Rhetorical Question

To-do list: eat, drink, music.

The bonuses: new restaurant, waterfront sipping, dessert to live musical accompaniment.

Not being "The Avenues" sort, it was my first trip to the Continental.

Of course given the weather, all the outside tables were taken, but the bar was empty and the door was open.

That's my kind of air conditioning. If you have to have a/c on (and I refuse), you'd better open the windows and doors.

But that's just me.

Jottings:

Liked the lighted globes, reminisced over the hand crank ice crushers (like my parents had on their bar way back when) and enjoyed friendly service.

Couldn't stand all the TV screens or the screaming children, but then that's just me.

And it was to be a short stopover anyway.

It was a quick glass of wine with a friend who recently moved away; still, I managed to taste the Mexican corn on the cob (lime butter and cumin, hold the cheese) and the kielbasa corn dogs.

What I tasted made me think the place will be a weighted counter-balance to Blue Goat.

Leaving there, I went to meet my dinner partner who was insisting we have a drink outside.

That's a dicey one for me because there aren't a lot of places that have them and on a 91-degree day in April, they're bound to be popular.

And, let's be honest, there are some I just don't need to go, regardless of its al fresco offerings.

Everyone has their deal breakers, whether you're talking restaurants or romance.

Companion had the brilliant idea to have a glass of wine at Current down on the canal.

Okay, it wasn't a river view, but it was tranquil, lovely and it was water.

The air temperature was so body-suited as to be imperceptible.

Could have been anything, but it felt like absolutely nothing.

Even our server agreed that it was something to be savored.

We sat there sipping until after the sun was down before walking over to City Dogs.

Dogs and milkshakes make for my kind of meal sometimes.

I was none too happy to hear that they were completely out of ice cream so no milkshakes would be forthcoming.

Somehow (and I'm trying not to judge here), they were surprised at being slammed by all the crowds who came down for RVA Street Art Festival.

Surprised?

We settled for root beer. Thirty seconds later we learned that they were out of that, too.

It would be so easy to go off on a tangential rant about one hand not knowing what the other is doing (rule #1, people is that art brings crowds), but I hate to state the obvious.

And it was dollar dog night.

You'd think two reasonably astute adults would have been tempted by the deal dogs but I went with the Tennessee slaw dog (yes, again) and my hot dog-disparaging friend went with bratwurst and sauerkraut.

After the loss of our shakes, we consoled ourselves with onion rings.

Which meant that dessert would have to be elsewhere.

Since we were in the mood for a seventeen-piece, we headed to Balliceaux to satisfy a sweet tooth and hear some swinging music.

It was almost scripted.

We waltzed in to the front bar, ordered Campari and tequila (no, no, not in the same glass) and a slice of chocolate almond cream pie.

The real treat? Eating it to the swinging sounds of the RVA Big Band, coming from the back.

After polishing off the variation on a childhood classic, we headed to the back room so that we could hear and see the band.

There really is a unique pleasure to hearing a big band.

It's not hard to see why it was the kind of music the country needed during the 30s and 40s.

So many instruments playing at once! All that brass!  The drummer keeping everyone anchored.

And every song swinging in some way.

It got some hips swinging, too, when a couple got up to dance in the center of the room.

I'm not the dancing sort, so I stayed put.

Mentally checking off everything on my to-do list.

How easy was that?