Mo Better Bluezz

Sunday, December 28, 2008

We were supposed to celebrate Mo's birthday by seeing "Wicked" on December 21st until I realized that it was the day that Rockapella was performing in Rrrrrancho Cucamonga.  We all know how that became R:EF, though, don't we?  Instead, we ended up with tickets to no "Wicked" show, because by the time we looked at alternate dates, none of the available seats were seated next to each other.  This isn't usually that big of a deal to me, but since Mo was bringing her daughter, it just wasn't feasible.  I felt awful about it.  I felt even more awful when R:EF happened.  Do you see now why I was so depressed that day?  

Anyway, Mo chose to celebrate dinner out with the girls at Red, White & Bluezz in Old Town Pasadena, a place that she had been to a few times with her husband.  I wasn't really that excited about it when she mentioned it as a "wine & cheese tasting place".  Now y'all know that I love the wine, but I usually end up driving to our gatherings, so I couldn't do the wine part, and I don't love cheese as much as many of my friends do.  This was Mo's birthday celebration, however, so I refrained from vetoing it a second time.  Mo told us the name of the place and when I looked it up on the website, I saw items that I could eat that wouldn't involve too much cheese or wine.  Actually, I thought to myself, "Why didn't she just send me the website address the first time, so that we could have gone sooner?"  But that's OK.

Red, White & Bluezz is more than a wine & cheese tasting place.  Sure, one side of the menu is nothing but wine flights and cheese flights (oh, and a chocolate flight).  But there is also a regular menu, and live jazz.  You would think that Mo would have mentioned the live music to me as well, but no.  I think I need to teach her how to get my buy-in. :)

Mo got there before us because I was running late as usual.  She had some difficulty acquiring us a table that was not right next to the jazz combo (I wanted to hear the music, but not have it drown out our conversation), because one person said that the table toward the back of the restaurant was reserved, and another one said that it wasn't.  They seated her at the table in the back, and we noticed that throughout the evening, there was a table near us that they never filled.  We assumed that this was the actual table that was reserved, but either those people decided not to come, or they were going to get there really late.  Our server was OK, but it took awhile for one of the courses to be served, and he never did apologize to us.  I also don't like the question, "How are we enjoying our food?"  First of all, who are you, the Queen of England?  What's this "we" business?  Did you snack on our food before bringing it to our table, and that's why it took you so long?  And if we aren't enjoying our food at all, what are we supposed to say?  "We're not enjoying it, thanks for asking why I've spit it into my napkin"?  I' m much better with "Is the food prepared to your liking?" or some such thing.  The whole presumed enjoyment thing is, well, presumptuous.  

We started with an appetizer of Saffron Tempura Stuffed Prawns, which were tasty, and the vinaigrette tasted like the sweet chili sauce found in Asian restaurants.  I ordered the Kobe Beef Burger, and it was wonderful.  Yeah, I paid $16 for a burger, but it was gooooooood, not only because the beef was so flavorful, but also because it came with a huge serving of sweet potato fries.  All I can say is, "Hello, with the YUM!"  Mo & Lo shared an order of 5 items from the Cheese & Charcuterie List.  I will say this about our presumptuous server: he sure did know his cheeses.  They also split a burger for themselves, since they weren't quite full after the meat and cheese plate.  The desserts on the menu were different than those on the website.  I probably would have gone for some sweet potato pie for myself if the menu had been the same at the restaurant, but we ended up sharing a sampler platter, which had more cheese, and they were pretty much tired of having cheese by that point.  We didn't think that the menu mentioned that the sampler included cheese, but it did say "triple creme," so maybe we should have known better.  The truffles were nice, though, and the carrot cake had interesting carrot crunchies on top of it.  

We enjoyed our meal,  due to the food, the atmosphere, and especially our always-lively conversation and each other's company.  I would like to go there again, maybe when I'm not driving, so that I can do one of the wine flights, a chocolate flight, and maybe have that burger again.  Seriously.

Happy Birthday, Mo!