David Politis

So I’m down in San Diego this weekend as a representative of SOAR Communications to attend the 11th annual Bicycle Leadership Conference, a three-day event presented by the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association. (The weather is fantastic, by the way: mid- to upper-60s every day. Nice!)

Anyway . . . last night, my wife (Allisha) and I headed off for a little local cuisine with my cousin, Brad (and his wife, Leslie). In the end, we selected Sambuca, an Italian Bistro, for our dining adventure.

Located at 3888 4th Avenue, Sambuca is a white linen tablecloth, sit down restaurant where the meals are prepared behind glass to the side of the dining area.

They served a wonderful antipasti sampler plate, and each of us raved about our respective meals: shrimp primavera, filet mignon and chicken marsala. I had the marsala, and it was delectable. Total cost, without alcohol, was around $100.

Although the Website is weak at best, the food is not.

So if you’re in lovely San Diego and have a hankering for Italian food, check out Sambuca, an Italian Bistro. I give it a strong THUMBS UP!

As I mentioned in my 1/9/08 post on Utah Tech Watch, I got hit with a nasty cold down in Vegas while attending CES, the Consumer Electronics Show.

While taking a taxi from the Hilton to the Sands to get my luggage, I had my cabbie stop at a “qwik mart” to look for some cough medicine, ’cause by 4 p.m. Tuesday, I felt like I was dying. My throat was on fire, I had a sinus infection that made my head feel like it was about to explode, and I was starting to ache all over. NOT good. Thank goodness for NyQuil.

By the time I got to my boarding gate, I was ready to zone out. By the way, did I mention I liked NyQuil? In fact, I was asleep before the plane pulled away from the gate and didn’t awaken until we were less than 10 minutes out of SLC International.

A BIG THUMBS UP for NyQuil!

Anyway . . . if you haven’t had this cold bug hit you, your home or office, count yourself lucky. This is probably the worst cold I’ve had in several years. I finally feel better one week later after massive doses of antibiotics, decongestants and orange juice.

And to those of you I met and/or visited with in Vegas, my sincere apologies if you caught this same cold from me. I am VERY SORRY.  

If you’re looking for great Italian food, you need to head to Ottavio’s in Provo.

Nestled in a modest location on Center Street just East of University Avenue, Ottavio’s Ristorante Italiano was a wonderful recent find for me.

Everything, the festive old world murals painted on the walls, the piped-in Italian music, to the prompt and attentive service, adds to the dining atmosphere. But it is the food where Ottavio’s excels.

I happen to love veal, so I try it often. And at Ottavio’s I was not disappointed as the Vitello Parmigiana was fantastic! Definitely five stars.

Come hungry, however, as the serving plates are actually platters that arrive heaped to overflowing — big meals that require carrying with two hands (or ample “to go boxes” once you’re done eating.)

And yes, I’ve been back, twice in fact.

In other words, I give a big THUMB’S UP to Ottavio’s in Provo.

[DISCLOSURE: My daughter, Alexi, recently began working as a server at Ottavio’s, as explained here. My sister-in-law Linda also works for the owners of Ottavio’s. The food is still great, however, as attested by these other reviews for the restaurant.]

For about the 15-billionth time, Politis Communications took at least one of its clients to a ShowStoppers Media Reception at a major trade show. And once again the results were awesome!

This year, we had three clients at the Showstoppers-produced event — HandHeld Entertainment, HobbyTron.com and ifrogz – which was held for the second year in a row at the Wynn Resort & Casino. Very classy!

Showstoppers lined-up roughly 100 companies as co-sponsors of the event, which was crazy enough. But at last count, Showstoppers had more than 1,000 RSVPs from tech journalists and analysts prior to the event.

For its part, Showstoppers put on a fantabulous event. The food was wonderful and plentiful, there were plenty of watering holes placed throughout the ballroom, and they had even gone to the trouble to make arrangements to broadcast the NCAA D-I National Championship Football game between Ohio State and the University of Florida on screens hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the hall. A nice touch for college football fanatics like myself.

At the end of it all, each of our three clients made great contacts at the show, with several nice stories already published/broadcast.

At the end of the day, I will continue to A) recommend media receptions for clients as a very cost-effective and efficient way of meeting a lot of journalists and analysts at one time, and B) definitely recommend Showstoppers as my favorite media reception producers.

Good job, Showstoppers!

The people running CES (the Consumer Electronics Association) did something right in a BIG way this year.

I got to grab my “badge holder” at the airport. Very cool.

Rather than have to muck-around with determining where at the LVCC (Las Vegas Convention Center) I had to go to grab a badge holder (and you can’t get into CES without one), the CES people decided to make it easy on us pre-registered types and allow us to snag one at the airport. That was nice!