Cinco de Mayo

I played at Binion's tonight, and on my way home I couldn't help but notice that the posers were out in full force. These are the people who dress up in costumes and pose for and/or with tourists in hopes of picking up tips. I assume that there were so many more of them out tonight than usual because they thought that Cinco de Mayo would be bringing out bigger crowds. Whatever drew them, we had a really bad Elvis, some member of Kiss, Mr. Spock, a woman with huge...tracts of land, Austin Powers, Michael Jackson, pirates, and more. There was also a contortionist in a green body suit, who, as you'll see, could force himself through unstrung tennis rackets.

They have a wide variety of aggressiveness about the whole tipping thing. One guy had a very cute little dog dressed up in traditional Mexican garb* and trained to dance on its hind legs--but he kept its face covered with his hands until somebody dropped a tip in his bucket. (I didn't take a picture, because it would just be a picture of a guy with his hands over his dog's face, which isn't very interesting.) I felt sorry for that dog.

But I took pictures of lots of the others, and uploaded them to a Picasa album here.

Shortly before I left Binion's, F-Train had Tweeted, "Now at Beauty Bar. Just chowed down the best $5 truck Mexican sloppy Joe ever." I have been hearing raves about the SloppiJo's food truck. Beauty Bar is directly on my walking path home from Binion's, so I stopped in. F-Train had apparently already left, but I followed his lead and brought home a SloppiJo, which is, well, kind of hard to describe. Here's what their web site says about it:

The "Sloppi Jo" on our menu is not your typical sloppy joe. We felt that if the truck was called Sloppi Jo then we should at least have one sloppy joe on the menu...so... our "SLOPPI JO" is a dish that can be enjoyed Breakfast, Lunch or Late Night. It is slow roasted pork in a red chile sauce, topped with a sunny-side up egg, pickled onions and a flour tortilla. You are meant to bust the egg yolk, let it flow over the pork and mix in the onions with each bite. The onions are marinated in fresh squeezed orange and lime juice with jalapenos, salt and sugar. I'd say that most customers are pleasantly surprised to find out that the Sloppi Jo is not traditional.

This is what it looks like (mine is without the onions, which I abhor):

The thing next to it is what they call a "brookie"--a chocolate chip cookie with a brownie baked into the center of it. Both things were delicious.

*To clarify, that means traditional garb for a Mexican human. I guess I don't know what constitutes traditional garb for a Mexican dog.