Sometimes the food doesn't have much at all to do with the meal. When I'm home, I cook all the time. I sit down with my girls and we eat and chat and play. Sometimes Ella, 6, and Clarrissa, 2 help. Then its even better. Ella's got a great touch - makes a wicked good salad dressing, and is getting proficient with a knife. Clarissa stirs and whisks. When we all sit down the food is beyond the food.
On the road, there's no comparison to that. Meals become about the food entirely. Taken to go, eaten from disposable containers of one sort or another, at the desk or the side table. Its a sterile, ambience-less environment.
Occasionally the team goes out together here. In honor of someone rolling off the project, or as a team-building excersize, or just because someone mentions it. These can be fun too, especially given the austerity of the alternatives. It's not cooking-with-the-girls fun; not date-with-my-wife fun; but sort of chummy, we're-all-in-this-together-and-it-aint-so-bad fun.
We had the best yet of these outings last week, on Valentine's day. Judy suggested a team valentines outing, and a subset of us - 7 plus one spouse - reluctantly agreed. I think none of us actually expected her to get the reservation. But she did, and somehow, something between the place and the time and the particular group of us came together. The conversation ranged all over the map - generational gaps, the public sector, India, winter, Montesquieu, the media.
All in all, it was fun, and I was glad I went. And the food? Well, you can't have it all...
The place we went, Ted's Montana Grill has been decidedly mediocre on all my visits. Its sort of an attempt at upscale Fridays, and while the building and physical space is gorgeous it succeeds only very marginally to meet the bar set at the places it's so clearly trying to exceed. The folks that work there win points for effort, but the service is slow and the food uninspired. This was our 3rd group outing, I had avacado and chicken sandwhich that was passable. I've also had passable salmon and barely passable steak. Apparently the specialty is buffalo, but if you can't do chicken all that well, I sort of shudder to think about the horror one could wreak with more exotic options. The wine list is limited but it'll do in a pinch.
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