broccolini<\/a>, asparagus and shiitakes? Sounds good, sir. When asked if I want those mixed into the sauce I say no, on the side is fine, thinking both less work in the kitchen and that the broccolini would not “work” in a simple red sauce.<\/p>\nBlame me for assuming, but because all the “menu’d” pastas included a variety of produce I was sure ours would be priced comparatively. Neither the new server nor her trainer told us differently.<\/p>\n
What we got was delicious, don’t get me wrong. The amount of pasta was perfect, not too big a serving. The vegetables were grilled and crisp-tender — 4-5 broccolini, 6 asparagus and 5-6 mushrooms each.<\/p>\n
Comes the bill: $40 for the two pastas and $15 for both sets of greens. Add about $15 for a salad apiece — hold the cheese on mine — and about $15 for one cocktail each, and with tax and tip we just enjoyed a hundred-dollar-plus dinner on Dickson Street.<\/p>\n
If you’re a health-conscious eater yet on a budget and want fine dining for a special occasion, sorry but you are going to have to grill the wait staff, never mind embarrassing your companion, wrecking the intimate celebratory conversation and making yourself look picayune. At comparable restaurants, this should have been $60 maybe $70.<\/span> Yet I caved.<\/p>\nIt’s a fact the meats are the biggest cost on a menu. I have come to avoid ordering meat entrees that include great sides and request dropping the meat, because 95 percent of the time I am told the restaurant’s computer won’t allow reducing the price accordingly. Happened at this joint, too, when MB asked about the tuna entree, whose sides would be a meal to themselves.<\/p>\n
Maybe next time I will try the following to minimize awkwardness: At the start of ordering I will ask the server: Please give the price on each and every food you recite to me.<\/em><\/p>\nI need only say this once, right?<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n
Here’s a question, a couple of days after the fact. Why did the server always stand by my wife? Why didn’t she (either of them) move to my side of the table when it was my turn so I wouldn’t have to talk past her head? It did seem rude at the time.<\/p>\n
Was it to … ? No, that’s just paranoid.<\/p>\n
Come to think of it, the diced tomatoes in the pomodoro came from a can. MB’s mint julep so tasted like cough syrup that she asked for more soda water to dilute it and still couldn’t finish it. Her orange spinach salad (hold the bacon) had precisely four segments from a mandarin or clementine, each holding a corner of the square plate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We asked for it so I can’t complain. We dined out to celebrate. It would so kill the mood to ask what’s an add-on and what comes-with on each and every item, so we didn’t. Boy, did I pay for it. Here is a caution to near-vegans and vegans, like My Beloved and me. All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-body-home-street"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7691,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2023\/11\/sheet-casserole\/","url_meta":{"origin":4830,"position":0},"title":"Full Casserole on a Sheet","author":"Ben S. 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Pollock","date":"July 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This pasta sauce says summer to me louder than gazpacho soup. If you\u2019re desperate for hot weather, this\u2019ll be almost as good with canned tomatoes and dried basil. The temperature contrast between room temperature sauce and steaming pasta is deliberate. Here's a quote from a 1985 newspaper recipe by Arthur\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condiments"","block_context":{"text":"Condiments","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/condiments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Part 1, \u201cArthur Schwartz\u2019 Uncooked Pasta Sauces,\u201d Arkansas Gazette, Aug. 7, 1985","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Puttanesa-recipe-recto-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Puttanesa-recipe-recto-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Puttanesa-recipe-recto-150x150.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Puttanesa-recipe-recto-150x150.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4778,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2014\/04\/tasty-homemade-matzo\/","url_meta":{"origin":4830,"position":2},"title":"Tasty Homemade Matzo","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This matzo recipe tastes way better than a box. That's the joke about storebought matzo, the unleavened bread eaten instead of conventional yeast or baking soda\/powder loaves or other baked goods during the Jewish holiday of Passover. Yet I've always liked matzo, and factory-made does taste far better than cardboard.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bake"","block_context":{"text":"Bake","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/bake\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tasty homemade matzo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/matzo-041514-1000x-300x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4698,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2014\/02\/creamy-vegan-herb-dip\/","url_meta":{"origin":4830,"position":3},"title":"Creamy Vegan Herb Dip","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Nothing can truly replace the taste or mouth-feel of sour cream or cream cheese. We vegans should just honor our memories of dairy dip by improving on it. If you're too full after the game on TV for a real meal, at least you haven't messed up as badly, having\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condiments"","block_context":{"text":"Condiments","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/condiments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Vegan Herb Dip","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/Vegan-Herb-Dip-cropped-300x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6884,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2020\/12\/make-ranch\/","url_meta":{"origin":4830,"position":4},"title":"Don’t Buy the Ranch, Make It","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"December 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"To start with, oils are 14 grams of fat per Tablespoon, a standard amount, and that's the same for any of them, olive, avocado, coconut, soybean. Conventional vinaigrettes are 2\/3 oil and 1\/3 acid, not counting salt and other flavorings. Even before I started eating really healthy, that seemed like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Condiments"","block_context":{"text":"Condiments","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/condiments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Illustration of a bowl of salad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/salad-bowl-openclipart.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/salad-bowl-openclipart.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/salad-bowl-openclipart.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/salad-bowl-openclipart.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/salad-bowl-openclipart.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/salad-bowl-openclipart.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7136,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2021\/10\/bean-burger\/","url_meta":{"origin":4830,"position":5},"title":"The Best Bean Burger, Well So Far","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"October 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The first rule for vegans ought to be, \"Forget about trying to fool carnos with meatless analogs.\" A \"realistic\" homemade meatless hamburger has too much prep and unexpected ingredients (beets for bloodiness), while the new generation of store-bought patties is highly processed and unexpectedly expensive. But happy childhood memories of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Main Courses"","block_context":{"text":"Main Courses","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/kook-cooks\/entrees\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Illustration of a hamburger sandwich","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/hamburger-openclipart-219732.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/hamburger-openclipart-219732.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/hamburger-openclipart-219732.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/hamburger-openclipart-219732.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/hamburger-openclipart-219732.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/hamburger-openclipart-219732.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4830"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4853,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions\/4853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}