Wednesday, October 21, 2026
Breakfast: I prepared for myself a two-egg breakfast burrito with spinach, mixed grated cheeses, salsa, and sour cream; hot water. Archived documents. Shopped for Halloween costumes but bought nothing. I can't recall what I ate for lunch. Voting preparation. For dinner we walked to Starbelly. It's Restaurant Week—one week during which restaurants run specials, often prix fixe meals, to encourage dining out. When we were seated at table 63 we were given menus but not the Restaurant Week menu. The room we're in is almost completely empty. Several minutes go by and no server has greeted us. We ask a passing server who our server is. She says it's Luis and that she can return soon to take our order. Luis arrives moments later. We request and obtain Restaurant Week menus. After having had time to decide, we again wait many more minutes for Luis to return. We are ready to order drinks and our meal. He takes the order. It's a little slow for cocktails arrive, but there's only one bartender. Patrick had a wild violet, I had a big peach in the beach. A reasonable time later the first course arrives. Patrick had roasted butternut squash soup with pepitas, creme fraiche, and crostini. I had the house salad with endives, shaved granny smith apples, walnut, gorgonzola, and tangy vinaigrette. Both were delicious. The soup was probably too rich for me to have eaten a whole bowl. A bit of a wait for the second course. Patrick had braised beef short ribs with lacinato kale, polenta, and gremolata. I had lasagna rotolo with bolognese, bechamel, mozzarella, tomato sauce, crescenza. Again a bit longer of a wait than we expect until dessert. Patrick had buttermilk panna cotta with apricot preserve and cookie crumble. I had lemon sorbet with mint. Again Luis seemed to have disappeared, and we waited a long time for him to return. All the food and drink were delicious, but the long delays and inattentiveness from server Luis encourage us not to return for a while. My lasagne was interestingly rolled with two rolls presented on their sides instead of rectangular and flat. My sorbet was noticeably thick, resembling the density of gelato. Fine food, disappointing service. $140 before a 9% tip. Walked home. Patrick and I watched YouTube. Patrick went to bed. I joined many hours later.