Patrick J. Sauer Online

Back in the Molly's-on-the-way-days of August 2010, we were invited to an informal meet-and-greet dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

I can say with 92.6% certainty that, soup-to-nuts (or perhaps better to say snout-to-tail because Sweet Jesus that ham...droooooool) it was the best meal of my life. I never knew raw carrots could taste like a thing you might order as an entree.

The gentlemen who invited us were the owners of Sweetgreen, a chain of healthy "fast-casual" eateries, primarily in the D.C. area thus far.  The three recent Georgetown grads explained how they wanted to put on a yearly "Sweetlife" festival to build a brand that incorporated their shared serious love of music.

At Blue Hill, they were still thinking relatively small. By May 2011, the Strokes, Lupe Fiasco, Girl Talk and Cold War Kids hit the stage as the Sweetlife reached a whole new level. They shared their experiences with me for the November issue of Inc. 

Rock out with your Cobb out. 

As a young man, I always thought it would be cool to review movies for a living. Mostly it stemmed from the idea of going to the movies on the clock and getting paid for it. It also stemmed for a lifelong unrequited love affair with Roger Ebert. That hasn't changed, Chicago's biggest thumb has an awesome website/Twitter feed/blog that is one of my primary time-wasters. (Chris Jones's Esquire profile of Ebert is a must-read.)

Anyhow, I never became a professional movie reviewer, which is probably for the best, since it's a gig that's going the way of well, all newspaper gigs.  I have however, become an amateur Ebert for the fantastic website the Good Men Project. (Is porn healthy? A feminist says yes. Discuss.) I'll be tackling lesser-known movies that take an honest look at what it means to be a modern man and father in the 21st-century. There won't be a lot of chatter about vampires, zombies, superheroes, or Prince Charming, but there's plenty of printer ink spilled on their behalf.

First up: Old Joy.  It's an indie about two dudes who drink beer, hike, sleep under the stars, take a hot bath and that's about it. I loved it. Boring 40-year-olds are in my wheelhouse. 

The balcony (aka my sofa) is closed.