Probably the best steak dinner ever  − 19 August, 2006

Jason and Heather were in town this weekend. They drove up on Saturday morning through traffic to meet us at Kyle and Emily's place in Del Mar. I'll let Jason tell that story though.

After we went to the races, we met Denise at our place and took a taxi down to Croce's in the Gaslamp. Now, if you've never been to the Gaslamp on a Saturday night, it's amazingly slutty. Think about the strip in Vegas or Sunset in Hollywood only smaller. But no less gaudy. Girls are letting their girls hang out willy nilly and guys are all agawk letting their tongues wag and generally being unpleasant. Not my favorite place on earth. Especially now that I'm happily married and prefer to do my tongue-wagging in the privacy of my own home.

That said, Croce's is a world-famous restaurant whose reputation has been earned may times over by their head chef whom the place is named for. Yes, she's the widow of Jim Croce. But she's a damn fine chef to boot, as I would find out.

I've always been averse to trying Croce's as a local because of the reasons above and also because they seem to enjoy just too much damn popularity. We had to wait for a table we reserved, for example. Which doesn't happen at places with equally fine food in lesser-trafficked areas.

It turns out that I had one of the best steaks in my life that night. It was a new york strip with some Gouda mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus that was perfectly cooked. Just the right amount of food. Delicate and bold at the same time. It was a food-borne carnal delight.

What made the dinner especially nice though was listening to Jason and Heather tell stories about their new life together in Redlands. So now it's Jason, Heather, and Micaela living as a nice family unit. I didn't say much that night because what's to say when you're just having so much fun soaking it all in? Sometimes it's just better to listen.

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