No, seriously, don’t try and change anything or they will kill you. OK, fine they won’t kill you, but they will tell you that you aren’t allowed to change a DAMN THING about your order.
I took a stroll over to Umami Burger in South Beach recently and chose the Veggie burger, known as the Miami Earth Burger. This delectable choice comes complete with avocado, red pepper flakes, butter lettuce, tomato and Goat Cheese. I am NOT a huge fan of goat cheese. The strong taste seems to overpower and really I need to be in a “goat cheese” mood to enjoy it in my food. This time, I didn’t have much of a choice.
I was pretty surprised to learn that I am not able to change the cheese that comes with the burger I’m paying for. The waitress was very nice (as was most of the staff) so I simply said “OK” and asked for no cheese. She then told me she’d bring me a side of Cheddar. So I’ll put together my own sandwich, no big deal.
When the manager brought out our sweet potato fries, which was very kind, I asked him about the side of cheese that never came out. He then explained that Umami Burger makes their own buns, burgers, cheese, etc, and that everything is put together in a very “Special” way, so altering something like the cheese would throw EVERYTHING OFF make the whole thing taste bad. He then proceeded to explain what goat cheese tastes like. “Sir, I know what Goat cheese tastes like and that’s why I don’t want it, thanks. Can I just have a side of cheddar, separately?” I asked nicely. Then with a very smug, “Manager from Office Space” type of smile-face he just said “No, you can’t.” and walked away. I was so shocked all I could do was laugh.
The Miami Earth burger was tasty, I will say that. Now, since I know food,what tastes good together, etc, I KNOW that some cheddar cheese would have been so good with it. The veggie burger was made with black beans. The bun was a little sweet and crispy. There was avocado involved. I mean, in what scenario does cheddar cheese not fit in with these things?! Honestly, someone please tell me when. I’ll wait.
And it’s like what, only the Umami Lords know what tastes good? For the record I got the goat cheese on the side, and alone it wasn’t too bad, but on the burger it was actually not good. NOT GOOD. Just the sheer fact that they seem so smug and self-assured that no one is allowed to disagree with their cheese selection is infuriating. Oh and my burger had ONE teeny smushed tomato; I was scared to ask for a normal amount of tomatos since they might have kicked me out at that point. Also, I tasted no Red Pepper flakes, which were listed on the menu. Just Saying.
My friend Lynn got the Classic Umami burger and it looked pretty great. I don’t eat meat so I’ll take her word for it- but the caramelized onions and parmesan cheese crisp seemed to really set it off. Maybe they need to try a few variations of their coveted Veggie option and then decide which one they will force on the non meat eaters. Of course I wasn’t at all forced to eat there, but I wanted to. After hearing such rave reviews from my friends and peers, I actually suggested the restaurant to my friend. I wanted to believe. But I guess I’ll leave that to the carnivores.
Umami Burger
1080 Alton Rd, Miami Beach, FL 33139
(305) 672-4334
On a very sunny and hot Saturday in Miami, I along with over 40 fitness enthusiasts joined celebrity trainer and extra dope chick, Jackie Warner on an hour-long cardio intensive workout on South Beach, did I say it was extremely scorching hot?
In partner ship with all-natural and all-perfectly pure Evian water, Jackie proceeded to beat our behinds and motivate us to the near point of exhaustion and luckily Evian was there on hand to keep us all hydrated. The workout took place at the beautiful Raleigh hotel located on South Beach as part of her three-city tour (New York, Los Angeles, Miami) to promote healthy and hydrated living with Evian. Located literally poolside, it was so refreshing and inspirational to see all kinds of people come together to workout. Any kind of exercise can be a big hurdle for some (including me!). It’s hard to stay motivated and even harder to be consistent when it comes to physical exercise, but Jackie’s encouraging words during the session made me think differently about fitness and how important it really is for all of us.
We did crunches, lunges, jumps, and tension band exercises ; proving that you can really get an intense workout without the help of a machine. When I say intense, I mean INTENSE but in a good way! Whenever I felt like giving up, Jackie would always know what to say to get me right back in the game; “I’m not doing something to you, I’m doing something for you.” Another thing I noticed was that there were several body types in attendance. From athletic and fit to novices among ordinary people who just honesty wanted to get fit. It really was about all different types of people striving to become fit together under Jackie’s wing with an urge to get our blood pumping for ourselves!
And pumping it did. No lie, I was sore for at least 2 days after this work out. If I didn’t have Evian at hand I probably would have passed out because the Florida sun was not playing that day! The Evian team was extremely helpful and cheerful. We also got these cute Evian goody bags filled with tension bands, headbands, cute body baby printed tees (Get it, Live YOUNG?), and healthy snacks. After the cardio session, Jackie had a short Q&A session with our group where she told us great healthy snacks and even shared that it its alright to have cheat meals as long as you stay on track with your daily fitness. Then, the group was treated to a healthy and delicious breakfast buffet which featured oatmeal, fruits, nuts, and other goodies.
It was honestly a very accomlplsihing day and a motivating experience. I want to thank everyone at Evian including Jodie and Anais plus the others who helped organize the event. Thanks again Jackie! You rule! Sigh, Amazing day.
Check out photos from the from the event below with a few personal ones mixed in there. Make sure to stay in tune with Evian and Jackie Warner below!
Twitter: @evianwater @jackiewarner10
Erika, Me and Autumn
This past weekend, June 2nd and 3rd was the 5th annual Roots Picnic in Philly and I, Aja was lucky enough to head up North for the event. I got to hang out with my sister Autumn which like, never happens, so that was a great change. I would like to just say thanks to everyone who made this possible- Especially Mark and Gianni for giving me, Autumn and my friend Erika a free place to stay.
There were standout performances: Rakim performed ALL of Paid in Full. The Roots of course played Saturday night along with De Le Soul and Wale and also Sunday night with Rakim. When word that Kid Cudi wasn’t coming for the headline show they brought out Freeway. That was cool, but my favorite part of the performances were dring the daylight. I snapped a couple pictures of my favorite performances- favorites like Major Lazer, Diplo, Danny Brown , Starslinger and Mr. MF’n eXquire of course were dope. Bands I wasn’t familiar with such as Quadron, Shabazz Palaces and Tune-Yards blew me away. Gianni Lee and Dj Diamond Kuts were dope DJ’s throughout the weekend.
There were so many cool, stylish people around and honestly one of the best parts of my trip was just getting to know more people. Everyone was so damn nice! Philly really is a dope city- I got to see a little bit of it during the day- only bad thing is how early everything ends! Im in Miami people! I’m used to stuff starting at 1 am, but other than that I had a dope ass time. Can’t wait for the Mad Decent Block Party !
Check out the slideshow for the flicks of the weekend !
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- Diplo crowd surfing
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- Tune-Yards
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- Vitamin Water photo booth foolishness
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- Before all the madness
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- Diplo and a stage of girls, as always
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- Mr. Mutha Fuckin eXquire and I, grillin’ em
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- Shabaz Palaces
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- Autumn and Erika
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- Walshy Fire (Major Lazer)
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- Danny Brown
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- The Lineup
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- Flosstradamus
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- DJ Diamond Kuts
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- Diplo and I
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- My sister Autumn, Mark of Babylon Cartel and I
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- Major Lazer
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- Chill Moody
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- Quadron
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- Star Singer
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- Sisters
Check out more of my photos here!
I, Aja, am happy to report that I attended the maiden voyage of Holy Ship!, the craziest 3 day dance party ever. I am so thankful to those who made it happen and I couldn’t be more satisfied with the outcome. I am also happy to report that I went on the trip as a true fan, not as a work assignment. I left my real camera at home (for fear it would get damaged, lost etc) and rocked with some disposable Kodak joints (and a waterproof one!) I got to dance to my heart’s content, met people from all over the globe and really just had a great, relaxing time. No one’s phones had service and aside from making plans a little bit more difficult, it was dope to have freedom from my celly.
Here’s the pool deck right before we left:
The first night started with a kick off party featuring Diplo (in no shoes at some point. Boys Noize was supposed to go on but since he had to miss the trip, Skrillex fileld in followed by Rusko, Laidback Luke and Gessafelstein. That was all just on the pool deck. We watched Buraka Som Sistema kill it on the theatre. We literally ran around the length of the ship getting lost and going from party to party.
Pool deck every night:
The second day started super early as we were rocked awake not by music but by the boat itself! We hit a sandbar and got stuck there for hours. Boats came and picked us up so we could go enjoy the Bahamas for a little while. After breakfast we went inland where we were greeted by random dancers, free gin and coconut milk and also Elmo was there… The beach was so beautiful except were got surrounded by bees and my allergy-fueled fear got the best of me. We left the beach and hit up Atrak‘s DJ lessons. He is so talented and such a nerd about DJ’ing it was truly an honor to get to learn from him. Also, dad jokes aside, he’s pretty funny. Check out the video of Atrak, Laidback Luke and Craze giving us all a dope lil lesson:
Shouts to Mrbusterguy for the video!
Atra’s set on the pool deck was SO GOOD, he did his famed “Robot Rock” set and played the shit I really wanted to hear. I kept being like “I love this song!” so much I had to stop myself from being annoying.
We got to watch the awesome Fool’s Gold artist Danny Brown perform and then directly after that we got a nice little peep show from miss Dita Von Teese! Who could ask for more right? Also we met Andrew who runs FLiBY clothing. He and his boys were fresh in their FLiBY gear and gave us some dope pins to wear (came in handy when I needed a safety pin let me tell you..) We then ran around to random parties, running into people along the way and stopping briefly at the Casino where our friendd Phil won a cool $49 big ones. At one point we met Victoria from Videofashion!, big up to her because she’s dope!
Spin Mag caught us dancing to Danny Brown
The final day of the trip started super early as well. We headed to the private island and partied on a beach full of only us cruisers and staff. Fatboy Slim, Diplo, Dave Nada and Dillon Francis provided the background to people wylin’ out, drinking, and dancing in the shallow water. I FINALLY got my #boatswag tattoo that I had seen so many people with. we got to dance with Blaya from Buraka Som Sistema and I ran into the crazy Aussies we met on our first night. The whole thing was just unreal. The water on both island was so crystal clear and the perfect temperature. words can’t describe how unreal the whole thing was- and the DJ’s were spinning inside of a giant fake ship wreck with a bar in the bottom floor.
Beach party
Here’s a video of the party via busketusonasty:
The Fool’s Gold Rap party was the icing on the cake. Like, that perfect cream cheese icing. I like the music that was played throughout the weekend, especially that of Atrak, Buraka Som Sistema, Danny Brown and Diplo, but to be able to throw on my gold grill, jump up and down and get a little “ratchet” as my friend says while jamming to Rick Ross and Tupac was amazing and refreshing. The music was ON POINT. My homie from Cali was there throwing up the “LA” sign so my friend and I of course had to throw up the “305″ and the “E” for east coast. All in the name of fun. Aside from Atrak, Miami’s DJ Craze was there throwing up the 305 along with us, rocking a Slow Roast Records shirt! I even met a cool dude from Canada who told me he was waiting for this party the whole trip while blasting rap music in his cabin. That was the one party I actually danced my ass off and got sweaty at. Everyone was gross and just loving it.
It’s funny living in Miami I finally got my tan… in the Bahamas.
BEST VACATION EVER. #BOATSWAG. Holy Ship!
More Photos here!
Oh, by the way, here’s a news clip of our little ship being stuck on the sandbar!
2DB x Jonathan Manion
This year’s Art Basel week (Dec. 1-5) was highly anticipated- we knew it was going to be a fun whirlwind of art events, parties, friends back in town, and meeting lots of new ones. Celebrities and art collectors flocked to the City of Vice to see and be seen, and us 2 dope bitches were right in the center of it, sort of.
We attended some events, shmoozed and took lots of pictures!
Check out some flicks from our adventures below and be sure to check out our Facebook page for all of the pics of the craziness that went down! We had a great Art Basel filled with networking, promoting, and spreading the love that is represented by 2DOPEBITCHES! We hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did and we are so thankful for the love and support by all of our readers! Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 29 , 2011 -
During the opening reception fo Design Miami this year, we got to meet the Miami stars of the reality show Project Accessory while sipping on free Perrier Jouet champagne. Not to mention I got to slide into the Fendi Collector’s lounge where I could see my very own handy work (I helped sew some pieces for an exhibit.) After that we headed over to the M building for their reception (more free drinks of course) where I got to witness the great Takashi Murakami sculpture created by Pharrell Williams and Jacob the jeweler.
Wednesday, November 30 , 2011 -
We headed over to the Delano hotel in South Beach to see the band Salem perform by the pool. Their mellow, dark twisted synth laden songs were accompanied by two writhing, almost naked dancers in the wding pool. Afterward we enjoyed the fancy open bar and I even found out one of those dancers is from a town in Connecticut that I beat at track in high school! after that we hit up a Le Baron party before quickly stopping at LIV nightclub to see Santigold perform.
Thursday, December 1 ,2011 -
We hung out at the AE Gallery (free drinks galore, but I drank Perrier to keep balanced in my 6 inch heels!) where Reebok along with DJ Clark Kent were presenting CLASSIC – photographs by Jonathan Mannion. The gallery was filled with photos of famous figures, primiary from the Hip-Hop world in which Jonathan himself has built a relationship with over the years. We got a chance to meet this talented man and he is a certified 2DOPEBITCHES supporter! Later A$AP Rocky performed for a crowd of socialites, designers, and more and we even gotta chance to speak fashion with A$AP himself. Iggy Azeala, Jasmine Solano, Dee and Ricky, as well as Gabrielle Union were all in attendance for this very fun-filled opening reception. We seemed to have seen everyone at this event and hung out with a few great friends! The night ended with a stop by FRIENDSWITHYOU where Pharrell was spotted and his liquor Qream was being served to the public. Gabrielle Union also joined the small reception as Friday night came to a close
Friday, December 2 ,2011 -
The AE Gallery was the hot spot once again as this night Rick Ross joined Johnathan Mannion for a Q&A session and after Fabolous stoped by to sign one of his photographs. DJ Clark Kent and Mi Gente Clothing also stopped by to show love to the artist and stunt on the crowd. We also got the chance to stop by Fendi Casa where the UNKNWN Miami crew were throwing a reception along with Beats by Dre. Beautifuful people were everywhere!
2DB x Fabolous
Boys of UNKNWN
PEEP ALL OF OUR FLICKS FROM THE AE GALLERY!
Ashley Outrageous Hosts Peachfuzz every Friday!
PEEP ALL THE PICTURES FROM PEACHFUZZ’S ART BASEL EDITION!
Saturday, December 3, 2011 -
Then we met and hung out with Taz Arnold and crew at Basel Castle on Saturday and saw our friends Cris Cab and Yelawolf perform along with Prison Penguins and Ninjasonik. Not to mention that Pharrell was there to kick the performance of his artist Cris Cab. Other appearances included Jasmine Solano, Theopolis London, and Dee and Ricky yet again! That was a great night to say the least! DJ Craze was on the 1′s and 2′s during Yelawolfs set and, super randomly, Norma and our “Pretty & Nice” friend Meli made sandwiches while Yela performed.
Yelawolf
CHECK OUT OUR FULL COVERAGE OF BASEL CASTLE 2011!
Sunday, December 4, 2011 -
Sunday was pretty chill and also my boyfriend’s birthday, so I took a day to relax with him and wind down from all the craziness of the past few days. We hit up the Native Shoes party at The Standard before hitting the spa. Then we went to Chocolate Sundays at Purdy and started all over again.
Native party
DJ Jasmine Solano at Chocolate Sundays
Despot, Heems and Kool A.D.
Hey guys, Aja here, and I don’t know about you but I have this weird fear that I’m going to meet someone who I LOVE like Nas or Kanye West and they will be horribly rude and/or cocky which will cause a conflict every time I hear their music like “Damn, I want to jam to this, but he’s hella mean”. Anyways, I got a chance to meet and chit chat with the fellas of Das Racist and they are super cool, down to earth, hilarious guys. Heems was pretty innebriated, so I mostly just spoke with Kool A.D. and was cracking up during the whole conversation.
Das Racist, along with Danny Brown and Despot, stopped in Miami’s own Grand Central (by the way, one of the best musical venues I’ve been to) for the Relax album release tour. Read more about how this came about here!
Me and Kool A.D.
Me and Heems
The show was off the hook, Heems even took his boots off and walked around in socks, strumming his mic like a guitar when he wasn’t rapping. I love how at random points in the night they would finish a song and then say something like “I’m sorry you guys are probably bored right now….sorry” making for a brief awkward moment followed by laughter and the start of another song everyone loved. There was Crowd Surfing. At one point, the guys sang Usher‘s “You Make Me Wanna” a Capella. The crowd joined in, of course.
Despot, Danny Brown and Kool A.D.
I arrived at Grand Central late enough to have missed both Depsot and Danny Brown’s sets, which sucks, but I at least got to see the whole gang perform “The Last Huzzah” remix, excluding Mr. Muthafuckin eXquire and EL-P who aren’t on the tour.
CHECK OUT ALL THE PICTURES FROM THE NIGHT HERE!
(and if you’re the cool guy with the shirt from Nightmare Before Christmas, tag yourself!)
“The Last Huzzah Remix”
This past Monday night/ Tuesday morning I got to hang out a bit my with boy Quon, a .k.a. Quonito (in the photo above) at Vinyl and Kai in South Beach for a performance by him, and a couple other dope kids from Swag Matters (and celebrated Quon’s birthday, he’s growing up so fast.) He’s from Maryland so you KNOW I (Aja) had to be there to support the DMV area (DC, Maryland Virginia) but even without that connection his music is pretty damn good. Check his Twitter!
He definitely can bring out a crowd. Before his entourage, friends and supporters got to the spot, it looked like your average Monday night bar crowd. After that, it was basically packed with stylish young adults. The vibe of the night was dope. I managed to take a couple snaps before my camera decided it was time for a lack-of-battery induced nap.
This weekend I had the luxury of kickin’ it with my sister Autumn (in the picture above), who came down to Miami from Maryland for her birthday (and got to see us host Sugar Free, pics to come!) and we spent Sunday at the Soho House thanks to the ridiculously awesome Pres Rodriguez. So, we had food and drinks delivered to our chairs at the private beach, showered, hit the steam room and then had an amazing dinner of tapas- tuna tartar with plantain chips, avocado and white corn salad, tuna carpaccio, duck and artichoke pizza, a runny egg breakfast pizza, seared octopus, anchovies with tomatoes and sesame toast, and giant scallops.
Octopus
Anchovies
Scallop
Bloody Maria
Ladies room
Me
This past Tuesday was the last open night of the downtown hipster bar, aptly titled BAR (or to some Bar Black, Black Bar, whatever). It happened due to the lease running out on the building and not getting renewed for undisclosed reasons. As the optimistic person I have become in these past years, I believe that BAR will reopen it’s doors one day in a bigger and better venue. So, while this does suck, it hopefully won’t be permanent.
Anyways, the last day of BAR was also the last Ladies Night- the night all the sexy ladies get to drink for free and participate in very unladylike activities. It was VERY packed, with lots of people coming out to show support- J.NiCS and Steven A. Clark, two very promising Miami musicians, were in attendance, along with Uncle Luc, the cool guys from Freelve.com, and all of the awesome people who are regulars like us.
There were tattooed bodies, SLR cameras and cheap beer as far as the eye could see (and if you were drunk like most people there then that isn’t very far.) Resident DJ’s spun everything from Dub-Step to old school hip hop and kept the crowd happy as we sweated from the ridiculously hot summer weather. It was definitely a bittersweet night. And very fun.
Check out the pics from the last night at BAR after the jump!
Hello all, I (Aja) am still on my mini vacation from Miami (imagine that one) and I’m in a good mood so I wanted to share a couple songs that are happy and upbeat and all that good stuff. Also I rode an underground train today, something I don’t do in the 305 and it reminded me of Jennifer Lopez in the 90′s. For good measure and not to be too pop-y I made sure one song was from the dope rap duo that’s on the up and up, Chiddy Bang, and one features a late rap legend, Big Pun.
Enjoy!
Don’t forget to download Chiddy Bang’s new mixtape- Peanut Butter and Swelly – for FREE here!!
*Sidenote- My mother threw a crazy seafood extravaganza type party for Summer Solstice a.k.a. the first day of Summer and the longest day of the year, which was AMAZING. There was so much food and they even cooked giant clams and whole lobsters on the grill outside. The bad part was that the grill fumes made our carbon monoxide detector go off ! We decided to be safe and not sorry so we told the non-emergency line of the Fire Department and they came out to test – standard procedure. All was well, it was crazy though because they drove up in this GIANT firetruck on my little suburban street, blaring this spotlight on the house for god knows why. The lighting, however, was amazing so I grabbed some cool shots of my nieces Tigerlily (above) and Nahla. I’ll be posting the rest of those pictures sooner than later.
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