Fancy Pants Dinner

I had my Top Chef dinner!! Jen made my dinner Saturday night... and it was DELICIOUS! I was so excited to go... and the inside of this restaurant is AH-MAZING. It's in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the architecture was very similar to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

We had a bit of a snafu in the beginning of the evening... we were a bit late running out of the house (because SOMEONE didn't check to see if his clothes needed to be ironed...) and we weren't sure what the parking situation was. So we're on Broad Street, and see a parking garage... and park there. And then had to walk HALF A MILE to the restaurant. Half a mile isn't all that far, except when your reservation is at 9:00 and it's 8:58. So we didn't get to the restaurant until like 9:15-9:20. I did call them to let them know that we hit a snafu and would be there shortly.

I had a short rib, and Gene had homemade pasta with a bolognese sauce. I was really expecting Gene to pick up his plate and lick it. I also had the second best glass of pinot noir of my life. (the first best was at the Red Square in Atlantic City with my dad on my 21st birthday. I haven't been able to find a pinot that tastes quite like that... it just melted) The whole atmosphere was wonderful... the food was ridiculously good. We didn't order an appetizer... it was a lot of seafood dishes. Gene LOVES seafood, but I'm really not a seafood fan. We split a dessert though. BANANA CREME BRULEE. ZOMG. It was made of win.

The only thing that discouraged me was that the server for the two tables next to us took his tables back to meet Jen. My server didn't do that. I don't know if that's because we didn't order like $500 worth of food, or because we weren't staying at the restaurant? (or because we were late?) But it didn't make me feel very good. Though I am just happy knowing that Jen totally made my dinner. I could see her in the window!