Saturday, March 30, 2013. Composing A Fool's Masterpiece. Back To Mac's.

Written by Tom Fitzmorris April 04, 2013 18:46 in

Dining Diary

Saturday, March 30, 2013.
Composing A Fool's Masterpiece. Back To Mac's.

I awakened in a dream. I was in a radio studio with a consultant. That is the nightmare of all on-air radio personalities. I am fortunate that it has never occurred in reality during the twenty-five years of my current show. In this dream, the consultant told me that there were three things I had to give my listeners. "Music," he said. "A commercial, and love. Get it?"

"Music, commercial, and. . . love?" I asked.

"Right! Music. Commercial. Love!"

Background music came up. I broke into song.

Music, commercial, love!
I said, music, commercial, love!
That's all you need know, on the radio--
Music, commercial, love!

It was now a musical on stage, with a chorus and dancers swirling around me. I found myself making up lyrics and music as I went.

That's what it's made of!
Good Lord above!
Music, commercial, love!

It kept me in bed for over a half-hour before I finally forced myself to turn this song off. I never fully could. The tune played in my mind all day. I swore I would get out of radio when I thought it was making me nuts. We may be getting there.

I did two hours of radio on WWL with just a little music and a lot of commercials. As for the love. . . well, I'm still working on that.

Mary Ann and I had dinner at Mac's On Boston, and new (too new, really) restaurant. It's a cute place, but saddled with a a record of failed past restaurants. Mac's is easily the best occupant yet, and I hope it makes it. The chef seems to have a good grip on the necessities.

The entire dining population was indoors, but Mary Ann wanted to dine on the deck. The wait staff was happy to allow that, even though it surely made their jobs more difficult. We were glad to see a few more parties join us out there.

Crab claws.

The last time we were here, the waitress could not have been more enthusiastic about the beef tournedos and its sauce. The smoked and roasted chicken sounded better then, but the tournedos was due tonight. It's a big dish, I knew, so we limited ourselves to two courses. The first was a small dish of crab claws in a brown, thick meuniere sauce. I don't know why anybody is serving crabmeat right now. It's super-expensive and not very good. This would have been a lot better with shrimp.

Salad.

We split a very pretty, varied and good salad. Followed by a seafood platter, the first one MA has had in awhile. She used to be a seafood platter maven, but she stays away from them now for weight-loss reasons. But once in awhile won't hurt.

Seafood platter.

Tournedos.

The tournedos was too big to finish. Although the beef was good enough, I have an aversion to steaks so flooded with sauce and toppings that they lose their identity. I think the steakhouse standard of putting a bare steak on a plate with little else is a good idea.

The chef came out and I got the distinct impression that he wished I had ordered something else. Next time I will.

Although the dinner was less than perfect, the evening was very pleasant. Mary Ann continues to say that she's glad we didn't take the trip we had planned for this weekend. And that she's getting over the depressing condition of having to share the Easter weekend with only me.


Mac's On Boston.
Covington: 324 E Boston St. 985-892-6550.

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