Last evening Sporty and I got together for a bite in the city. In the car we couldn't decide what to eat: she'd already been to the place I had picked out and her diet is no bread no fried foods for now. So sitting at a redlight downtown I said there is a place on this corner and place on that corner (Thrive and Maxim Prime). We'll park and if we don't like spot A we'll go to spot B. After a glance over the menu at Thrive, she said she could figure something out, so we settled in.
Service was... how can I say this.... a little slow.
We talked about Emerils closing the Atlanta restaurant, our memories of the place and how the discussion in the AJC got regional then racial, where we still planned to go out, and some other stuff. After a while the waiter rolls by. Instead of the crab cake, which is pan seared but close enough to fried to matter, we got salads. Her the Cesear, me a Cobb. Which apparently takes a while to prepare.
So we talked about working out and cell phones and whatnot. After a while the waiter gets our food order. We search the menu for the grilled items intently and interrogate the waiter before selection. Then we wait for a while. Then a bit more. We discussed the decor of the restaurant which Sporty described as semi-cheap looking, she has some of the same light fixtures in her garage, and I thought they could use a better designer. It's another one of those places bulit into a closet that would be really hot up North. We also wondered if this sound we kept hearing was techo music or the AC unit having problems. We're not really into techno, so it just may have actually been that hot new sound from Prague.
Then after a little more of a while, the food came. Flank steak for her, sirloin for me. After that long wait in which the manager stopped by the table to check on us twice and we just chatted and laughed I was almost of the idea the food would be lackluster. Quite the contrary. The steak was a great piece of meat and Sporty liked her flank steak after it was dipped in the A1 sauce the waiter thoughtfully dropped off. The baked potato I found out was less than stellar, however.
I really needed this outing with her. All week I had been on edge, jittery and irritable, to the degree my co-workers are asking if I'm okay and offering to take me to strip clubs. Somehow being with her calms me, and it's moments like this where I realize I really do need her. I don't know what I'm going to do when she leaves. It was the first time in a week I walked into my house at the end of a day and didn't feel depressed. The idea of her leaving has taken my appetite, so it was also the first real meal I had eaten in about a week.
On the upside, all my clothes fit better.
Thrive has a downtown location (which means it's a tourist spot) and menu that's nice (but slightly overpriced), and the waitstaff needs a tip or two on good customer service. As we chilled out afterwards, just enjoying the evening, the waiter came by and took the signed credit card slip off my table while I sat there, which has never happened before. Awkward.
Barkeep...water. Keep it coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment