JJB’s Ramblings

There is nothing worse than trying to make decisions when operating on an empty stomach.  As a matter of fact, if that is combined with a hectic day at work (hectic being defined as: reaching the point where you would gladly amputate your own thumbs because it means you cannot pick up the ever ringing phone) then you should not be allowed to mingle with the public until you have eaten a 12inch sub of varying toppings and washed it down with your beverage of choice.  That being said, I should not have been in public last night. 

I met E in Central Sq. after work with the intention of looking at a couch (quickly) and then finding dinner (preferably within 15 paces of the furniture store).  The first part went just fine.  We looked, we saw, we left. Now time for dinner.  There are a plethora of restaurants in the square and suddenly NONE of them seemed appetizing.  I was well past the point of hunger, teetering on the cusp of “I’m so hungry I can’t decide”… I immediately put the spotlight on E, hoping that she would be able come up with some suggestions that would reflect what she wanted, making my choice easier.  The problem was that my miserable, hungry mood was starting to take its effect on her. 

I should note here that the original thought was that we would head over to La Spina in Davis.  I changed this plan mid-day when I realized that going from Central to Davis would “take too long” and that I would need instant gratification. Stupid stupid stupid. 

We started by popping into Central Kitchen and turned around when nothing jumped off the ¼ page menu.  We decide that a middle of the road priced restaurant was what we needed and we would save the duck confit with strawberry preserves for another day.  Working our way back to the apartment E tried in vain to make suggestions and I keep striking them down.  Mexican? No. Indian? No. Bukowski’s? Nope, I want better food. At this juncture I am flat out unreasonable and decide that the B Side lounge is where we will dine.  I hadn’t eaten there before but liked the atmosphere and that was good enough.  When we arrived the bar was full so we asked to be seated a little further from the after-work crowd.  Our waitress came over with some water and menus and left us to peruse the offerings.  For a tri-fold menu that is double sided, only one page was actually reserved for food.  The rest is wine, beer, mixed drinks, etc…with a little area for dessert.  E looked troubled.  Nothing really seemed to be appealing to her and I was trying to choose between 7 different options.  Things are not looking good.  I have stabilized my Munger (a combination of mad and hungry) but E is slipping fast. Nothing looks good to her, and under normal circumstances I would have taken her somewhere else after looking at the menu.  The waitress came over and I inquired as to what cheeses were on the Artisinal Cheese plate to which she replies, “Artisan cheese”.  I am crying inside.  I take a breath and E, seeing my stability waning, says yes, but what KIND.  The poor waitress says, “OH.  The peppercorn…yea that peppercorn cheese and some goat cheese”.  Great.  I order a PBR and ask her to give us a minute.  The waitress exits and I continue to unfairly badger E about what she will eat.  I rationalize that if she decides on a sandwich then I will get one.  If she wants appetizers, then we will just split a few of those.  In the middle of this earthshaking decision, our waitress comes back saying that they don’t have PBR.  I give her a second beer order and she disappears, coming back a few moments later with the beer and taking our order.  We decided on two app’s and a sandwich.  The waitress leaves, I take a sip of the beer, look at E (who does not look happy) and say, “You want to just go to La Spina?” (again, stupid, stupid, stupid) and she says Yes. OK, easy enough.  I take a pull from my bottle and go find our waitress.  I tell her that E just received a phone call and we actually have to leave immediately, so could she cancel that whole order and draw the tab for the beer?  She gives me a look, shrugs and turns around to scratch it.  I get back to the table, we finish the beer and away we go.

ANYWAY. 

La Spina was great and I shouldn’t have changed the plans.  Rita was testing out the idea of serving pizza at the bar so we got to try a few different pies that she made.  In addition to that we had some wonderful calamari and eggplant, shot the shit with Holly and Steve at the bar, chatted with Rita and her son and had a very good time.  Full and happy we left two hours later, completely content.

Now, I know some of you are reading this shaking your head saying, “SEE! This is why you shouldn’t change your plans all the time.”  That’s all well and good, but if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had a story to kill the last 5 minutes of your day, or the last 25 of mine, would I?  The lesson learned is simple: Give a man a fish, feed him for a meal.  Give him three and he can eat enough between meals so he doesn’t become a raging ass.

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed