It's not that I go all out and try to do a super duper Valentine's Day, but it was kind of a letdown this year. Blame the week we've had, blame the dining experience. We hardly suffered, but it's telling that I came home from dinner, got into bed, and read until I turned out the light.
We really should have known better, in a way. I worked in a restaurant for years, and I can tell you that from the operational side of things, it's a lousy day to have to work. All couples. Specials and special menus. Gimmicks for food (food tinted pink or red, chocolate everything). Customers who don't normally dine out so fancily (!!), so they don't know their obligations as diners (and I can tell you, the customer has a responsibility for his or her dining experience as well).
Wow, I sound bitter.
Anyway, we opted for
Bin 36, a place we like and have gone to a number of times. We had some gift cards to use, so it made sense. Wine, cheese, some good food, easy to get to on the way home from work.
The first odd thing to me was the table. Close to the entry, in the area I think of as the cafe area, though I know there's no such thing. Instead of being in the area beyond the bar that's a little more serene and has windows overlooking Dearborn (not a great view, but world watching, at least), I had traffic constantly passing behind me. I could have asked for another table, I know.
Conrad arrived. He was fine at that point, but the week had taken its toll. By the time we were on the first glass of the flight and he'd opened the gift I got him,
he was beginning to check out mentally. Tired, weary, stressed out, he was - sorry to say - poor dinner company. He knows it, he's sorry for it, but there it is.
We each had the Pinot Noir flight, which included a rosé cava, a white Pinot Nero, and two delicious reds. That was good. They also paired decently with the food, which we did enjoy:
My appetizer of Crispy Duck Hash and Sunnyside Up Egg (bitter green salad, pepitas, duck cracklins’, lemon vinaigrette).
Conrad's Oysters on the 1/2 Shell (champagne mignonette).
We both had the same entrée, the Pan Seared Atlantic Monkfish (braised black kale, cipollini onions, smoked ham hocks, pork jus).
I asked for another piece of bread to mop up the sauce. Pork products rock!
And then it was time for dessert. The waiter brought menus, and we asked instead for the cheese list. Bin 36, you see, is known for its selection - we were either going to order a flight of cheeses of their design, or put together our own. No cheeses that night, we were told. And that kind of killed it there. Conrad couldn't muster enough energy to be interested in dessert, not even the chocolate. We gave our regrets to the waiter, but didn't tell him we'd be walking up to Whole Foods to buy some cheese and a bottle of wine there to take home.
I think the entire meal was done inside an hour, but I didn't time it. There was the faint feeling of rushing us through that we felt after the fact. When next I want to dine at Bin 36, I think I'll check first that there will be cheeses at the least, and fuss over the table if it's not too busy.
So, that was Valentine's Day. An unfortunately (if understandably) listless boy friend and a restaurant experience that left us (me especially) feeling not all that romantic. Maybe it's better to say that it was simply dinner out on a Thursday night and that the simple soup and salad I put together last night was our romantic meal together for the week.
- so nice to meet him after having heard a lot of great things about him, and so very good to see Chelsea once again after what feels like far too long. And really, I'm all the more fortunate for having had some fine company on a weekend when Conrad is out of town for work.
The two of them shared a cheese sample (they had dinner plans still to get to), and I had my own cheese flight, too 
(cow's milk, all of them).
An hour passed all too quickly, and we'd kicked off the evening well.
Posts
