Stop Talking and Eat

It's always a treat to eat out with a restaurant owner in a place they've never been.
Today's lunch plans came about when I was eating dinner at another local place and the owner, knowing I live in Jackson Ward, asked if I'd been to Ettamae's Cafe. Been there? Uh, yea, just breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner.

Turns out he'd been wanting to check it out but wanted a qualified J-Ward girl to accompany him. Who better than me?

Honestly, Second Street gets a little better looking every time I'm over there. The line at Nate's Tacos was almost out the door and Laura at Ettamae's told us that a new Thai place is going in on that block any day now. Eventually, the whole street will be knit together (her term and one I love) with cool places to chow down.

But today it was all about Ettamae's and while it wasn't quite warm enough for me for balcony dining (cute pink-flowered skirt prohibiting such), we were happy to take a two-top in the cozy dining room.

I'd already bragged on Matt's corned beef, so we decided to split a corned beef on rye with a side of fruit and both ordered the salad special, a generous plate of fresh mesclun with dried cranberries, feta and toasted pecans.

We each finished our salads before even touching that big, beautiful corned beef sandwich. The restaurateur told me that he doesn't even bother ordering corned beef because it always disappoints. He left not a scrap of Matt's oven-braised beef.

From my own personal experience, I've noticed that restaurateurs are experts at cleaning their plates. Maybe it has something to do with them not having to cook or worry about customers.

Or perhaps I'm just so busy talking that they've got nothing better to do than eat and listen. I could test that by shutting up, but I always figure no one invites me out unless they want conversation.

And who am I to talk? I always clean my plate at Ettamae's. That's what grandmothers expect you to do and although Ettamae wasn't mine, she'd probably tell my grandmother Bessie that I left food.

And even though she's long-dead, I still think I'd be in deep trouble.