re under the sea, were amazing. And the menu! We did some of our best R&D there, and served some incredible seafood to happy guests. I was so sad we had to close it five years ago.
But now, it’s as if it’s rising again from the ashes, crossing the country to become a beautiful oasis of seafood in the middle of the Nevada desert.
Friends—Bazaar Mar is back, and I couldn’t be happier.
If you’ve never been to a Bazaar, I’ll tell you this: it’s a place of discovery, of wonder, of surprise. You can visit a Bazaar multiple times and still find new things. Think of exploring a spice bazaar or a market in a new city: what do you think you’ll find? What will you taste, what will you smell, what will you see? There’s always something new around the corner!
Some of you know that I also have Bazaar Meat in Vegas, which celebrates everything carnivorous, from jamón to suckling pig to thick grilled chuletón steaks. Steak is great, but sometimes you need to go to the open ocean! I hope that Bazaar Mar is that place of wonder and surprise for everyone who’s excited to explore a bit deeper below the surface..
Chef Manny and Chef Daniela, with Chef Victor from Bazaar NY!
Enough talk, José, more food! Okay, okay, so what am I excited to eat there? Well, I know what I’m excited to have, but I also spoke with two of my chefs from the restaurant—Daniela Romero, the restaurant’s head chef, and Manny Echevarri, the head chef of all of the Bazaars. Like me, they both loved Bazaar Mar in Miami, and are so excited to be able to open the restaurant again in an amazing city like Vegas. Here are a few of our favorites!
Got friends in Vegas, or someone who always seems to be there?
River Trout Cone: Every Bazaar has a unique cone—which, if you’ve never been to any of my restaurants, is a little beautiful crunchy two-bite snack that can be savory or sweet. The one we’ve made for Bazaar Mar has a flower made of a very very special trout from Virginia, raised by the Walker family in a 1930s-era fishery (I’ll tell you more about Ty and Shannon Walker and their trout sometime!). It’s got a little preserved Meyer lemon and dill on it…an amazing way to start the meal.
Cobia Rosa Ceviche: Have you ever had the fish called Cobia? It’s an amazing mild, buttery, firm fish, absolutely perfect with leche de tigre (the very famous Peruvian lime dressing for ceviche). This was one of my absolute favorites from The Bazaar in Miami, and I’m so happy to be bringing it back (a bit updated from the earlier version, and still amazing). Oh, and the Cobia is coming from Panama, from Open Blue, a project promoting the sustainability of this delicious fish.
Salt-Baked Whole Fish, served tableside: It’s just what it sounds like…just as theatrical and amazing as you can imagine. You’ll be able to pick your fish of choice, whether it’s turbot, lubina, red snapper, sea bream, or whatever we have from the fishers that day, and you can tell us how to prepare it: fried, like they do it in Ibiza; grilled over wood; Donostiarra-style (which you know how to do at home!) or baked in salt. I don’t know if I have a favorite, but I do know that to have a salt-baked fish prepared for me by a great server is an amazing thing! By the way, we won’t have this available immediately at opening, but we’ll be introducing it soon after!
Maybe you can tell—the fish we are serving is from the very best places in the country and the world. We care so much about the ingredients we’re serving, so we’ve found the best. And of course, fish, like produce, is seasonal…so you won’t always find the same dishes on the menu.
Okay, enough of me telling you guys what I love about this restaurant. I’m getting so excited thinking about it, and I hope you are too! I know maybe not everyone goes to Vegas very often, but I think maybe it’s time to give it a visit, just to feast for a few days…? You don’t even need to gamble!
I have been barely functioning all day. I feel right now the best I have since I got up at 1 am. I keep going back to bed, can’t sleep like I can not sleep at night, so I get up. I am so tired, I just don’t want to be. I want to sleep. I went to Ron a few minutes ago, told him I had answered all the comments I had, replied to everything, but I had not been to anyone else’s blogs in a few days. Then I told him I just don’t want to do it. I am tired. I want to shut the blogging computer down and finish my Spiderman movie I started watching, maybe watch some Star Trek Piccard.
Ron came over and hugged me, and said he thought that was a great idea. He wanted me to do that. I tried again to justify it with I was so tired. He told me, Scottie you have not been sleeping, ten minutes here, 20 minutes there. The longest I have seen you sleep in days has been 45 minutes. You’re exhausted and you’re hurting yourself. The medications you take should put you to sleep but they are not. When you do sleep you moan, cry out, move defensively. You’re not resting. You need to lose yourself in a move and go to sleep.
I have my heart doctor appointment in the morning. I had to cancel an appointment for Wednesday as I was feeling far too sick to do to it. I need to make this one tomorrow. So I am sorry to all the grand blog creators, all the meme wanters but I can not do it, I am done blogging today. I may just now go to bed. Or watch a movie. I think bed. Loves. Hugs. Scottie
Donald Trump Gives Rambling Press Conference, Says Kamala Harris Can’t Do Same
The GOP presidential nominee has been stewing over Harris’ media coverage — and decided to counter with a grievance-filled presser on Thursday.
In the days leading up to the announcement of Kamala Harris’ VP pick, progressives argued that the sitting veep needed to choose a running mate who would excite the Democrats’ more liberal voters, rather than chasing centrists. Others insisted that picking a vice presidential candidate is merely a game of electoral math, and that Harris should choose an inoffensive candidate who can also help the ticket win a key swing state — the same logic behind the selection of former Virginia governor Tim Kaine as Hillary Clinton’s potential VP in 2016.
On Tuesday, all sides got their wish granted.
By now, you are likely already aware that Harris has chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who was once viewed as a longshot in the veepstakes behind buzzier picks like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. But many of those selections, while better known to the general public, would have brought with them specific liabilities.
Choosing Kelly, a former astronaut, would have permitted Republicans to call a special election to fill his Senate seat, thus imperiling the Democrats’ control of the Senate. While Shapiro could have helped Democrats secure Pennsylvania, his office has been rocked by several scandals in the past week, including the unearthing of an op-ed he penned in college in which he said Palestinians were “too battle-minded” for self-governance. As Attorney General in 2018, when his office was tasked with reviewing the controversial decision to rule the 2011 death of Philadelphia resident Ellen Greenberg a suicide rather than a homicide, Shapiro’s office declined to change the ruling. Beshear, hailing from a red state that Republicans won by 25 points in 2020, brings little electoral map benefit.
Walz, although previously unknown to most Americans, brings several advantages to the ticket. Polls have indicated throughout the year that Minnesota is a potential surprise swing state pickup for the GOP in November, despite having gone blue since 1972: Although President Joe Biden won the state by seven points in 2020, challenger Donald Trump had been within spitting distance in Minnesota polling throughout the year. An April survey showed Biden up just two points, and four in June, likely just outside the poll’s margin of error. While Biden is no longer the nominee, a major part of Harris’ task early in the race has been rebuilding her predecessor’s pallid polling, especially in the Midwest and the Sun Belt, which are considered key for victory in November.
But the selection of Walz is not merely a defensive move: He also brings with him a solid record on LGBTQ+ equality. Walz was one of the earliest governors to sign a bill making his state a sanctuary for gender-affirming care. Authored by state Rep. Leigh Finke (D), the legislation orders courts not to comply with out-of-state prosecutions against individuals who flee to Minnesota to access treatments like puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy, or surgery. Even before Finke’s bill passed the legislature, Walz issued an executive order in May 2023 to strengthen protections for trans health care in his state, saying in a statement that all Minnesotans should “grow up feeling safe, valued, protected, celebrated, and free to exist as their authentic versions of themselves.”
With neighboring states like Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota all restricting trans youth health care, Minnesota’s refuge law has made the state a hub for trans health care. Dozens of individuals and families have reportedly moved to Minnesota permanently to escape anti-LGBTQ+ policies in their previous states, and that number will likely increase as more state-level restrictions are enacted. To date, 26 states limit doctors from providing some or all gender-affirming treatments to minors, most recently New Hampshire.
But Walz is actually a longtime ally to the LGBTQ+ community on several key issues, dating back to even before his tenure as governor. As a U.S. House representative, he joined a coalition of veterans in 2012 to speak out in opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage equality exclusively as a union of one man and one woman. “At this point it’s become very clear that limiting the rights of a subsect of the population, whether they are veterans or not, is simply unconstitutional,” he said at the time. “I think we can do better.” His years as a member of the armed forces also motivated his opposition to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the now-defunct policy barring gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members from being open about their identities. “Always the issue for me was if you met the standards and did your job, your personal business was your personal business,” he remarked after DADT’s 2013 repeal.
Walz was ahead of the curve on several key LGBTQ+ rights issues, including the federal codification of the freedom to marry. He announced his support for the Respect for Marriage Act, which effectively declares marriage equality the law of the land, back in 2011 — more than a decade before Biden would have the opportunity to sign the contemporary iteration of that legislation. He was a key vote in favor of a law recognizing sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes under federal hate crime legalization and backed early versions of the Equality Act, an inclusive LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination bill that has yet to meet approval in the U.S. Senate despite passing the House twice.
Outside of his political career, Walz was the advisor of Mankato West High School’s first ever Gay-Straight Alliance. As a football coach and geography teacher at the greater Minneapolis district, having his support was actually instrumental in getting the club greenlit. “It really needed to be the football coach, who was the soldier and was straight and was married,” Walz told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in 2018.
As governor of Minnesota, Walz has signed legislation making the state a refuge for trans youth.
Many of the other veep contenders have also proven themselves allies to the LGBTQ+community, including Beshear, who last year vetoed one of the nation’s worst laws targeting trans youth. (Republicans enacted the omnibus legislation, however, over his veto.) In opposing the regulations, Beshear said that “all children are children of God.” “I heard from children that believe this bill is picking on them, and asking — in many ways — why?” he remarked at the time. “I told them that I was going to show them that there is at least one person in Frankfort that cares for all of our children in the commonwealth, no matter what.”
With 90 days left to go until the presidential election, Harris’ veep pick was an opportunity to indicate what her priorities would be in the White House and contrast herself with the extreme policies being pushed by her Republican opponents. If elected, Trump has vowed to gut federal protections for LGBTQ+ students and ban the federal government from supporting the “concept of sex and gender transition at any age.” His running mate, J.D. Vance, has authored legislation to jail doctors who treat trans youth. With Walz on the ticket, the difference is especially stark.
Scottie's Playtime 