Fancy Dinner

Last June the church had a golf tournament and there were door prizes. I won a gift certificate to an upscale restaurant. I spent most of the rest of the summer out of town and the envelope with the gift certificate got buried under other papers. Doing taxes low and behold there's this gift certificate, and no expiration date, so today I made reservations. 

Grinnygranny and I just got back from our fancy dinner. Tonight was the first time I've had a waitperson get miffed right off the bat. When she asked for our drink order we passed on a $20 glass of wine (which I can't gag down anyway) and had water. She had her nose out of joint from then on. 

We ordered free range chicken, now I'm not a total clod. I've read how everyone raves about how much better free range is over the poor miserable birds they raise in factory farms. I'm sorry, chicken tastes like chicken. There is a real difference between eggs from chickens that are free range and the egg factory ones. Free Range egg yolks are nearly orange compared to the pale yellow you get in the store and have much more flavor. (We used to have neighbors with chickens when I was in elementary school and Mom would buy a dozen eggs from them every week.)

Anyway, the waitperson was apalled. We didn't order an appetizer or salad. There was a table of other diners (we recognized a couple of local Tee Vee anchor people) that did order salads. I'm sorry a small pile of raw spinach with salad dressing was not worth the price on the menu. The chicken did come on a mound of mashed potatoes and what they referred to as succotash. Which was yellow corn, bell peppers, carrots, and zucchini. Hey three food groups in one dish, who needs a salad? We ordered one dessert. I was even nice and tipped 20% as the bill was almost exactly the amount of the certificate, and overall for the price of the tip it was a decent meal. 

Well, we now know how the upper crust of the city dine. I guess if you're really into wine it's a nice place, and the food was good. It would have been better without the attitude. I get more than enough of that from my students I don't need to pay for it.