North America by Train

We had planned to make tonight the fancy dinner to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. But we also wanted some place quiet enough to have a conversation. And we wanted a place within walking distance. And we wanted a place that still had tables available this evening.

All of that proved too much. So we tried one place that had no available bookings, but they did say "walkins welcome." So we tried walking over there. But they could only take us if the existing reservations didn't show up.

So we stood out on the street, searching on our phones for some place nearby. I found a place on the 44th floor of a nearby (10 min away) building. So we headed over there thinking at least the view would be nice. They had a reservation available about 30 minutes away and so we got there and waited for about 15 minutes.

It was loud and once we got seated we discovered we had no view. And the menu was expensive. And the food didn't look that good. And the service was abysmal (one waiter who was way overworked). So after a bit we just got up and left.

We headed off to another restaurant Russell had pre-scouted (Gusto 101) and so we were reasonably certain that at least the food would be good. Sure enough it was REALLY LOUD but by this point we were too hungry to care.

Russell ordered 3 bottles of wine for the table, so in short time we were feeling no pain. The food was very good and once the other customers cleared out, we could actually talk.

So in the end it was a lovely dinner, but getting there was a bit of a struggle.もっと詳しく