The dinner that night at Fogo de Chão was incredible! We had invited my good friend Carlos to go with us. Unfortunately his wife, Vange, was unable to join us… but we said we would try again another time! All three of us, Maria, Carlos and myself were very impressed with the quality of the food and with Carlos and myself being Capoeiristas, we’re well familiar with Brazilian Churrascaria’s all over the country and this one by far was one of the best. You did pay for it however, but when you figure out how much of the high quality meats and sides that you actually eat, it can be well worth it.

Now onto the debate! While we were at Fogo de Chão, I took a look at the wine list and t also included a fine selection of Courvoisiers. The one in particular that caught my attention was the listing that read the following: “L’Esprit de Courvoisier (1 oz.)…. 635.00″. I looked at Maria and showed her the listing and asked, “Is this for real? That’s a SHOT! $635 for a SHOT!” I then showed it to Carlos. “What! What the… Cheese and RICE!” (as Carlos often likes to say) We were all floored by the price and for the posterity of the moment I took a snapshot with my camera. A few weeks later we went out with Carlos, Vange and another couple (David and Victoria) and started to talk about how great the dinner at Fogo was. I then mentioned the crazy price of the single shot of Courvoisier. David said, “Nah, that’s gotta be per bottle.” I took out my phone, found the pic, and said check this out. It clearly says “1 oz.” The debate went on for a little while and I backed off the ridiculous topic and we went dancing.

The other day I was going through my phone photos and since my birthday is coming up, I was reminded of Fogo de Chão and that crazy photo I took. I decided to take a closer look at it and try to google the name of the Courvoisier. I put “L’Esprit de Courvoisier” into google and ended up with enough information to confirm that YES, a SINGLE SHOT of L’Esprit de Courvoisier is actually $635 at Fogo de Chão! While I was searching, I found a site as well as some others confirming the cost of L’Esprit de Courvoisier to be around $5,000 per bottle. It’s described as:

L’Esprit de Courvoisier is one of the most exquisite, most rare and most expansive cognacs in the world. Obtained with part of the reserve from Le Paradis cellar at the Courvoisier Chateau, this unique blend contains cognacs that date back as far as napoleon I. The youngest cognac in the blend is over 70 years old. Housed in hand-cut Lalique crystal decanters, it is a cognac that is beyond compare.’

So with the cost of a bottle being around $5,000, and reading about how old and refined it is, it’s easy to understand why it’s so expensive… How exactly, or why exactly the restaurant carries this rare blend and if they actually serve it has yet to be answered. The offical answer to the debate, however, has been epically proven!

When asked last night if I was an Eagles fan, I replied, “Yep, sure am.”

When the response was, “Wow, I feel sorry for ya, man. Why?”

As Kevin Curtis made the 50 yard reception giving the birds much needed life, I said, “That’s why, ups and downs, man, ups and downs. It’s always interesting with Philly.”

I have been doing some research on this for a while… since I began the new job search back in July. Locally we have an Amtrak train station that goes down to 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. It looks like a pretty simple and straight forward way to travel down there and you can purchase a monthly pass to use the train as well. The train stops a few times along the way, so if the train ends up working out, Maria and I could POTENTIALLY find a new place somewhere close to a station on the way and cut my time down even further… OR I could just drive at that point. But that is fairly far in the future and I’m not gonna worry so much about that. ANYway according to the schedule it looks like  I’d be getting up a bit earlier and coming home a bit later… I have no problem with that because I see the time on the train being a little more relaxing and giving me more time to prep. I’d be able to get online if I got a WIFI card or went through my phone or just nap if I really needed to… though I doubt I’d ever be that comfortable by myself to do that. So according to Amtrak, I could potentially leave at 7:00 or 7:55 and get into Philadelphia around 8:30 – 9:15 respectively. If I’m lucky enough to find a job within walking distance from the station I won’t have too much else to worry about. If not I may have to look into the subway system in order to get me from point B to point C. Assuming that I would work a 9-5 the morning schedule could work out pretty well. Coming home would be another scheduling hassle. Depending on what time I would be able to leave its a very solid possibility that I wouldn’t be back in town until close to 7pm and then would have to drive home. Currently we aren’t all that far from the train station which makes this idea even more tempting. I think I could handle the schedule especially if I was getting paid better than I am now. The positions I have viewed so far look like they pay pretty well and would cover any extra expenses I may incur.

One of the largest expenses I think that I would encounter with this would be the monthly pass I would want to purchase. Currently the unlimited monthly price on a ticket is $253. Now this seems like a ridiculous amount of money to pay at first but after taking a minute to analyze what I would be paying in gas alone… Now that we have somewhat stabilized the gas crisis and we’re not paying $4 a gallon (and hopefully we won’t have to) I find that I’m spending about $20 to fill the tank. Driving back and forth to Maria’s friend’s house alone kicks about 1/4 or more of a tank and that’s not even right downtown. Last time I drove down for an interview I had to stop on the way home to fill up so there is definitely a good bit of gas being blown on each trip. I figure I will be refilling the tank every couple days spending around $50-$60 per week. Multiply that by 4 weeks, sometimes 5, and you are looking at a monthly gas expense of $200-$240. Add in wear and tear on my car and the 160+ miles per day that I would be putting on it if I drove, my mental anguish, parking fees downtown, etc… and you can see that the $253 a month for a train pass isn’t so bad after all.

So now the only thing to do is put this theory into action. We shall see how that works out!

Oh yeah, by the way… the title, some people will recognize it from The Simpsons as none other than Mr. Ralph Wiggum. “Yes, Ralph, I choo-choo-choose you.”