Saturday, April 1, 2017.
Prom Night Is At Rip's.
I give forth three very busy hours on the radio, and follow them with an assortment of weekend jobs. I try to start the lawn tractor again, but it continues to tell me that it is ready for the junk pile. Well, we got almost twenty years out of it.
It's a pretty day, one in which I would have to take Mary Ann to a restaurant that has outdoor dining. That was easy: for the past few weeks I have had commercials on my radio show to the effect that the Lakehouse in Mandeville is now open for lunch and dinner on Saturdays. Illogically enough, it has not served on that busiest day of the week. They had a good explanation: the big old building that is the Lakehouse is ideal for weddings and receptions, and that's what was going on there this evening.
I don't have to go back in time very far to recall that Rip's on the Lake is open every Saturday. Rosalyn Prieto owns the place. She was on the radio show for an interview a few days ago. But the place is so popular, with its panoramic view of the lake, the Causeway, and the sunset. But it's such a beautiful, warm, breezy, blue-sky spot that the place is nearly full. We get one of the last available seats out on the front porch--just the kind of place MA loves.
Not long after we sit down, we note the coming, in twos and fours, some young adults in formal clothes. Members of the wedding party a block away at the Lakehouse? No, says MA and our friend Desiree Billeaud. Desiree came up here for a drink and a snack. We have room at our table, and she stays throughout dinner. She says that the young, dressed-up people are obvious prom-nighters.
That matter touches me deep down. On top of that, I have an assignment to write an article about how to play prom night to get the most out of it. One couple in particular grabs my attention. They are about two tables from ours. They are dressed flawlessly. For the young man, he completes his prom night milieu by being well groomed and fit. His date wears a dress the looks like something directly out of a high-end fashion magazine.
They are both arrayed so beautifully that they look a few years older than high-school seniors. Not only that, but they seem to be very much at ease, sophisticated and comfortable in each other's company.
The question of whether this happy couple is really twenty-something is laid to rest when several other couples, all of them in full dress and wearing happy smiles, show up. As the evening progresses, they walk out to the floodwall across the street and have pictures taken of their group with the lake and the setting sun in the background.
We remain at Rip's until it begins getting dark. I would love to write now that the rest of the evening was lovely and romantic for MA and me. It's certainly a pleasant time in which we linger for a long wall. But the disasters that were our respective proms were not remediated. I do wish that MA and I had met in time for our proms, but we missed that target by twenty-two years. Too bad. That would have changed everything in both our lives.
I had not dined at Rip's in a long time. It came a long way since then. We begin with a contemporary oyster appetizer, in which the oysters were fried and the sauce--composed mostly of blue cheese, butter and herbs--are not only good but served in portion enough to feed the three of us.
The entrees are another overload. MA had blackened salmon with a crawfish cream sauce and a bank of small brabant potatoes. She likes the pile very much. I eat fish, too: red snapper with a different sauce but still a lot of herbs, butter, and those little potatoes again. The fish selection goes well beyond these two dishes, a program that was already underway on our last visit.
What with this interesting seafood and the outdoor dining opportunity that MA loves, we'll likely add Rip's to our A list.
Rip's Seafood Restaurant. Mandeville: 1917 Lakeshore Dr. 985-727-2829.
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Sunday, April 2, 2017.
Singing In The Morning, Radio At Noonish, Tomato Bisque At Suppertime.
My Sundays are not quite carved in granite, but they're predictable. I sing at 10 o'clock Mass in Abita Springs, go on the air during early afternoon with the Sunday edition of the Food Show (a recent addition to the schedule), and spend the rest of the day walking, bookkeeping, writing if I have anything to say. (If I don't, I'll think of something.) Then, absent any other plans from MA, we go to Zea for the great tomato-basil soup, the big Asian-style fried oysters that I wish they served all the time. I think it's a little too much regularity and work, but I don't know what else to do.
Although we sometimes watch movies, now that I have a reclining chair to watch them from. Birthday present this year. Love it! Always wanted one.
Zea. Covington: 110 Lake Dr. 985-327-0520.
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