The Restaurant Refugee

In copy catting solidarity with this person I adore, and this person who I think is fabulous, and this person who petitely personifies terrific, and countless other citizens of the blogosphere who were chaffed by this suggestion that all bloggers need to shut their collective e-pie holes until we have something more meaningful to write, this post is free of intellectual calories.

30 Random things crossing my mind lately

1. Why do so many of the really hot dishes come with a side of crazy?
2. This mini heat wave must be endured without complaint because the weather in August was the best we have seen in these parts in decades.
3. When does one officially move from mid 30s to late 30s?
4. Football is back and all is right with the world
5. I am a straight man, and I like the L Word.  Got something to say about it?
6. I don’t care if a snarling pitbull is wearing lipstick, I am still afraid of it.
7. I miss my Treo
8. I am still angry with all of you for not watching SportsNight in sufficient numbers to keep it on the air.
9. Romeo and Juliet is coming to the STC and that, to quote this lady, “makes me happy in my pants.”
10. I feel sorry for people that don’t drink, because when you get up in the morning that’s as good as you’re going to feel all day.
11. Frank Sinatra said that.
12. At a concert in Vegas
13. On his 50^th birthday
14. There are few life experiences I wouldn’t trade to have been at that show.
15. Eva Cassidy dies at 35 but Dick Cheney still lives?
16. The number of people who could have been the first subject of the last sentence is innumerable.
17. The only way to make a pork tenderloin taste better is to wrap it in bacon.
18. If you want me to do just about anything, asking with a frozen Peppermint Pattie in your hand is a good start.
19. Bob from Atlanta, it was nice meeting you last night; and your wife is way too hot for you.
20. Tall dorky and drunk homophobe watching the game near me last night, you needed a smack.
21. The list of things in Georgetown that don’t suck can be counted using my fingers – with a couple to spare.
22. My current eCrush list is longer than the list of things in Georgetown that don’t suck
23. Sign O the Times is Prince’s best album ever.
24. There ought to be a constitutional right to free wi-fi in all urban areas
25. The inside joke in the movie Sideways is that the 61 Cheval Blanc is mostly Merlot
26. I went to the Lane Bryant website one fucking time  months ago for research and I am still getting their banner ads.
27. Actually, it is you not me.
28. The first day of fall is the first day it is cool enough for me to wear a cashmere sports jacket
29. Google Chrome isn’t quite ready for prime time.
30. Write what ever the hell you want.  We live in a country that still offers choice for the moment.

I was invited to pour wine for the Hoity-Toity Charity Wine Dinner, a fundraiser for some charitable organization that allowed people who could afford $10K a plate dinners to gather among their own kind.  It was an honor, in the sense that only the top sommeliers in the area were invited to pour.

The dinner was held at a grand estate in the suburbs – the tennis courts were converted to a dining area for a few hundred people.  A team of wine professionals gathered several hours before the event to conduct the massive operation of double decanting almost two dozen cases of ten different wines.  Exquisite bottlings from some of the worlds most highly regarded wineries were inspected, tasted, poured into the decanter, left to aerate for a precise amount of time, and decanted back into the bottles*.  From opening the first bottle to pouring the last drops, nine hours had ticked away.  It was an exhausting evening made much more glamorous by all of the sublime wines we consumed ourselves.

The extremely wealthy, extremely entitled men seemingly all arrived with the standard issue perfectly coiffed women – cookie cutter images of the idle rich.  Their faces, stretched farther than their imaginations have traveled in years, each seemed a caricature of herself.

By the time I was pouring the 7^th wine of the evening, 1996 Bryant Family Cabernet, I had developed a rapport with the tables in my section – that is they stopped treating me as a servant and regarded me as a highly educated wine professional and began asking questions.  When I served this spectacular wine to the last table, Alice, the apparent Alpha Female of the group, after tasting declared the wine “tight*”. 

“Madame, I assure you that this bottle, as every other, has been double decanted and tasted by at least two sommeliers and we think it is showing beautifully.”

“This is tight” she insisted.

“I personally tasted this bottle before offering it to your table and I think it is pristine.”

“Well taste this glass” she demanded shoving it in my face.

Another chance to sample a 100pt, $1,000 bottle of wine – sure.  I swirled, tasted and spent a few moments pretending to contemplate the question before ignoring the easy way out.  “Ma’am, I must disagree with you on this point.  This wine is drinking optimally.”

The lady who doth protest too much was interrupted by her husband as she was about to launch into another.

“Alice, the only thing tight at this table is you.  Shut-up and drink it.”

*anyone who might be curious about wines that should be decanted, the process of double decanting, or a further explanation of wine that is “tight” feel free to send me an email for further explanation.  I can be reached at restaurantrefugee at gmail dot com.

This is not a political blog, but the announcement that Governor Sarah Palin’s 17 year-old daughter is pregnant forces my inner bombast.

Here’s the statement from Palin and her husband:

We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.

Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.

You’re PROUD of Bristol’s DECISION yet you are so vehemently, violently anti-choice that you believe that even if a mother’s life is at risk abortion should be against the law.  Thank the sweet baby Jesus that Bristol lives in a country that still allows her to make a DECISION about which you can be proud.

You choose to expose your pregnant teenage daughter to the unrelenting glare of the national media spotlight at a time that surely is confusing and vulnerable for her.  Great way to display family values, Governor.

By the by, Governor, how effective do you think Abstinence Only Sex Education is now?

I am disgusted by the whole sordid mess.

Summer is always the shortest season, no?  Yet I do not mourn her passing – for all of summer’s flings, I prefer autumn’s loves. – Cary Grant

Only fools argue with Cary Grant

The best things about fall – an abbreviated and biased list:

Cashmere

Football – Professional, College, High School or Pee-Wee, doesn’t matter just lace em’ up

Picnics without mosquito’s

The tourists are gone

Baseball playoffs

That glorious period where both summer vegetables and the first of the fall harvest are available

Off-season rates at the beach

Magic hour – photographers and filmmakers know of what I speak

Earth tones – In; Pastels – Out

Tailgating

Wedding Season is O.V.E.R.

Most urchins are back in school

Hot coffee and a cigar is far superior to iced coffee and a cigar

Walks to the subway without perspiration

Technicolor running through Rock Creek Park

A post-work stroll through the Zoo becomes a very cool date

140 days left and counting