Friday night, Ben and I went to check out the Hazel Miller Band at the Millennium Hotel, the place with the yurt. Remember how I couldn’t check out the bathrooms when we visited because they were locked. I kinda wish I’d never seen them….
I told my dad that they reminded me of CCC park restrooms. His response: “Heh, oooh. Not good.” Correct, not good. The public restrooms on Pearl Street are nicer! There is almost nothing that can be done with just a bathroom basket to nicen this place up, it’s just BLAH. Small, cramped, un-heated in the winter and BLAH. So, we decided that lest our guests believe that we never checked out the restrooms before booking the beautiful yurt, we said good bye to the Millennium Hotel.
From there, where the music was too loud for Mr. Ben’s sensitive ears anyway, we were still in search of dinner. The original plan had been to try out the food at the Millennium while there were other people there instead of being doted on in an almost empty hotel restaurant. I would have felt awkward when they asked where we were visiting from as opposed to going on a busy night meant for locals.
We decided to check out the Chautauqua Dining Hall for dinner. From inside the Millennium I called to see if we needed a reservation (we didn’t), and we were on our way. 15 minutes later we were walking up to the Dining Hall. At first I thought we were under dressed, wearing jeans and all, but once we got there I noticed two things 1) there was a wedding inside the main dining room and 2) not only were were not under dressed, in jeans, hiking shoes and a fleece jacket we were dress EXACTLY like 90% of the clientele that evening who weren’t wedding guests. Even the waitstaff were wearing kaki cargo pants/shorts and t-shirts with a silhouette of the Fiddler on the Roof with the caption of “a taste of tradition…” I like blending in.
We shared a very good salad caprice as an appetizer, Ben had the Trout Amandine and I had the Fusilli Primavera. I thought Fusilli were the bowties, oh well, giant elbows are good too. Both our dishes were perfectly cooked and delicious. After we inhaled the appetizer and were sopping up the balsamic vinegar with the crusty sourdough table bread, I said “I just got a waft of something yummy.” Almost immediately, our food arrived! I’ll have to take Ben’s word for it since his dinner was covered in evil allergens, but he said his food was perfect too. Mine was so good that I couldn’t resist digging in before I shot the above photo. Sadly both photos I tried to take of Ben’s plate came out sad and fuzzy looking. Oh well. Low lighting is not the best for an older digital point and shoot.
Dessert was by far the best course. A lemon tart. Yum. Ben said the decaf was good too, again, I’ll take his word for it since I’m not a coffee drinker at all.
So, now we’re still deciding between the St. Julien, somewhere else (which is now the Chautauqua Dining Hall), and the elusive Flagstaff House Restaurant. We haven’t gotten to visit Flagstaff because we wanted to try the food but it’s too pricy for us while I’m out of a job. St. Julien is no wilting flower in the price department either, but we can still afford to go there for lunch and know that the food is wonderful. Flagstaff is only open for dinner by reservation only.
Would anyone like to gift us a fancy night out for two? We’ll be responsible (fiscally and calorically) and share the starter and dessert, or main and dessert, and drink tap water too so that we can keep our tab under $100. Anyone? No?I didn’t think so. My dad had better come visit soon, maybe he’ll take us….
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