Valentine's Day

So yesterday was Valentine's Day, that fateful day where men need to out-do what they did last year in order to impress their women. Last year my woman thought I was going to propose, so I was pretty much ok to do anything in order to beat that disappointment for her.

Just to remind her of how she felt, I booked a reservation at the same place we dined the year before. Last year for me was great: I was with my girl, we were eating good Italian food (it barely passed for being Italian but we'll get to that), and an accordion player played our song tableside. A beautiful night. Little did I know that Savannah was sweating bullets expecting me to drop to a knee on a moments notice.

Anyway, this year was a little different. We are married now, no sweating for her this time. I was a good husband and had arranged for roses to be delivered to her office during the day, she loved it. However, she worked late and was not able to meet me at home as planned before going to dinner--she had to go right to the restaurant. So I arrived first to find a crowded entry area. The host let me know that they were running "30-40 minutes behind." Obviously they decided to overbook the place as most people wanted a reservation somewhere between 6-8 and not 9:30 (our reservation was for 8). By overbooking, they pushed several reservations back, and forced people to eat later since you can't very well find an available restaurant on Valentine's night.

By this time, Savannah had shown up and fortunately, the wait provided us the time to return home (2 miles away) and allow Savannah to change into her evening attire. Once home, she quickly emerged from the bedroom in a stunning black and champagne cocktail dress looking much different than the professional office women just 10 minutes earlier.

We returned to the restaurant in time to wait 5 minutes and get our table. Once seated, we looked at the menu which resembled last year's (in fact it was exactly the same--a special truncated version with only 4 choices for entrees). We then waited about 10 minutes as we looked for who might possibly be our server. Several passed but none looked like we were their table. Finally, one waiter who had passed us a dozen times or so actually stopped and said, and I quote, "So?"

A little off guard I stammered before regrouping and saying, "Uh, can we see a wine list?" He was off without a word.

Back a few minutes later, he handed me the wine book and promptly left. We selected our wine and when the server returned he silently looked at me as though I were about to say something. Thinking he was going to ask which wine we wanted, I waited, but upon realizing he was going to remain silent I ordered our wine. As he was about to leave, I knew we had to seize our chance so I stopped him and ordered our entrees. Off he went.

Now, as an educated hospitality person and with a lot of restaurant experience both as an employee and a patron, this lack of relationship befuddled me a bit. So rather than becoming upset, we laughed about it. He broke so many rules of serving it wasn't even funny. Sure he was polite, but he never said his name, never welcomed us, never apologized for getting to our table late, and never offered to help us with a selection. It wasn't bad service--it just wasn't service at all. No matter, we were not going to let the service spoil our night. And it didn't.

The cream of mushroom soup came moments later, amazingly, and it was excellent. Just as we had remembered last year. The pear and caramelized walnut salad did not disappoint either.

When the entrees came, fairly promptly, poor Savannah received a medium rare cut of beef after ordering it well done. As the waiter was no where to be found, she ate sides for 10 minutes before finally we told a busser to grab our server. Once he came he took the beef back to the kitchen and returned with a more well cut. Nothing unusual, it happens all the time to my wife who likes her meat well done with no pink. Oftentimes the restaurants under cook it in order not to kill it and because they can always cook it more, but not less. My duck breast was very good and flavorful so we were half good.

Dessert was also a positive, chocolate covered strawberries, and tiramisu. Excellent. The night ended as we got home and she gave me my present, a DVD I had been wanting, The Departed. And with that Valentine's Day 2007 was in the books.