Tonga - Gordon - Tony - Maid

Hey there friends of Mark Harvey's World! Hopefully you are all having an excellent weekend. The weather in the Bay Area is
amazing and my weekend started out GREAT! I met up with my buddy Tony Iuppa (bass player for The Screaming Paisleys and Rain Station) on Friday night. I hadn't realized it, but we had not seen each other for almost a decade, but hanging out with Tony was like old times I don't think I've laughed so hard in a long time. Tony cracks me up and he's a great friend.

We headed up to the Tonga Room located in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco (California at Mason on Nob Hill - check them out here). There are plans to deconstruct the Fairmont Tower and replace the 226 hotel rooms with 160 condos. The Tonga Room would be a casualty of this remodel and allowing it to close would be a HUGE mistake as the Tonga Room is a tiki bar tradition that San Francisco just CAN'T lose! Join the cause here.

Tony hadn't been to the Tonga Room and since he is a fan of Polynesian culture it was a must. We were both decked out in our finest tiki gear, got ourselves some Mai Tais and enjoyed the buffet of crage. More fried stuff than a person ought to handle, but heck, with drinks it is all good. We met up with Tony's friend Scott Gall which was excellent as he's brilliant. The three of us were laughing all night.

After some buffet and drinks we hopped into a cab to head over to the Gordon Biersch Brewery/Restaurant "located on the bustling Embarcadero along San Francisco's historic waterfront." Gordon Biersch has one of the most dramatic views of the Bay Bridge and on Friday nights in March they have Aloha Friday concerts. We were very fortunate to catch Raiatea Helm (check her out here). Gordon Biersch was packed so we ended up going upstairs and enjoyed hearing Raiatea and having a couple of beers. She was AMAZING and if you ever have the chance to catch her, you should. Just amazing. Yun Shin joined us (former roommate of Tony and I) a bit later and we enjoyed talking and hearing his stories about roadside attractions in Wisconsin and his movie "Love in the Age of Fishsticks" (here).

All in all it was a great time catching up, laughing, gettin' to hang out at the Tonga Room and starting the weekend out RIGHT!

Mark Harvey