Monday, June 14, 2004
Oatmeal with banana. Updated current students news and calendar. Prepared and submitted an RFO for renewing Web hosting. Placed an order with Cyberguys for label zip ties and cd-rs. Admissions changes for James, reviewed them with him, made them live. Ran linkcheck. Labelled keys for locks. Worked on electronic forms for James. Dinner with Melissa and Patrick at Zazie: Fresh, hot bread for the table. Melissa had chicken tagine with cous cous, eggplant, onions, peppers, and tomatoes; Patrick had a spinach and gorgonzola and walnuts salad, duck confit. I had spinach and gorgonzola and walnuts salad, corn cakes with peppers, spinach, sour cream, salsa. Patrick and I each had chocolate brownies. The bill was about $56 before a $6ish tip. Patrick didn't like how our waiter repeatedly said "how's it goin' down there?" but I thought the service all around was appropriately affable and rather attentive with but one error: Patrick was interested in the soup, a cream of spinach and watercress, so he ordered it. However, the waiter returned to our table shortly thereafter to say that they were out of the soup. We were surprised at that (though we didn't say so), considering that we had arrived just before 7:00 PM. Had they made only enough soup for the 10 or 12 customers who were seated before us, and did they all order soup? No less than 15 minutes later we saw some kitchen staff filling a nearby tureen with what appeared to be—yes—the day's soup. In retrospect, Patrick and Melissa both thought their portions were rather measly for the price, but the food was indeed all quite delicious. It's hard to say when we might return again for another visit.