9 June 2009
Last week, Chance's Grandma and Great-Grandma came for a working visit. They helped clean up the house so we can return it to its owners in good shape. While they were here, we celebrated Chance's 11-month birthday with a crown, ice cream cake, and new toys.
On Saturday, Mark and Erin left the grandmas in charge and went out for a nice dinner. We headed to a restaurant where we know the chef – it seemed as good a reason as any to try out a new place. When we ordered dinner and a bottle of wine, Mark asked the waiter to tell Chris (the chef) we said “Hi.” The next thing we knew, the owner came out with a lovely appetizer complements of Chris – quite a nice treat!
We ate a delicious meal (rabbit and swordfish) and nearly finished a good bottle of wine (a Portuguese tinto); we were feeling good. After some debate about whether we had room for dessert, we ordered a brownie with chocolate & raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. When it arrived, Mark dug right in, swirling his forkful of brownie in the rich sauces. But instead of the expected "yum," he said "this tastes a little strange." Both of us were thinking that it must be some fancy-pants gourmet sauce that our baby-food palates didn’t appreciate.
Erin dipped her fork into the sauce and tasted – not chocolate – but gravy. And we both looked down at the deep brown, smooth pool of sauce that the brownie sat in, and that had been decoratively drizzled across the brownie. Mark tasted again and confirmed that it definitely wasn't a salty chocolate sauce.
He called the waiter over. We explained and he whisked the plate away. He came back a minute later, apologized, and verified that somehow a gravy pan had ended up at the dessert station. A new brownie arrived, followed by the owner again, this time bearing glass each of Muscat and 20-year old port. She apologized too and said Chris was really embarrassed. We thought it was hilarious (and would make a great blog entry). And then she told us how glad she was that it had happened to us – "friends" of the restaurant – rather than the vegetarian couple who had ordered the brownie after us. This made us laugh even more (okay, we'd had some wine, but it was pretty funny).
We had a great and memorable evening, and some great food. Think about it, a gravy that was rich, dark, and smooth enough to pass for chocolate sauce! If you find yourself in Shelburne, Vermont, we strongly recommend Bistro Sauce.
Fantastic that the two of you had a night out. Those are hard to come by once kids are in the house but very important to keeping yourselves together! Happy 11 months to Chance!
Posted by: chel | 10 June 2009 at 05:29 PM
Mmmm...gravy! If they had thrown in some cheese curds, you would have been all set.
Posted by: Amanda | 12 June 2009 at 09:30 PM
Beautiful photos of your family and travels. Thank you for sharing this blog link with the GCU Arizona/Federal Government class.
Mary
Student in your class
Posted by: Mary C. McGregor | 11 July 2009 at 01:29 PM