Can't See a Thing in the Sky

Let's see, I've been gone for nearly a week and I got back just in time for New Year's Eve, so you didn't really think I was going to leave my lovely Jackson Ward after just returning to it, did you?

Well, did you?

No, indeed. We've got a brand new restaurant right here in the Ward, so what could be better after my Florida foray than to go a few blocks and bring in 2014 in the 'hood?

Lucy's was the destination and the place was half full but lively when I got there with my dinner date.

The bartender was a familiar face (Balliceaux) and the music's starting point was Sam Cooke, yielding such nuggets as Jackson 5, the Flamingos "I Only Have Eyes for You" and the Supremes "Someday We'll Be Together."

I couldn't have been more pleased to run into a friend, a scooter enthusiast, who immediately suggested she plan a date to take me for a ride in her side car, an offer I readily accepted. I have always wanted to be someone's sidecar ride.

My date, a poet, began by ordering Meinklang Frizzante Rose, a Christmasy-red looking sparkler full of the taste of summer strawberries and, I'll admit it, a perfectly beautiful way to begin a new year's celebration.

I ran into a friend who'd secretly gotten married a few weeks ago and delighted in hearing her stories of their 4 1/2 year romance.

Our first course was an onion tart of slow braised Monrovia Farms beef with goat cheese under micro-greens, maybe a tad under-salted, but lifted with a carrot puree.

The bartender had brought his Christmas puppy in tonight, a sweet, little Dalmatian mix with a pink belly and an eager face, and he pranced around the dining room making friends wherever he stopped.

Chick magnet, I told the bartender.

Next up was a winter salad with beans, a savory combination of kale with a bean salad, white anchovies and orange segments in a shallot vinaigrette, the kale tender yet still toothsome and a lovely complement to the three kinds of beans.

It was a highlight of the evening.

The music was good, there were unexpected friends around and my new year's eve was shaping up beautifully.

While my date ordered a grilled Monrovia Farms rib eye with horseradish sauce, I started with a spicy shrimp cocktail before moving on to northern neck petite crab cakes with remoulade.

When midnight got close, someone turned on the ball drop and with glasses of Prosecco, we toasted a better 2014 with friends new and old.

Notable was that for the first time since 2009, I got kissed on New Year's Eve. For that matter, for the first time since 2009, I had a male date for New Year's Eve.

For the second time today, someone asked me what my new year's resolutions were and yet again I explained that I don't make resolutions.

Here's what I want for 2014.

Neighborhood restaurants filled with friends. Stories of people who celebrate romance. Good food and wine reasonably priced. Music that makes me want to dance. A date and to get kissed again on New Year's Eve 2014.

It's not too much to ask for, now is it? To 2014!