Although my wording totally copies one whom I deeply admire, I'm saying it anyway: DUDES! I had the most awesome birthday EVAH!
And had my dinner cooked by this year's Top Chef winner! Stick with this, I'll get to that very soon. First, I must bore you with requisite family filler.
FIRST, I got to sleep in as long as I wanted!
SECOND, it's Spring Break and even though we're doing the staycation thing, it's so delightful to wake up Sunday knowing I won't have to endure tantrums over homework (my own tantrums, mind you) and no fuss over bedtimes for DAYS AND DAYS AND DAYS.
THIRD, my family was so extra, extra, extra NICE to me all day! Don't get me wrong, I've been blessed with exceptionally nice kids, who are nice when they're not fussing even though they're both teenagers! And Mr. Lemony is very nice, too, when he's not stressing to the point of making weird animal sounds that he thinks we don't hear. Yes, small but meaningful blessings.
FOURTH AND BY FAR MOST INTERESTING, Mr. Lemony and I had a DATE! No kids, just the two of us! CRAZY! And Hosea cooked us dinner and sang Happy Birthday to me! Here's flashless, grainy iPhone photographic proof!
Hosea Rosenberg works here, a constantly packed hole in the wall, Jax Fish House.
The restaurant's only about 15 feet wide. It seats 60 very crowded diners.
The food was dee-lish. I took a couple of pictures of our plates once we stopped shoveling food long enough to breathe, but the pictures look pretty gross. You can check out my Flickr photostream if you must, but be forewarned that we made quite a mess because, clearly, we are pigs. MUCH better to check out the photos on the menu. I had the scallops. Slightly underdone for my tastes but you know, I like my edible animal products considerably firmer than they were when the animal was alive. Still, the scallops were rave worthy, as were the many, many sauces, soups and vegetable sides, ALL of which contained Spring Peas. Hosea must have gotten boatloads of peas that he needed to get rid of, pronto. Who knew there are so many ways to use peas? I honestly don't remember what entree Mr. Lemony finally settled on but it must have been good because he inhaled every morsel within 30 seconds.
So, Hosea's a very low key dude. And personable! And he looks just like every other 35 year old guy in Boulder! We chatted for quite a while about the whole reality show thing. He told us that he had been traveling a lot since Top Chef but had no desire (read: offers) to leave Boulder. He admitted that he'd like to own a restaurant but that wasn't on the immediate horizon. In other words, winning Top Chef doesn't lead to a superstar lifestyle but is clearly good for business - we were lucky to score a 6:00 pm reservation on a freaking SUNDAY.
But there's MORE! We sat a couple of inches from the couple at the next table, a 75 year old woman from Stowe, Vermont ( we always meet people from Vermont in Boulder restaurants) and her companion, an 80 year old dude from here, via Columbus, Ohio, Stowe and somewhere else. They're both recently widowed and met five days ago at a funeral. And they were IN LOVE! The woman confided to me that they were DOING IT. As in using these products. They were downing those oyster shots like nobody's business, in preparation for... well, I chose to fight off disturbing mental images and concentrate on how darn cute they were.
So now it's back to real life. Last night I fixed leftover Costco ravioli slathered in jarred Target Alfredo sauce. And plain old frozen peas, not up to Hosea's or Mr. Lemony's standards. And judging by the amount of ravioli and peas left on everyone's plates 20 minutes later, not up to the kids' standards, either. You see, it's all part of my devious plan to go out for dinner much more often. I'll keep you posted on the hopefully yummy results.
The food was dee-lish. I took a couple of pictures of our plates once we stopped shoveling food long enough to breathe, but the pictures look pretty gross. You can check out my Flickr photostream if you must, but be forewarned that we made quite a mess because, clearly, we are pigs. MUCH better to check out the photos on the menu. I had the scallops. Slightly underdone for my tastes but you know, I like my edible animal products considerably firmer than they were when the animal was alive. Still, the scallops were rave worthy, as were the many, many sauces, soups and vegetable sides, ALL of which contained Spring Peas. Hosea must have gotten boatloads of peas that he needed to get rid of, pronto. Who knew there are so many ways to use peas? I honestly don't remember what entree Mr. Lemony finally settled on but it must have been good because he inhaled every morsel within 30 seconds.
So, Hosea's a very low key dude. And personable! And he looks just like every other 35 year old guy in Boulder! We chatted for quite a while about the whole reality show thing. He told us that he had been traveling a lot since Top Chef but had no desire (read: offers) to leave Boulder. He admitted that he'd like to own a restaurant but that wasn't on the immediate horizon. In other words, winning Top Chef doesn't lead to a superstar lifestyle but is clearly good for business - we were lucky to score a 6:00 pm reservation on a freaking SUNDAY.
But there's MORE! We sat a couple of inches from the couple at the next table, a 75 year old woman from Stowe, Vermont ( we always meet people from Vermont in Boulder restaurants) and her companion, an 80 year old dude from here, via Columbus, Ohio, Stowe and somewhere else. They're both recently widowed and met five days ago at a funeral. And they were IN LOVE! The woman confided to me that they were DOING IT. As in using these products. They were downing those oyster shots like nobody's business, in preparation for... well, I chose to fight off disturbing mental images and concentrate on how darn cute they were.
So now it's back to real life. Last night I fixed leftover Costco ravioli slathered in jarred Target Alfredo sauce. And plain old frozen peas, not up to Hosea's or Mr. Lemony's standards. And judging by the amount of ravioli and peas left on everyone's plates 20 minutes later, not up to the kids' standards, either. You see, it's all part of my devious plan to go out for dinner much more often. I'll keep you posted on the hopefully yummy results.
14 comments:
Wow! Hosea's restaurant. Very cool!
My husband, brother, and sister-in-law have discussed going to Fabio's restaurant together. I hope this plan moves past the "talking about it" stage...
I loved Hosea on the show. I'm so jealous!
Sounds like a wonderful birthday! And a really smart plan at the end!
That old woman really confided all that stuff to you? Damn.
jen, I failed to mention that the old folks were also shooting back martinis like nobody's business!
*coff* Vermont Country Store....
MAH EYES! MAH EYES!
*coff wheeze snort coff*
Hope it was a fabulous birthday and I hope you never need the Vermont Country Store goods in your bedroom.
Not staycation. Retro. Cool. Like when we were kids and spring break meant not jetting off to Aruba, which was something only the ultra-rich did (or were rumored to do, because who actually knew?), but only a week of blissful sleeping late and not going to school.
Well. There was that year when my dad took us for a two-day camping and fishing trip to Lake Possum Kingdom so my mom could have a break at home, so yes, we joined the ranks of the swanky people, but usually, we were just ordinary stay at home folks.
So ... Hosea is less of an asshat in person than he was on the show? Is what you're saying?
Wow--that's pretty cool. I adore the bit about the old couple.
What a great birthday! Happy belated to you.
xoxox
it sounds nice! although all those bottles on the wall could be dangerous during a volcano or an earthquake or whatever you get out there...
oh, the mrs. doesn't like underdone scallops either.
How cool is that! So cool!
Any effort to eat food is OK in my book. And your tale of elderlove is rather sweet, albeit a tad disturbing. I picture them looking like the happy couple drawn on the Intimate Solutions site.
Geriatric sex, oysters, and bald guys. YOU, my lady, live a lavish life!
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