the birthday report...

So, I worked from 7-4 yesterday. Stupid of me, boring as hell.

Around 7, my friends Jonathan and Steve met me at my apartment to go to dinner. We drove to the Marigny and parked. Since we were a bit early, we stopped at The Spotted Cat for a drink. I've heard good things from several people about the infused vodkas they have there. So, I got a grapefruit martini (tacky sounding, I know). The grapefruit flavor was nice, but the inexpensive price should have clued me in to the quality of the vodka. The Spotted Cat is a nice little dive and I wouldn't mind hanging out there again sometime. We left for dinner just as the evening's band was starting to play. It was sort of embarrassing and we all felt like we needed to somehow explain our dinner reservation to the crowd. Um, but we didn't...

Anyways, on to dinner at Marisol. The entire dinner was a complete treat. From the little caviar thingies they give you to whet your appetite through to dessert. On recommendation from an acquaintance, I got the porcini bruschetta as an appetizer. And, oy vey, was it good... roasted garlic, basil, slices of porcini...

My friends both got a peanut soup that had crusted shrimp floating on it. Tried it. Loved it. Especially the shrimp.

My main course was roasted lamb osso bucco served with an oven roasted tomato, arugula and goatcheese pizza. It was to die for. The lamb was perfectly soft and fell right off the bone. And I'm a sucker for arugula, roasted tomatos and goatcheese all, so it's sort of like this dish was on the menu just for me. I only managed to eat a little over half the dish because the serving was extremely generous. (And for anyone from the larger metropolitan areas reading this and sneering because you think roasted tomatos and arugula are tacky 80s LA food and completely over... fuck you... good food should not be a trend, if something is tasty, it should stay around)

I had a white wine which I absolutely don't remember the name of with dinner. It was pleasant but not too exciting. The only slight criticism I might have of Marisol is that the winelist isn't too exciting. The waitress brought me a third glass of wine as a birthday present. Sweet of her. I only drank half of it thought, didn't wanna get all winedrunk. Silly me.

Dinner ended with a shared hot chocolate cake, which of course arrived with a burning candle. Grrr.

Throughout the evening, we were all utterly fascinated with the hostess at Marisol. She was an extreme ennunciator (sp?). It was a good fascination though, we found her very charming.

After dinner, we decided to get one more drink at The Spotted Cat before Steve went home and Jonathan and I went dancing. This time I decided to try the melon infused vodka. Mistake. I could only drink about three sips of it. It tasted *wrong*. Very wrong.

We left there and Steve dropped Jonathan and I off in front of Good Friends. I started feeling a bit funny. Jonathan ordered a drink. I abstained. After a bit of chatting, we headed to Oz and danced a bit. I started to feel even more odd but kept my mouth shut about it. Jonathan got a drink, I got water. We head to Lafittes.

At Lafittes, my friend Flynn called and said he was getting off work and heading over to meet us. At this point, I started feeling really terrible. Like, totally nauseated terrible. And I NEVER get nauseated, especially not on three and half drinks over 3 hours and a big meal.

By the time Flynn got to Lafitte's, all i wanted to do was go home. On my birthday. My birthday on which I was supposed to dance the night away. My birthday on which Jonathan planned to get me plastered. My birthday on which I was supposed to be utterly charming and gracious all night as I was repeatedly wished "happy birthday" by people I had just informed that it was my birthday.

Instead, I was home and in bed by midnight. Feh.

And, for the record, it had nothing to do with Marisol. It had everything to do with that melon infused vodka. Stupid canteloupes. A pox on the canteloupe and the cheap vodka it was soaked in.

Regardless, dinner was fun...