ch ch changes...

so last night we had dinner with friends Ron & Mary at Oriole and of course the meal was lovely... we missed seeing Genie and Tim but the kitchen was running smoothly and the sweets were certainly terrific so despite changes things are still good under the leadership of Noah and Cara...

we had a number of new or tweaked courses so let's go on with the show- among my favorite new preparations was the very first course- shown here- in all its beauty but unfortunately not all it's amazing flavors and textures---

 
I have broken the menu down into parts so you can read the courses and see them while you still remember what you read LOL

all three of the desserts were winners!

the whole menu at once - with the creative talent Noah Sandoval listed right above the two Michelin stars...

another fine meal and it was extra fun to re-introduce Ron & Mary to Cara & Noah because years ago we had taken them to one of very favorites - Noah & Cara's prior fab dining establishment Senza! So it was not too far into the meal when we recalled that they had met Cara before... the kitchen at Senza was not as open so we didn't get to interact with Noah so much back then... so fun evening all around!

another dinner, another show

So the highlight of the mother's day weekend was definitely the Mondiale dinner at the Gage.  Billed as a version of Oregon Pinot Camp, we of course immediately signed up for the dinner...

literally every course was amazing- could not pick a favorite - or even two LOL

reception wines -eight to start and eight with dinner - so lots of things - many new- to try!

A lovely meal and good to catch up with some  friends we haven't seen since last fall- like John & Stephanie and Mon & Beth and meet some new folks through the Mondiale- our dining companions Natalia & Adrian were delightful!

The night before we had attended a FolkStage concert at WFMT - a duo from DC who recently relocated to Texas (???) - she had a terrific voice but was over dramatic with a lot of mugging for the live audience that the radio listeners could certainly not understand.  There was a lot of dean air time (they didn't have any fill in for the between songs tuning etc... ) which seemed kind of strange - I wondered what the listeners who were hearing it live on FMT thought. Not a horrible concert but not a good one either. 

the weekend was also the Chicago spring planting weekend (Mother's Day is the traditional weekend for putting in the annuals) so the deck is now decked out with the annuals for the summer - will add a few tomato plants once Memorial Day rolls around (a fool's errand to do it earlier)

yes I know they are over planted - they can be thinned out as they grow- I like the instant gratification of lots and lots of color! LOL