Welcome Back, Old Friend

If you invite me, I will come.

So when the bartender at Bistro Bobette messaged me reminding me that it had been a while since I'd been at his bar, I took note.

And when a friend from Maryland said she'd be in town tonight and wanted to met up with me and a favorite couple, where better to go than Bobette?

They had a nice little crowd already in place when we arrived, pleasing the out-of-towner who wanted a lively scene.

Conveniently, there were two seats together open at the bar when we arrived, another stool next to a regular who said hello (and kindly asked if I'd lost weight!) and the two stools nearby were vacated within minutes.

Our party of five took over the little bar and the bartender was impressed that his message to me had worked.

Hey, I am nothing if not responsive, one way or the other.

While the other three stayed festive with Cremant d'Alsace, my date and I opted for Chateau de Vinigelais Courbieres 2010.

Deciding on food at Bobette is doubly enjoyable because they have two menus, one for the dining room and another for the bar.

The bar is the place for surprises and great deals, so I like to look there first.

But Holmes was sure we needed oysters, so we got the last ten in the house, scoring a couple each.

It must have been a busy night because they were already out of baguettes and that's saying something at Bobette.

So while the two of us have yet to have Bob's dog together (sure, I've had it more times than I can count), we weren't going to have it tonight sans baguette.

A travesty!

And yet one in our party braved it for the sake of that exquisite Sausagecraft dog.

My interest was piqued by the chicon, a special on tonight's bar menu.

Poached endive was covered in Parisian ham, Gruyere and Swiss cheese for an obscenely rich starter that had the regular curious and the other couple placing a late order of it.

The bartender had been correct in chiding me about not having been in in a while.

I found out that my favorite wine geek had taken a prestigious wine position befitting his encyclopedic knowledge of all things grape.

The owner teased me about my absence, but all I could focus on was her new hairstyle which looked fabulous on her.

I was as surprised to learn that she had curly hair as she was to learn mine is straight.

Naturally we each wished we had the other's hair. Isn't that always the way?

My visiting friend was doing her best to convince us all to come visit for a community weekend, although she mentioned one slight problem.

There are no doors on the bedrooms in her '30s-era bungalow on the Chesapeake Bay.

Seems a tad cozy, if you know what I mean.

While she moved on to the steak frites and mixed pickled veggies (with just the right amount of tang), we ordered the Bobette burger with frites and were rewarded with a well-seasoned burger smothered in Camembert and at barely medium rare, tasting more of steak tartare than a conventional burger.

In other words, yum.

After a mound of salty fries, all I could think about was something sweet, so we ordered the chocolate hazelnut crousillant.

The dense chocolate dessert with a layer of hazelnut crunch was swoon-worthy, causing the couple in our group to order the same.

Sadly, we had gotten the last one.

Or maybe appropriately since it felt like my treat for showing up on demand.

I can be easy when I want to.