I've been the house for more than a minute lately. It is partly trying to fill in this lull between when I had hoped to take the bar and when I am planning to take the bar with practical things and exercises. Things that will improve my abilities. That instead of trying to "build a time machine" out of the Atlanta nightlife and see if I can get my youth back. I've become to some degree bookish. Tinkering with a few projects to keep my mind functioning. A bit of a homebody if you will.
I've become so ensconced that when Serve hit me up and suggested we go out for sushi, I honestly was scared going out would mess up my evening routine. This in case you're reading...is a bad thing. Real live person v. internet and TV. And some writing. So I threw on some shoes and headed out to midtown.
Ah, Midtown. When I first got to Atlanta ages ago (late 90's), still only halfway kinda knowing folks, before I hooked up with the guy who would eventually be my Running Partner and his boys, I had a fairly simple, nicely planed Friday night in Midtown. That all of these places are now closed and mostly forgotten says how far the city has come. First, The Martini Bar. It was a little old house turned bar that had live jazz upstairs and served 20 different kinds of martinis. I would hang out there until Club Kaya opened, where I would ply my pickup techniques until it got late. After I would walk back down to Vickery's Bar and Grill and get a burger and fries. Good Times. All gone.
Back to now. Midtown is still a bunch of hot spots and eateries, I just haven't been there lately. RA Sushi is at the south end of the Crescent Ave area, actually where Kaya once stood now that I think about it. The outside is all corporate, but the inside is all brown wood and red accents, with a sushi bar up front and a real bar in the far left corner. It could be warm and cozy if the room was a bit dimmer, but as it stands its kinda like a faux atmosphere instead. Or maybe it was just that night.
Serve had picked the place because it had a happy hour, and then fifteen percent off, and then as it turned out a eighties theme party going on, which meant even more a discount. Which explained why there was a picture of Tupac on the wall and they were playing old R&B. There was a tense moment early, when it appeared as if three girls who could have been classmates of Lil Sal and who arrived ten minutes after us looked like they were going to get served first, but our waitress arrived just in the nick of time. Whew.
The menu. Ah...well, here's the thing. You been to one sushi place, you've pretty much been to them all. Rice, fish, toppings and viola! Sushi! We got a round of drinks, I got a California roll and grilled short ribs off the special while Serve ordered the RAckin Shrimp and the edamame. I tasted a few of the shrimp, it wasn't a bad dish. The ribs were way too greasy and fatty. The California roll was....oh, you've had a California roll, same thing. I did mean to try a Las Vegas roll, but I forgot. Serve ordered something else which we split...but it was so blah I can't even remember what it was. Maybe the Lobster Shrimp Roll? I dunno.
That speaks volumes, doesn't it?
The meal was a thank you for a project of hers I'd been working on, one which the previous person she'd employed had left a mess. She figured she could trust me after my notes on what the other person had done wrong mirrored that of actual expert in the field she'd consulted. Oddly, we didn't talk about that. We talked mostly about getting old because we recognized ALL the songs, bad relationships among our mutual friends and what I'll need to do after I take the bar.
All in all a good night. A few drinks, a few laughs, good music and I was home to catch the Thursday night game still in the first quarter. Now don't that beat all? Well, it was the Bills versus the Dolphins...so, we technically could have hung out a little bit longer. So, RA sushi. Well, you might want to see if it's a theme night...
I've become so ensconced that when Serve hit me up and suggested we go out for sushi, I honestly was scared going out would mess up my evening routine. This in case you're reading...is a bad thing. Real live person v. internet and TV. And some writing. So I threw on some shoes and headed out to midtown.
Ah, Midtown. When I first got to Atlanta ages ago (late 90's), still only halfway kinda knowing folks, before I hooked up with the guy who would eventually be my Running Partner and his boys, I had a fairly simple, nicely planed Friday night in Midtown. That all of these places are now closed and mostly forgotten says how far the city has come. First, The Martini Bar. It was a little old house turned bar that had live jazz upstairs and served 20 different kinds of martinis. I would hang out there until Club Kaya opened, where I would ply my pickup techniques until it got late. After I would walk back down to Vickery's Bar and Grill and get a burger and fries. Good Times. All gone.
Back to now. Midtown is still a bunch of hot spots and eateries, I just haven't been there lately. RA Sushi is at the south end of the Crescent Ave area, actually where Kaya once stood now that I think about it. The outside is all corporate, but the inside is all brown wood and red accents, with a sushi bar up front and a real bar in the far left corner. It could be warm and cozy if the room was a bit dimmer, but as it stands its kinda like a faux atmosphere instead. Or maybe it was just that night.
Serve had picked the place because it had a happy hour, and then fifteen percent off, and then as it turned out a eighties theme party going on, which meant even more a discount. Which explained why there was a picture of Tupac on the wall and they were playing old R&B. There was a tense moment early, when it appeared as if three girls who could have been classmates of Lil Sal and who arrived ten minutes after us looked like they were going to get served first, but our waitress arrived just in the nick of time. Whew.
The menu. Ah...well, here's the thing. You been to one sushi place, you've pretty much been to them all. Rice, fish, toppings and viola! Sushi! We got a round of drinks, I got a California roll and grilled short ribs off the special while Serve ordered the RAckin Shrimp and the edamame. I tasted a few of the shrimp, it wasn't a bad dish. The ribs were way too greasy and fatty. The California roll was....oh, you've had a California roll, same thing. I did mean to try a Las Vegas roll, but I forgot. Serve ordered something else which we split...but it was so blah I can't even remember what it was. Maybe the Lobster Shrimp Roll? I dunno.
That speaks volumes, doesn't it?
The meal was a thank you for a project of hers I'd been working on, one which the previous person she'd employed had left a mess. She figured she could trust me after my notes on what the other person had done wrong mirrored that of actual expert in the field she'd consulted. Oddly, we didn't talk about that. We talked mostly about getting old because we recognized ALL the songs, bad relationships among our mutual friends and what I'll need to do after I take the bar.
All in all a good night. A few drinks, a few laughs, good music and I was home to catch the Thursday night game still in the first quarter. Now don't that beat all? Well, it was the Bills versus the Dolphins...so, we technically could have hung out a little bit longer. So, RA sushi. Well, you might want to see if it's a theme night...
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