My Second Visitor

So the plan for yesterday was to meet Lori, Mike and Alan at IronWorks in Glendale, AZ.  Earlier in the week Lori and I learned Restaurant Week was occurring here in the Phoenix area during our stay.  Restaurant Week is held in many cities and usually consists of high end restaurants offering a pre-fixed menu for a discounted rate.  Some cities participate in this week long extravaganza to raise money for charity, other cities hold these types of events to introduce newcomers to local culinary flavor.

Lori made reservations for 8:15 as she and Mike were picking up Alan the hour before at the airport.  Lori told Alan to dress “appropriately” to meet her new boyfriend and apparently this means khakis.  I opted for a dress (the first time I dressed up for anything in how many weeks?)

I arrived to the restaurant first.

My initial inclination that something was amiss was the parking lot.  It was not crowded, immediately making me question the necessity of a reservation.  In fact finding a parking spot near the front door was an easy task.  Since I did not see their car, I decided to wait inside for their arrival and perhaps enjoy a drink at the bar.  This was the second thing that clued me in that something was not quite right.  The bar was a combination of Cheers meets Caps Tavern meets one of those shady bars with no windows to prohibit outsiders, like me, from coming through the door.

There I was, no Lori, no Mike, no Alan, with a crowd of well…uhmmm…etiquettely challenged individuals staring back at me.  I walked out.  (You know I must have felt out of place if I left a bar!)

As I walked back out into the 90 degree night air, my company arrived.  I was literally jumping up and down to see familiar faces and gave Alan a big hug, almost forgetting about the awkwardness that awaited us inside.

After the hellos I tried to explain that I wasn’t quite sure we were in the right place.  As the four of us returned to the restaurant, we were greeted by a sign in the dining area that said “please seat yourself.”  It obviously was not necessary for Lori to make those reservations.  We sat in the dining room which we had all to ourselves, well except the workers who were sitting at a table near the other end of the restaurant.

The four of us were still laughing when the waiter came over and we asked for the Restaurant Week menu.  He had no idea what we were talking about.

Eventually someone did understand, we were provided the menu and thankfully offered drinks.  I quickly ordered a vodka martini.  They certainly had an interesting way to serve it!

The food was good - but there was way too much.  Here are our take home boxes!

Another family did eventually join us and you can see them in the background.

As my third visitor, Sue, was to arrive around midnight we decided to head back to the resort and play some cards and have a few beverages.

Alan, not liking to travel alone, decided to bring his friend Thunder along for the trip.  The pics below, show....well.... uhmm.... Alan and Thunder!   You can decide for yourself what is going on.

Sue arrived safely and we all had a late night.  I think I went to bed around 3am.  My apologies to my loyal fans for my late blog, but warning.......this might be the trend for the rest of the week!