CafeChatNoir

I’m a Navy brat, so in theory, I should be able to be completely at home anywhere in the world that you may drop my ass. (With some limitations - Tikrit may take me a couple extra days.)

But, that’s not quite the case. While I can fake my way through most places and survive, being “at home” somewhere is a different story altogether. There are very few places in the world that I feel really at home, and here at the beach is #1. Nearly tied for first place is London, followed very closely behind by NYC. DC doesn’t even really make the list - it’s more of fake it til I make it place, and it’s been that way for 20+ years.

What I think makes the beach different is the people that are here to begin with. Every one I’ve met here over the years has just been absolutely top-notch. Even moreso in the several times I’ve been in the past year during the off-season. Seems that if you’re here when the rest of the world isn’t, you *really* like it here, even when the weather isn’t summer perfect (true,) and it seems that folks appreciate that. Hell, I’m just happy to be here whenever.

I caught up with my buddy Dave @ North Beach today and he’s going to hook me up with various kayaks over the next week and a half so I can figure out which one I want to buy. Sure there are places up in NoVa that I could just go and get one, but I want to get one from *him*, since he’s been so good to me & Insane Chef Dave[1] in the past - hell, he *remembered me* when I walked in today - and he got IC Dave a good deal on his ‘yak & accoutrements, and hooked me up no questions asked both times when we came down together and I didn’t have a boat of my own to play around with. That, and there is really nowhere up north I could easily try them out, and I need some test runs of various models that both fit my size and my ability to haul them up on top of my car, and Dave understands that. I can also put into the Sound a whopping 20 feet from the front of his shop for test runs, which I certainly can’t do up north. In DC, no good deed goes unpunished. In my world, they get rewarded, which is why I’ll get my boat & various and sundry accessories here from him rather than anywhere else.

Down here I can take the dog out for his morning walk in my skivvies/pajamas. Doesn’t sound that unusual, since other folks do that around here. But, I can also go to the bait and tackle shop that way and no one blinks an eye. Talk about being able to be yourself. Not so bad by any means.

Took Donald up to Sunset Grille for dinner Monday and nightcaps last night - this is one of my fav bars here (shocker that I have a fav bar, isn’t it?) - but I’d been there a few times w/Dave last fall and again when I was here in April and everyone there is just super nice and fun. (They share staff w/Fishbones, where I have been many times as well, so I knew they were good people, but it’s MUCH less crowded @ Sunset.) Also, if you want to go there for dinner - get over yourself and be willing to eat at the bar - same menu, no wait for a seat. Though I have to say, it is the only place I have ever been leaving and had to tell someone, “Dude, there is a frog on the windshield.” (We got the frog back into the grass before leaving the parking lot.)

Tonight we hit Meridian42, which is “fine dining yet questionable attire allowed” [2] - OMG, I had the most kickass truffle & honey glazed salmon (I am a decent cook, but nothing coming out of my kitchen has truffles on top) and Donald seemed to like his ravolinis since he cleared the plate and I think said 3 words while we were eating. I’d been there before for cocktails and seen the menu and it looked awesome, and the bartenders there had been great, so it definitely warranted an actual dinner visit. Yes, I will make decisions on a restaurant based on the bartenders. If the bartenders are complete jerks, chances are the rest of the staff will be following along in lockstep. Frankly, I don’t care how great the food is, if I want to punch the server, that kind of destroys it for me. Tonight we made new friends at the Meridian bar after dinner, and ran into a fellow WHSH graduate to boot. (I do tend to run into more people from NoVa here…) When I was asking about last call (I try to be aware of when folks want to GO HOME and not mess that up,) I was told, “Nah, you just get melded into the employee family.” Which I think we came very close to this evening, especially considering that the bartender asked me what restaurant I worked for. We’ll definitely be going back up there for post-dinner cocktails again before we leave, and it will be a “must stop in” place in the future.

Tomorrow evening we’re hitting the Left Bank, which is the restaurant where I had the cooking school weekend. It should be fun to eat somewhere that I’ve worked *in their kitchen*! Poor Donald, he has two nights of haute/fusion/fine dining cuisine right in a row - this is the guy who would willingly and happily live on variations of Eggo sandwiches for the rest of his life. (Though I can’t really argue a cream cheese on Eggo midnight snack.) I’m concerned it may either kill him or he’ll be asking for much more complicated things out of my kitchen when we get home.

Mox has settled in nicely - we go out for our walks and let me tell you, he OWNS the neighborhood. He is on patrol - ears & tail up watching everything, this is HIS territory now, despite the fact that there are at least 5 other pups on the street. (We’re apparently on the dog friendly street this year.) I can tell he still misses the cats (though somehow I doubt they miss him, but I won’t tell him that) he realizes that this is TLA[3] and we’re really here with him and when we say we’ll be back when we venture out, we DO come back, and it’s all good.

Speaking of streets (OK, it’s a half paragraph back, not the best segue I could manage), apparently we are *not* on the same street we were last year - little bro & I were both *completely sure* we were on the same street as last year - nope, we’re one street off from last year - damned if they don’t look the same when you’re driving in. So, last years house is still intact afterall. This may be one of those examples of beer killing brain cells, but I’d like to think it’s just the fact that we had no real need to remember the exact street we were on, so we chose to forget it.

In Very Important News, the Outer Barks shop is in fact still in business - I drove by the old location and the sign was gone and I’ll admit I panicked a bit - I had promised the dog he’d go to the puppy happy hour. Well, they just moved across the street and they said today when I popped in to check the new address that it’s even better than before since they have more room for it. So yes, the dog will have his outing tomorrow and next Thursday. :) (They have treats and put out a swimming pool for the dogs! Good thing we bought a tacky beach towel for the hound today - we completely forgot to bring something like that along for him…)

All in all, there’s no place like home. And for me, this is it. Someday it will be permanent.

[1] I know too many Daves right now. There is Insane Chef Dave (but it’s the fun insane), North Beach Dave, and After Hours Dave, and that is just off the top of my head.
[2] Seriously, I can’t go to dinner in shorts. Ever. I can go to the bar, but dinner? Nope. I know I am an aberration among all that come down here, but it is what it is. But Meridian is great in that they don’t have a strict dress code, so folks that may not have been here before and go “Wow, that looks like great food, but I didn’t bring dress pants” can still come on in and have a nice dinner. Donald saw a kiddo in a t-shirt w/the creepy Burger King guy saying “Christ is King” on it… Hell, the Burger Kind guy is why kids are afraid of clowns, that shirt will be why they’re afraid of religion.
[3] Temporary Living Arrangements