blastall

monday mid-am,a voice mail from the domer. meet at the domer's den of design at 11:30. the professor will be there. i don't even have to be told where lunch will be. you see the domer has no sense of culinary adventure and apparently has a pecuniary interest in andrew's grill and bar which is about 100 feet across adams street from the domer's den. 11:38 we go inside. my dates don't do well in the sun. andy is sitting on our left. he greets the domer and announces that he is cooking the boo, oh no i'm sorry, he says he is doing the payroll. how hard can that be--count your employees--total up the hours worked and multipy by $1.00. there you have it--payroll done. andy and i go way back. he opened the deli in the 70's and i was there. 2nd act, i was there when i robbed a bank. maxim's, tutto bene, trio ( i still wear my trio shirt ), northside, the capital grill and bar and 228. this guy has had more joints than ricky williams. in the restaurant biz, he is the reinvention equivalent of madonna. the burgers at the deli would bring tears to your eyes. best steak sandwich ever made. taragon butter at night when he got all fancy. trio was a favorite--even though he went PEPSI. joel, the manager at trio, would keep a six pack of diet coke hidden in the beer cooler for those of us that have taste buds. this past fall we ate dinner twice at 228. good food and a really nice setting. ate several times at the grill and bar and never had a bad meal. alas, two trips between december and mid-january to the grill were not so hot. had a burger that may have been yak. had meatloaf that was way past resting. it hadn't worked in years. enough of the past. monday is a new day. the hostess seats us. i should say that the domer and the professor were seated, i had to squirm into my seat. these tables are close. this time of year, you gotta jam in as many as will fit. have to make up for mid-summer when you can get a table for 90 without a reservation. the professor notes my discomfort and pulls the table toward him. bless you my friend. now i don't have to eat like a praying mantis. the prof and the domer take a look at the salad/hot bar. the professor opts in. the domer doesn't. i order a swiss burger with steak fries and the domer follows suit. not one independent bone in his pumped-up body. he even orders a diet coke like mikey. the professor makes his first trip to the trough and we await delivery. by the way, chuck, what is in that bowl? i think it is beans. doesn't sound too sure but he keeps on eating. i look about and note that one of the tv's seems to have been snatched from the wall. i hope for andy's sake that it is a theft or repair and not a pawn. nah, it can't be a pawn. as noted above, july and august are the pawning months in tally. the professor makes his second trip. he flashes his plate to me. i note a certain item of unknown origin attached to the plate. i can see it from 15 feet away but can't tell if it is of edible value. he picks another plate and moves on to his next course. if he had kept the first plate, he could have had course numbers two and three at the same time. real men don't let STUFF stop a meal. now the burgers are announced by a person who did not witness them being ordered. who had the burgers? your first clue might be the two of us without food. modern food service is goofy. can i get you anything else? some 57 sauce would be nice. heinz 57 she asks. i want to say that i prefer harry's 57 sauce just to check out her sense of humor and to mock her redundancy but i don't. at $1.00 per hour, she needs no guff from a geezer. heinz will be swell. the burgers are fine. the fries are too. however, when you refill my diet coke, please do it from a tap and not from a pitcher of tepid liquid that may be easy to serve but sure ain't easy to drink. most of the food at the grill has been named after politicians and other psycho types. not a good idea. those folks leave a bad taste in the mouth of most of the populace. you should not have to start your meal with a sour vision of what you are about to devour. it is bad enough that it happens after you eat from time to time. for most of the crowd at andrew's on monday it probably has no effect. these guys eat more cellphone batteries than they do food. for all i know, they might just like a Clinton Colada with their meal. she comes to collect. the professor goes deep and quick into his wallet. produces plastic and it works. doggone these law guys are good.