TCB: happy jeans contest

[beautiful_FrEaK]

I like that look! And since you are Italian, you have to be stylish

[Capsicum Fried Meat]

I prefer the highwater mode. Absolutely excellent fit!

[chicote]

The higher cuff looks natural already Volvo! And that espresso convinced me to switch to an Italian roast this morning, or at least our poor Canadian take on one. Great post!

[volvo240thebest]

I am sure you can get incredible coffee in Vancouver buddy.

I actually have a fun memory of having coffee and a great talk in Italian/Abruzzese/English gramelot with a couple of Italo-Canadian geezers in a place in Vancouver called caffe Abruzzi. Your typical kitsch Italian place outside of Italy. I remember there was even a fountain inside the bar.. Coffee was good there, and a good old style bar. that was years ago, well before the artsy fartsy "latte art" invaded the world!

Edited April 4, 2015 by volvo240thebest

[Ciabatta]

49th Parallel in Vancover! One of my favorite roasters. I've always wanted to visit the shop.

[volvo240thebest]

Excellent. next week I'll do a coffee update. They've just opened a great new bar in my city and the owner is a complete coffee nerd who worked for years in the raw coffee trade. He makes his own blends and every month has a new "cru" this month it's Guatemala coffee. Pretty incredible to have a place like that in a fairly small city like mine..

Edited April 4, 2015 by volvo240thebest

[holio cornolio]

high water all the way! Looks cool

[chicote]

I am sure you can get incredible coffee in Vancouver buddy.

I actually have a fun memory of having coffee and a great talk in Italian/Abruzzese/English gramelot with a couple of Italo-Canadian geezers in a place in Vancouver called caffe Abruzzi. Your typical kitsch Italian place outside of Italy . . .

Ah, that sounds like a good place to visit! There are definitely some great coffee shops in Vancouver. Where I live, an hour or so outside the city, it's a slightly different story -- especially after living in Seattle, where small cafés have erupted in frenzies of specialization trying to tamp back the spread of Starbucks. Euro coffee shops seem to be an unstoppable force, though, they'll get here some day...

[edmond]

Let's bump this thread before it goes on page 2!

As of late I've been fiddling around with the cuffs of my pair, I thought to give a try at a mild high water (or should we call it mid water?!?) inseam lenght. Japanese guys seem to rock this style so well on wide fits.

Anyway here's a comparo, before (short folded cuff)

After:

Any thoughts? I've ironed the cuffs highwater mode yesterday, I think I'll give it a go for a couple days now.

Here's the fade report at 6months 1 week

Bonus, today I've cooked rigatoni with lamb's liver ragu! Not for the faint of heart! Hannibal Lecter would be proud of me!

At Easter time in Italy everybody eats lamb, it's a big tradition, but nobody wants to buy the liver. It's incredibly good and butchers throw it away for close to nothing! I cook it for hours with onion celery carrots pine nuts olives tomatoes rosemary thyme and lots of white wine. A fine, robust dish that needs to be paired with at least half a bottle of vino!

And then a double espresso ristretto:

That's the minimum crema thickness allowed in casa Volvo!

 

 

how did you brew that cup bro?

[bradl]

49th Parallel in Vancover! One of my favorite roasters. I've always wanted to visit the shop.

Amazing donuts there to as well

[volvo240thebest]

^^ Ed that was done with a Bacchi espresso.

[Foxy2]

Currently in Venice for a few days, but without TCB - I thought I throw in some pics to this thread a even more Italian affair than before...

A sunny day in Venice

Made the wife happy by taking her out for lunch at Harry's Bar...

[Foxy2]

The neighborhood

Lunch the other day...

[Capsicum Fried Meat]

post wash phone pics

 

[volvo240thebest]

^^ foxy, Enjoy Venice! You're doing things in grand style, Harry's bar et all!

^ Capsi lovely evo!

[volvo240thebest]

A couple more snaps from today. It was a beautiful sunny springtime day.

plum in bloom

 

rosemary in bloom

 

Springtime is absolutely the best season to go around and pick up wild herbs, here's some wild asparagus I've picked this afternoon

this is for me by far the best wild herb that can be found around here.

at the moment I am too much stuffed from today's lunch to even think about cooking a dinner but tomorrow these will be divine for a nice subtle risotto...

 

here's a healed photo of my tattoo by Pietro Sedda (I think I haven't posted it before) and a couple of new leather bracelets made by my friend Uwe Tauber, a superb leather artisan from Germany, down below you can see the TCB 50's

 

and here's the roping on my TCB's.. nothing nearly as impressive as Aho's but I think it'll look great by the end of the contest. Wonder how Aho's roping will look by then!

Edited April 6, 2015 by volvo240thebest

[Bobbo]

Jealous of your wild aspargus hunt Volvo! Love 'em!

I visited friends in Norrköping this weekend. We had too much fun so I forgot to shoot pics. So much great architecture in that city. Oh well, at least I posted a few shots when I was there at the start of the contest.

The only pictures I managed to take myself is from when I was at a small café waiting for my friend to get off work. A kid pulled the most massive fart I've ever heard. It was hard not to laugh my ass off.

 

 

And a bit of TCB:

[volvo240thebest]

I loved the fart line ahah! made me remember a funny memory.. I was on a sort of cable car connection between two airports terminals in NYC years ago and a kid squeezed one really deadly, epic fart. place was really small and cramped...there was a couple of old black guys with us and I swear to God by the end of the transfer they became grey ahahah!!!!

[Bobbo]

Hahaha, that wasn't a bad one either! 

[Sugar Mountain]

Ssup everyone? My wife and I spent last week in Tokyo so thought I'd share some shots from my trip. This was my first visit to the city since 2008 and it was great to be back. I feel like I fell in love with the place all over again.

 

We were blessed with stunning spring weather on our first full day. To decompress from Hong Kong, I had planned a trip to Shinjuku Gyoen, the national garden. I'd read that this was a great place to see the spring blossom and it did not disappoint. The feeling in the park is a little more refined too, as alcohol is prohibited so people aren't getting legless at Hanami parties!

 

 

 

 

At Be a Good Neighbor Coffee Kiosk in Harajuku/Jingumae. The perfect corner cafe and a damn fine cup of joe! Lovely place to be as the sun dropped...

 

 

I didn't get photos of all of our stops in the Harajuku area because it was getting darker but I visited the Full Count shop and chatted with the guys in there about their product. Always strange to see these people in person when you've known them through pictures in Lightning mooks for years, haha. Tried on a pair of 0105XX - a great fit and a strong potential pair for the future.

 

Berberjin was incredble. I wish I could share photos but I'm not as cheeky as Aho! The highlight for me was being shown a barely worn (near deadstock) pair of S501XX. Really was mind-blowing to see such a rare piece of denim history in person like that. I picked up the new 501XX history book that the shop has published and I will try to post more of in the relevant thread soon. About the closest I can afford to the real thing.

The next stop was The Real McCoy's. Holy shite, what a store! You think you've seen everything they have and then realise you've only seen the military repro and there's still Joe McCoy and Buco on the other side!

 

 

Totally incredible shop and well worth a visit for anyone even remotely interested in this stuff - just for the next level retail experience. I picked up a tee and some Blue Seal chinos but choosing was hard.

 

Dinner in Shibuya:

 

 

I love my high-end Japanese cuisine as much as the next dude, but there's a big place in my heart for the down-home comfort of skewers, fried dumplings, beers and a highball or two! 

 

To be continued...

Edited April 9, 2015 by Sugar Mountain

[Iron Horse]

Looking great; I'm going to Tokyo this summer, will have to add RMC to the list of shops I want to visit. Don't want to blow too much money at these shops in front of the GF though...

[Sugar Mountain]

Tokyo trip continued...

 

Our second full day began with a trip to Tsukiji fish market. Many tourists get there for the tuna auctions at the crack of dawn. My wife and I spend our holidays getting properly rested, so our visit was more like an early lunch trip, haha. We just moved around the outer market eating whatever took our fancy.

 

Scallops flamed to order in their shells:

 

 

Deep fried corn:

 

 

And sashimi rice bowls at a bar that held no more than six people:

 

 

In the afternoon, we visited Naka-meguro to see the blossom over the river and then took a walk up the hill to Daikanyama and Ebisu. 

 

 

Of course, the latter two areas hold a number of crucial denim destinations! First stop, Evisu:

 

 

I've not been to a Japanese Evisu store before and this was impressive. When you walk in, you're met by a huge old shuttle loom and racks of denim to its side and its rear. The one member of staff was awfully shy and retiring, so I got to just take a long look at the different jeans without anyone lurking nearby.

 

Next up was the RJB/The Flat Head shop:

 

 

To be continued...

 

[Sugar Mountain]

When I visited Osaka a couple of years ago, the crew at the Flat Head shop were the coolest staff that I encountered as I did the rounds of the denim shops. It was a similar experience here: the two guys were showing me all kinds of fading examples, telling me about the products, and just geeking out denim with me.

 

Here's Mr Ooi (left) and his colleague:

 

 

I finally got the blue Glory Park chambray workshirt after coveting it for several years and insisted on doing the handover shot! A fun experience all round.

 

 

Finally (God, my wife is patient), we made it to the Warehouse shop in Ebisu. The area is quite swanky and not really where you'd expect a denim shop to be. 

 

 

It was a real treat to be able to try on a few pieces that I've long been interested in. I did say on here that I would not be buying any jeans on this trip and I stayed true to my word (knowing that I'll be back before long) but I tried on the WH 800 and 1001. I always thought the 800 would be perfect for me but it didn't work at all! The 1001, I had tried on in Osaka and didn't like but I've now got this one down as my next in line once this contest ends - in rotation with my 47s.

 

I picked up the Warehouse Baker Pants for the summer as well as some WH plain tees. A happy Sugar Mountain...

 

 

For a culture fix, we headed to the National Art Center Tokyo in Roppongi for the exhibition of René Magritte. Good exhibition in a beautiful building:

 

 

Sometimes the best stuff happens away from the camera and you completely forget to take any shots (a good thing). On that evening, I had a reunion with an old Japanese friend from my postgrad days and her English husband over sushi in Ginza and then on to karaoke until the early hours. The next day was not an active one!

 

To be continued...

 

[volvo240thebest]

great posts Sugar Mountain!

[Sugar Mountain]

Tokyo trip continued...

 

It almost goes without saying that the food in Tokyo was great (and super cheap thanks to the exchange rate!) I never plan my restaurant visits in Japan - just find something nearby and it's most likely to hit the spot. We chanced upon a seafood grill while exploring Asakusa, where each table has a mini grill for your fish:

 

 

Even in train stations, the food is damn good:

 

 

We spent a rainy day back in Omotesando and Harajuku, this time principally for a visit to Omotesando Koffee, which was tucked away on a side street. A unique coffee experience, as the shop is housed within a traditional one-storey Japanese wooden frame building. 

 

 

The espresso was damn good and worth the queuing time in the rain:

 

 

We also made it to Streamer Coffee Company, famous for its latte art. The shop's owner Hiroshi Sawada is the 2008 Free Pour Latte Art Champion. Overall, the coffee was too huge and not strong enough for my tastes (I should have taken the extra shot) and the shop is ultra-hip and very Hypebeast. Still cool to visit though:

 

 

Oh yeah, and we dropped by the Studio D'Artisan store while passing though the area between coffee shops. Lots of good Orgeuil stock and some stunning faded SDA jeans:

 

 

One more post and I'm done, I swear!

[Blue Nemo]

it's Inoue-sans birthday btw!

[Bobbo]

^^I'd gladly have 20 pages full of posts from Tokyo, go nuts! Great posts Sugar Mountain!

[volvo240thebest]

hey Nemo any news about your foreman vest? I am still waiting for mine. apparently Inoue is terribly busy these days and had no time yet to make my vest in size 42. I guess I will receive it when it's already too damn hot to wear the vest here!

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Great update Sugar! That's hat a contest is all about!

[Flash]

great posts mate , making my wait untill July even harder