Beanie Loves Tasty Pizza

On a somewhat recent trip home, my BFF and her hubby took me on an impromptu trip down Central Avenue to (almost) NordEast Minneapolis to a favorite "homie" hangout -- TASTY PIZZA!!!!

Unless you grew up in Nordeast, you all *just* don't get it. I guess you could equate your clueless curiosity to having tourist buses in the Haight-Ashbury in SF, or bus loads of white people gawking at a deep south, black, Sunday gospel choir. Unless you've lived NordEast, don't even TRY to understand. Yes, you have to have LIVED the Tasty Pizza experience to appreciate the spectrum of cultural imprints left on us all from our youth.

Note: This excludes people from Edina who think that one stop over at Tasty's in Heights between hockey games makes them a 'regular'. Bullshit. We hate you. We know who you are the instant you walk in the door. Please, get your "yuppie-preppy-wanna-be-down-to-earth-homie" ass OUT of here before I puke my Old Style beer all over your designer duds and BMW.

That's what the Food Network is for.

We mean REAL business.

Which brings me to Beanie. Beanie is a friend of my older brother, and also my BFF's sister. Yup, a Columbia Heights grad -- we all tend to stick together. Beanie is a staple at Tasty's in Heights. I have not seen Beanie in 25 years. Lo and behold, when I entered Tasty there Beanie was -- in all his glory -- having a drink and gabbing it up with others.

Time did not skip a beat. Beanie made his way to our table and without pause he talked of the time he rode his bicycle 65 miles to the cabin to party 27 years ago.

Yeah........ I remembered that..........

Next, Beanie showed me pictures on his cell phone of random items he lit on fire and watched burn in his driveway.

Yeah........ that's SO Beanie........ it's soooooo Nordeast.

God bless you, Beanie.... you are the real thing.