No Suit Required

My first choice would have been an al fresco lunch, but my lawyer friend wanted a proper sit down affair.

So we ended up at a very full TJ's at a window table with a view of Main Street with business types and serious-looking women in suits.

We were neither in our summery clothes.

We'd planned to start with the grilled SausageCraft lamb sausage, but the kitchen hit a snag and to make it up to us, sent out two cups of today's soup, a potato leek with crispy leeks and thick-cut bacon.

It not only coated the spoon, but no doubt our arteries, too, with its decadent richness.

Just as we were sitting back in our wingback chairs to digest that, the lamb arrived.

It was my friend's first SausageCraft so I got to enjoy his reaction to tasting its spiced meatiness along with a parsnip pear puree, sauteed spinach and veal demi-glace.

I think I saw his eyes glaze over in pleasure. Not that I didn't enjoy it just as much, but I at least knew what to expect.

For lunch, I had the jumbo lump crabcake sandwich, mainly to see how good a crabcake it was.

My Maryland childhood makes me a crabcake snob of the highest order and this one was good. Not backfin good, but decent.

Probably good enough to impress an out-of-town hotel guest. Unless he was from Maryland.

Friend had the hearts of romaine salad and was so impressed with the generous serving of Italian white anchovies that he vowed to get a side order of them alone next time, completely bypassing the salad portion of the dish.

As he likes to point out, they're one of the very few things actually better from a can.


Over a leisurely lunch, we chatted about the alienation of Republican women, the way the cost of a dim sum meal escalates quickly and how live-in partners have different refrigerator standards.

Some people, he pointed out, save every little bit of leftovers while some of us only keep them when there's enough for another meal. To each his own.


Since we'd forsaken the beautiful day to eat inside, it seemed only fitting to finish with that most summer-like of desserts, ice cream.

A house made butter pecan (no doubt  Southern enough to charm even the most Northern of guests) came in a bowl deep enough to hold far more ice cream than any two people needed.

Like the soup, it was spoon-coatingly creamy and so chock full of pecans that they showed up in every bite, which is a very good thing.

Had we been eating at home, there wouldn't have been even the tiniest bit of leftovers to put in the refrigerator. no matter what a person's standards were.

Anyway, it's all negotiable when you're lunching with a lawyer.