Metropolitan & Mike

So because we had only been out to eat the majority of nights this week with friends we had at least one more open night LOL and were lucky enough to have dinner with Mike at his club downtown- The Metropolitan Club.

So a recap of dinner with friends this week started with Judy on Sunday at Michael's and Barb & John on Monday at Ruxbin then Tuesday we ate with each other LOL at New England Seafood Co. and Wednesday was Next: French Laundry and tonight - Thursday - with Mike at the Metropolitan Club.

Mike had invited us to his club - well actually his club (he's a golfer) is in Houston but they have a reciprocity deal with clubs in other places including some city clubs like the Metropolitan Club here in Chicago.  We had been once before with Mike and his partner Leslie (about six weeks ago, I think)

here is the link to the prior trip to the Metropolitan Club-

http://blog.semifreelife.com/2016/07/dinner-with-friends.html

This time Leslie couldn't make it so Mike invited a business and personal friend named Steve who turned out to be good company and a Cardinals fan to boot LOL

The food was very nice and the view spectacular- which is a given for that location on the 67th floor of the Willis Tower.

And on with the show- LOL- the wines all showed very nicely-

the view - amazing!

an amuse from the chef- a lovely scallop

the entrees -  ribeye, veal osso buco  and two salmons with crab crusts....

and every dessert known to man- no really the server- Christina brought all kinds of things for us to try - it was the end of the evening and I guess they didn't see any reason not to bring a bit of everything LOL - the creme brulee was the best of the ones we had - although the caramel cheesecake gave it a run for the money in my opinion...

good company (but we really missed Leslie!) and good food and good wines - #lifeisgood....

we get a night off tomorrow night but i am sure we will figure out something...so stay tuned.

dinner with friends

At the last minute yesterday afternoon, Mike and Leslie called and asked if they could host us at their club here in Chicago (actually Mike's club is in Houston but it has reciprocal privileges around the country and maybe the world...) we ditched (or actually delayed) our sushi dinner and rescheduled it for lunch today and agreed to dinner with friends.

So off we went to the Willis (Sears) Tower and after only a half hour of taking four or five elevators we actually found the place LOL- on the 66th floor (or maybe 67th) - our passes had helpfully said 50th floor....

The room is lovely and we had a light show over the skyline pretty much the entire time since there were thunderstorms moving through the area.  The meal was very good, the service was excellent and the company and wines even better.

Let's start with dessert first- LOL only kidding- this an amuse of a scallop...

then we did four shared starters - the beef tartare, yellowtail crudo, blue cheese mac & cheese with mushrooms (yum!) and the giant crab cake...

then we shared two salads - one with beets and goat cheese and the other with berries and jicama-

then on to entrees-

I had short ribs with risotto and Mike had the Salmon and Leslie and Phil had steaks -

we had paired the wines with the various courses - moving from a white burgundy to a pinot to a Bordeaux....

and of course we had to have dessert as the conversation wasn't even close to being finished.... the wine was a bit closer but would last for the entire meal LOL

cheesecake with salted caramel and tiramisu with drunken cherries and sorbet selection and Phil had something chocolate ... shown first - with berries and dulce de leche ice cream...

a lovely evening memorialized in photos -

always fun to dine with friends - and gee we hadn't done that in 24 hours LOL- actually we had dinner with friends on Monday - Wednesday - Friday and Saturday and were out for a concert Tuesday and a play Thursday... and our friend Gary keeps asking what we do with our time LOL- who has time?  Tomorrow would have been my sister's 61st birthday except she died more than six years ago... and although I miss her all the time, she is a driving force in my life-

"from the cradle to the crypt it's a mighty short trip - you better get it while you can..." (Love you Jane) the quote is from Steve Goodman who didn't even make it as long as my sister Janna... but these are words we live by in our household...

so stay tuned- more adventures coming up....