Girls Gone Cocoa

I can't decide if it's small town-like or big city-like to have a pharmacy connected to a restaurant. Go in for pain reliever and then use the connecting door to have a little lunch while you're there.

Which is just how it went down today when a friend and I returning from Church Hill decided on Aziza's for a late lunch. Pulling up, she commented on needing some aspirin, so we went into Edloe's Pharmacy on Main, a place I knew of but had never been in.

Paying for her Alleve, the pharmacist commented that "It's too nice a day to need this." Actually, it was too nice a day to have a pain, so she took a couple right there at the water fountain before we used the shared door to find a table at Aziza's. Since I'm usually at Aziza's at night, I can't say I'd even noticed the door before.

We chose our meal from the array of deli choices, getting Lebanese meat and potatoes, white bean, basil and tuna salad and stewed veggies with garbanzo beans. All three were excellent and toasted pita bread was used to soak up assorted oil, sauce and juices.

She'd wanted to order a fourth choice, but luckily I'd dissuaded her since we had leftovers out of those three. Still, we both love eating that way, tasting a variety of things. Why settle for one if you don't have to, especially if you can have three?

Of course, we're talking food here, although my friend suggested that she'd like to see me reach that point in my personal life, too. Wouldn't I have to get to one first? Let's just say I laughed out loud at the notion of three.

She wanted our next stop to be Pearl's Cupcake Shop over on the Avenues but worried that it was too far out of my comfort zone for me. Not so; I can do Libbie without hyperventilating.

And even though we stuck out like sore thumbs (so not Avenue types), it was well worth it for the trendier-than-thou cupcakes in the overly spacious and cutesy space, which also had a yarn/knitting shop in the basement.

She wanted gluten free and had the luxury of two choices; hers was the chocolate cake with butter cream frosting. There was no way for me to resist the "Pearl Gone Cocoa," a chocolate cake with white icing and coconut.

A lot of coconut. Falling onto my lap and onto the table with every bite lot of coconut. Moist and sweet coconut with dark chocolate underneath. Kind of like a nonpreservative-filled Hostess Snowball. Note to self: enjoy this combination again.

But no matter how much nudging I might get, I couldn't possibly handle three.