Green Valley Grill

Located at 622 Green Valley Road next to the O’Henry Hotel, the Green Valley Grill offers fine dining, Guilt Free (reduced fat and sodium) selections and an extensive wine list. In addition to lunch and dinner, the restaurant serves brunch from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays and a daily afternoon tea in the O’Henry lobby from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Private rooms and catering are available.

Fine dining is as much about the eating experience as it is about the food, and in that regard, the Green Valley Grill comes through. High ceilings and spacious booths ensure that the restaurant never feels crowded, even when it is full. The wait staff is prompt, professional and polite.



Of course, this would mean little if the food was not up to par with the presentation. Fortunately GVG acquits itself nicely. An eclectic assortment of small plates includes everything from high-end burgers (the short rib sliders come recommended) to seafood to flatbreads. The truffle fries are full of zest, while faro, pine nuts and squash put a unique spin on a salmon salad.



The entrée selection is limited and several chef’s features rotate regularly. The traditionalist will be comforted by the presence of such staples as loin of lamb, steak (New York strip or filet mignon) and roast chicken. Those looking for an international bent can go for the jagerschnitzel (German breaded veal cutlet) or the paella (saffron rice with seafood and sausage), the latter of which is seasoned to perfection.



Portions are reasonable – you won’t go hungry, but don’t anticipate leftovers. If you do have room afterwards, be sure to take in a dessert. Like the rest of GVG’s fare, there’s a good balance between traditional (an apple tart and crème brulee) and inventive (white chocolate cheesecake and the Nutty Irishman, a frozen cake/cream/coffee concoction). You really can’t go wrong in either direction.



Needless to say, food of this quality will agitate your wallet while mollifying your stomach. Small plates and salads are in the $11-$12 range, entrees go from $19 to over $30 and desserts run between $6 and $7. Dinner for two can easily put you out half a c-note and lunch/brunch is barely less costly.



As a hotel restaurant, the Green Valley Grill has an unspoken obligation to convention: it must appeal to guests and travelers of the simplest tastes. It takes up this mantle well while still finding plenty of room for creative flourishes. This deft balance makes it one of Greensboro’s premier dining spots for special occasions, as long as you have the dough.



8.5/10

The Long Goodbye

Published in 1953, Raymond Chandler’s classic crime novel continues the adventures of private detective Philip Marlowe. Here, Marlowe befriends Terry Lennox, an emotionally and physically scarred drunk with a crumbling marriage. Lennox calls on him for a ride to the airport one night and Marlowe soon finds himself in the thick of a murder investigation. Not one to stay out of trouble for long, he soon becomes entangled with another alcoholic – the writer Roger Wade – and his attractive wife. It isn’t long before Marlowe suspects Lennox and Wade had more in common than a drinking problem.

Hardboiled detective fiction, of which Chandler was a chief purveyor, is a veritable minefield of tropes, types and clichés. Femme fatales, crooked cops, menacing gangsters, caricatured ethnic sidekicks and gratuitous cigarette smoke are but a few staples and they all show up in The Long Goodbye. The familiarity of these elements begs a question: is a mystery with so little mystery still worth reading?



The answer, in the case of The Long Goodbye, is a resounding “yes.” Though crime novels are by necessity plot driven, Chandler does a great job with characterization. You can see the stock origins of a lot of the minor players (the servant Candy in particular), but the main characters are fairly well-developed. Unlike his contemporary Sam Spade (unbelievably and effortlessly slick), Marlowe is complex and thoroughly human. He talks and acts tough, but he is also subject to injury, inadequacy and doubt. Similarly, Lennox and both Wades walk a morally ambiguous line in that they are devoid of neither sympathy nor malice.



Chandler also succeeds at sustaining tension. The Long Goodbye weighs in at 316 pages, but is remarkably taut with very little filler. It takes several pages to establish its narrative footing and it ends on a rather abrupt note, but everything in between is expertly paced. The prose is surprisingly crisp too – descriptions are neither purple nor threadbare.



Though sex-and-murder laden, The Long Goodbye is not the literary equivalent of a popcorn movie. Chandler uses Marlowe and Co. to explore the nature of power, truth and corruption and he does it without making us feel like we’re being lectured. There are a few places where Marlowe comes off as annoyingly self-righteous in his quest to defend Lennox’s good name, but if he didn’t believe so thoroughly in what he was doing, we probably wouldn’t care enough to read about it.



In the 50-plus years since its publication, The Long Goodbye has been the subject of parody, reinvention and critical acclaim (or, in the case of Robert Altman’s 1973 film adaptation, all three at once). It is, however, a book which can stand ably on its own two feet regardless of the printing date or the mythic reputation of the author.



8/10

Trivia Night at The Green Bean Coffehouse

Located at 341 South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro, The Green Bean offers coffee, tea, beer, baked goods and live music. Trivia night is held every Monday at 7:30 p.m. The cost to participate is $3 per person and half of all money raised goes to charity.



Metaphorically speaking, trivia is a pickup game of basketball for smart people. You see someone taking jump shots and practicing their spin moves and you wonder if maybe you can do better. Sometimes, you’ll find out that you can. Other times, you’ll end up flat on your ass.



Hosted regularly by Alex Howell, trivia at The Green Bean covers a lot of epistemological ground. Questions will test your knowledge of history, science, literature, pop culture and more. The question format is equally varied: you may go from listing seven of the top ten largest cities to unscrambling a word jumble trying to spot a flaw with an image on a projector screen.



The breadth of knowledge required to succeed in trivia makes team selection crucial. You can play with up to four other people and you’d better hope at least one of them knows something you don’t. Getting along with your teammates helps too, as internal squabbling and an inability to reach consensus can doom a team to failure.



The biggest enemy, however, is time (though finding a place to sit can sometimes rate a close second). While there isn’t a time limit per question, teams who don’t write down their answers before the next question is called will have a lot of guesswork to do at the end. The game is divided into two rounds of 15 questions each and roughly a third of those questions rely on visual prompts which won’t stay up on the screen for very long.



Trivia, Green Bean-style, can sometimes be a maddening experience. Howell has a tendency to get ambitious with his questions and that ambition has occasionally resulted in no teams picking up a point (identifying out-of-context imagery is notoriously challenging). Further, the difficulty of the questions can vary wildly between the first and the second round. It’s easy to have a decent showing after 15 questions and knock yourself out of contention with a bad second half.



On the other hand, it’s equally easy to walk away with cash in your pocket some weeks. Prize money usually goes to the top two teams and though winning streaks are common, no one is a lock for first. Since you have no way of knowing where other teams stand until the end, your own point totals are of minimal value.



How much enjoyment you get out of trivia night will ultimately depend on your level of patience. If you accept the possibility that you will miss questions you know (or should know) the answer to and walk away empty-handed, you can kill a few hours with friends and feel good knowing your money is going to a worthwhile cause. But if you come to win – as many do – you may leave with a lot of frustration.



6.5/10

Mellow Mushroom

Located at 609 South Elm St. in downtown Greensboro, Mellow Mushroom offers appetizers, salads, pizzas, calzones and a full bar. Drink specials change daily and live music can be found on select Thursdays.

When it comes to pizza, there’s a school of thought that says nothing good can come from a chain. While Pizza Hut and CiCi’s do plenty to bolster that argument, a trip to Mellow Mushroom could leave it in tatters.



Founded in the mid-70s by a trio of college students, the Atlanta-based franchise has grown to include over 100 restaurants in 18 states. Despite the ubiquity, Mellow Mushroom has the feel of a local pizzeria: it’s a sit-down establishment with plenty of seating and more than just pizza, wings and garlic bread on the menu (though, of course, they have those too).



But while a local pizzeria might have a specialty or two, Mellow Mushroom prides itself on creative combinations. The Philosopher pie, for instance, combines steak, Portobello mushrooms and artichoke hearts with three kinds of cheeses and (like all pizzas here) features a whole-wheat crust. A "spiked" sausage sandwich blends beer-soaked sausage crumbles with garlic aoli and two types of cheese.

Both are boldly flavored and easily devourable, but if such flourishes are not to your liking, have no fear: you can also build your own pizza, salad, or calzone. The dozens of available toppings include everything from jerk chicken to tofu and tempeh and it’s likely you’ll find at least one combination you like.



Needless to say, prices vary depending on your level of customization. If you go for a pizza, you’re better of splitting with friends: a large specialty pie feeds four for about $6 per person. Sandwiches and salads come in two sizes and run between $4 and $8. Calzones are slightly pricier.



Like most restaurants, service will vary depending on the size of the crowd. The downtown location ensures that patrons aren’t exclusively college-aged. The ambience works well for families and groups. Dinner for two? Not so much.



It’s impossible to say if Mellow Mushroom offers the best pizza in Greensboro because no two people will agree on what constitutes the “best” pizza (thick crust vs. thin, New York-style vs. Chicago-style). It’s far easier to say that at Mellow Mushroom, you really can’t go wrong.



8/10

The Exorcist

When her 12-year-old Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) shows signs of demonic possession, her actress mother (Ellen Burstyn) calls upon Fatherr Damian Karras (Jason Miller), a priest who has begun to lose his faith. They are eventually joined by Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow), the titular exorcist who previously encountered signs of the possessing spirit in the Middle East.

Based on a novel by William Peter Blatty, William Friedkin’s 1973 film carries with it the reputation of a horror classic. This, of course, is both a blessing and a curse. Good films often spawn imitators, to the point that what was once ingenious may now seem cliché. And what shocked and terrified audiences in 1973 may have little impact on the post-Saw, post-Hostel audiences of 2009.



That being said, The Exorcist proves itself worthy of its reputation. Along with The Omen, it is one of the pioneering films of the “evil kid” horror subgenre. But unlike subsequent imitators, there is nothing sinister or out-of-whack about the kid in question. Blair’s Regan is disarmingly normal from the start and that’s what lends pathos to her gradual transformation into an unholy terror.



It also helps that the movie has some legitimate shock power. Even though Regan’s supernatural antics (spider-walking down the stairs, spewing green vomit, etc.) have been lodged in popular imagination, you never know what is coming. Friedkin does not rely on sinister music to precursor to trauma (a shame in a sense – “Tubular Bells” is a hauntingly effective theme). Terrifying images are flashed on the screen with no warning at all.



While Eileen Dietz (face) and Mercedes McCambridge (voice) deserve the bulk of the credit for bringing the possessed Regan to life, the primary cast is game as well. Miller (a practicing Catholic) does a great job of fleshing out Karras’ inner struggle, while Von Sydow imbues Merrin with strength and determination in his too-brief screen time. Burstyn is credible as a mother who gains faith while losing hope. Only Lee J. Cobb rang a false note as a sympathetic police lieutenant, likely owing to his advanced age and his penchant for playing scumbags.



For all its disturbing imagery, The Exorcist is still a movie which relies heavily on the power of suggestion. What isn’t shown but only hinted at (a murder, for one) can be just as disarming as what is shown on screen. Though effective, this approach will undoubtedly leave some viewers to wonder what the fuss is all about. Likewise, the overtly religious themes could engender some eye-rolling from a non-theistic audience. But if you accept this film’s central contention – evil can be random and ordinary – you’ll likely find something to latch onto regardless of your beliefs.



8.5/10