Month: June 2007

  • I Saw Everything

    It is a warm and sunny afternoon in Georgetown. Knots of tourists, shoppers and neighborhood folks crowd the narrow sidewalks along Wisconsin Avenue. My Wonderful Friend and I have just finished our most delicious gelato treats. We are on our way to Restaurant Gal Daughter’s workplace to pick her up at quitting time. We get…

  • If You Only Had One Wish

    I wrote this post a couple of restaurants ago, but I held off posting it for months and months, not sure when, if ever, I would. But I took some time this evening to read back through my archives of private essays. This is a story that I still think about, still wonder about. I…

  • My Walk in Pictures

    The local newspaper had a photo contest this week–an invitational to capture the first day of summer in our city. I could only enter one photo, and it was hard to choose between the dozens I snapped. Here’s the best of what I saw on June 21 as I walked to work, and later, when…

  • And Suddenly, She was Gone

    Summer is a funny time in my city. On the one hand, for the next two-and-a-half months, at some desk in some office in every glass-and-concrete box in my city, someone is frantic to get “it” all done before their five-day vacation, even though they will bring a BlackBerry, cell phone, and laptop stowed in…

  • Taking the Cake

    Guests like to bring in the craziest things for their parties. Sometimes they tell me they are bringing these assorted trinkets, balloons, foodstuffs, flowers and such. Sometimes they don’t. Usually, the more stuff they bring in, the less attractive the whole event becomes. I speak not only of my experience in my restaurant, but of…

  • What’s Next?

    She is pacing the foyer, glancing every other second at her watch. Her expression is grim, the tight lines around her mouth are incredibly pronounced. She is pissed. Who, I wonder, is going to bear her wrath when they walk through that front door? Is she meeting a friend who is chronically late by segments…

  • Through the Roof

    “RG, are you off your break, yet?” asked one of the hosts. My break? You mean the two gulps of my Emergen-C spiked water and a handful of fries shoved into my mouth as I brought special menus for a private event to the podium and took the back way through the kitchen–that break? “Sure.…

  • Not My VIP

    I was raised to be mindful, to be mannered among strangers. I was raised to defer, when appropriate, and to engage those around me, as appropriate. I was raised to understand restraint and to fully appreciate an act of civility, as well as how to behave with gentility–especially when others do not. I was taught…

  • The Best Part of a Sad Time

    Here’s the best part of the end of a happy-sad week of remembering, celebrating, crying and hugging to honor my grandmother–I am still stuffed from grazing all day, each day on rotisserie chicken, HoneyBaked Ham, deviled eggs made with Hellman’s and plenty of mustard, the freshest of fruit salads, and every kind of cheese and…