Changes not Cha-Cha's

It is a great karmic lesson to spend an evening with a friend who is going through the same thing you went through a while back.

Even if you're not over it, just further along.

By the same token, it is a pleasure to spend an evening with friends too infrequently seen.

Starting at the Belvidere, we allowed the bartender to tell us where we would hypothetically be going if he were part of our entourage tonight.

Charming as he was, attentive even to our Vinho Verde needs, any plan that involves Cha-Cha's has no relevance to my life.

On the other hand, the smoked salmon, stuffed mushrooms and hummus were all on point, underscoring what you can get at a place like the B @ B and not at Cha-Cha's.

And somehow I doubt that what happens at Cha-Cha's stays at Cha-Cha's.

But because Richmond is a small town, it's tough to remain when your past walks in, so before long we exited stage right to the relative anonymity of Balliceaux.

I say relative because the bartender immediately chided me for missing half-priced wine night on Tuesday.

For the record, I have only done half-price wine night twice in Balliceaux's history.

I was particularly enamored of the music mix tonight, including, as it did, Empire of the Sun, Phoenix and various Roxy Music, including "To Turn You On," possibly my favorite of their superb catalog.

I could show you in a word 
If I wanted to
A window on a world
With a lovely view

We began with cocktails, if you can call my Hornitos on ice a cocktail, and major discussion of the validity of Meyers-Briggs (present were an INTP, an INFP and yours truly, an ENFP).

The Thinker among us had nothing but harsh words for the Feelers present, which made for some hilarious insults tossed our way.

She made up for it by insisting on a bottle of Dibon Cava, nutty and sparkling, to underscore the occasion of our overdue get-together and her recent change in status.

We indulged in a cheese plate, but the attention-getter was the spicy chickpea salad served in a chickpea flour shell that thrilled the gluten-intolerant among us.

Which was good, because she could use a little thrilling these days.

But then, who among us couldn't?