Every year, Super Hubs gets tickets to the Spring Symphony at the university where he works, and we have ourselves a fabulous Date Night.
The drive from my home into Chicago last evening was monstrously long; 2 1/2 hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic. But it was sunny and warm and I was able to listened to my CDs, which is a rare treat. I’m usually in the car with one to three offspring who dominate the sound system with loud rap or metal, which make me long to use my chewing gum as ear plugs. Even Little Squirt has been turned on to his teenage siblings’ music choices once he realized that Raffi was no longer cool.
So, on the drive into the city, I Iistened to my own music as well as my own thoughts, which included what food I would order at Rhapsody, the upscale restaurant attached to the Symphony Hall. We always eat there on these Date Nights. It's tradition. The temperature was comfortably warm, and I was looking forward to dining on the restaurant’s large patio, surrounded by lush flora. I parked on Wabash, located Super Hubs, and we headed together to Rhapsody......only to find it closed for a private party. Noooo! A Private Party to which we were not invited? So no Spring Pea soup? No Potato Crouquettes? Nil to the Wild Striped Bass? Non to relaxing on the restaurant’s patio on this warm May evening in Chicago, people-watching over a glass of savignon blanc? I was deeply disappointed.
With sad sighs of regret, we wandered around the loop, looking for an alternative. Bennigans, with its cacophony of young families and drunken co-workers? The sleazy Thai restaurant on the corner, with its dirty tables? No and no.
We finally landed on a small, intimate restaurant in The Palmer House. Super Hubs ordered a $24 hamburger. I had a small appetite and ordered, as my entree, an appetizer of chicken wings. The food I was served can only be described as ridiculous-looking: three teeny pillows of deconstituted chicken lay on a ginormous plate, a skinny bone standing upright in each. Uh.....chicken wings? Where were the wings, exactly? Was this a joke? Was I being punked?? I gobbled the ugly things down in 30 seconds. We each had a drink, and split a dessert of chocolate mousse. Our bill totalled $90. (And I was starving an hour later.) Whew!
We then ran 2 blocks to the Symphony Hall, barely making the concert. We sank into our chairs and enjoyed the melodious works of Brahams and Stravinksy, peacefully relaxing.
Our Spring Symphony Date Night.
3 comments:
Perhaps you should have gone to "Star Trek" and gorged on popcorn?
Woulda been a lot cheaper!
Yikes! Nouvelle Cuisine! Was the burger tiny too? A butter pat of meat between too hand crafted croutons? I hope the chocolate mousse made up for it, lol! At least the symphony was good!
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