I managed to coax Kevin out to have a cocktail and some small plates with me at Kettlestrings Grove, which opened up sometime this past year, and is only a few blocks’ walk from us. It’s the first time we’ve actually been out to eat together since sometime before March 2020. It was very nice.
My ADHD brain craves novelty, and as much as I like to cook, I really love going new places and tasting new things. Getting to do this again makes me happier. Kev and I have spent too much of the last few years mostly having domestic logistical conversations — this confirmed that date nights are just good for us.
We talked about silly things, like opening up a cafe / bookstore / garden shop / event space / yarn store / Sri Lankan pop-up in our retirement (not actually going to happen, don’t get excited, it’d be way too much work and get in the way of writing). Also serious things (what I’d like to accomplish in my last two years on school board, and what he’d like to see change at the high school…)
In theory, we could have those conversations at home, of course, but somehow, they tend to get overrun by the minutiae of home & child management…
Both the fried polenta appetizer and the pork belly plates were on the salty / oily side for our tastes, but I suppose that’s traditional for bar bites, which are mostly designed to get you to buy more alcohol. We still enjoyed them, and since it was way too much for us to eat right then, we brought about half of it home with us, and Anand happily consumed all the leftover polenta.
The cocktail was the Paper Airplane: bourbon, Vecchio Amaro Del Capo, lemon, Aperol. It mostly tasted of lemon, though a bit of the orange in the bitters came through. I’m not sure why you’d use two different kind of bitters — I’m guessing the Aperol was mostly for the orange color. Did well at complementing the rich food, cutting through what would otherwise be too much. But I think next time, I’ll try a different cocktail…
(My Fathers’ Day gift to Kevin here is that I have refrained from making him pose for a photo. I am so kind.)
We came home afterwards, talked to Kavi in Argentina, of which more anon, and then watched the D&D movie with Anand. Nice Sunday evening.
