Restaurant Memory Lane

So I left Brickell early to go home and let out 2/3 of our current dog population. The spoiled Spaniel was with Wifey, on a visit to her normal house as Wifey helped out with the new grandkid. As the baby has come to front stage, the Spaniel was asked to relocate for awhile to Pinecrest, where she happily frolics with her dog cousins. But yesterday she was with Wifey...

It was D2's birthday, and I suggested that D2 and Jonathan and Wifey and I meet at Glass and Vine, a lovely spot in Peacock Park right next to D2 and Jonathan's apartment. I parked at their building, and waited in the library,and Jonathan and D2 came down, and we walked happily the block to the restaurant. Wifey and the Spoiled Spaniel would soon follow.

As we checked in, D2 asked the manager if he was related to her friend Brett. He was -- Brett's brother in law, married to Haley, a friend of D1's since Palmetto High. Walter was a Palmetto guy, too -- always in the food biz, and now general manager of this pretty big deal restaurant. He seated us under a lighted banyan tree.

We feasted, and toasted. D1 and Joey will be at birthday dinner part 2 -- on Friday night. But we all compared our days and concluded Wifey's was the hardest -- helping care for a baby again after all these years. But it's a labor of love...

Walter came by to check on us, and I asked him his history in the biz. He asked if I was a Cane. Indeed. Did I know of the restaurant his family owned -- the Blue Grotto? Know about it? I practically lived there in college and law school!

He essentially grew up helping make their best pizzas in Miami. The Grotto was our go-to place -- you could have a full Italian meal, with unlimited salad and garlic rolls, for about $6. It was a date place -- it was a let's all go together place.

The Baltimore Orioles used to Spring train in Miami back then -- and they were always there. I remember one time standing next to Ken Singleton and not believing how enormous a man he was...

The memories flooded back. Especially those rolls -- I can still see them and smell them.

Wifey recalled a tale involving a very rich classmate of ours, who I'll call Linda, since that's her name. Her family owned theaters and TV stations and the biggest amusement park in town. At dinner one night, when the check came, she noted that she had NOT had the wine (house stuff -- probably $1.25 per glass) and so well all paid, I guess, $8.50 and she only paid $7.50.

Next time we were all together, in a show of my passive aggressivity, I announced I was buying her dinner. She accepted, smiled, and said "wow -- thanks!" She was so tone deaf.

But actually, she had a huge impact on me. I knew then, even though I was less than poor -- I was deep in student debt, I would NEVER be the one in a dinner party to ask to pay less. And indeed, I went on to pick up innumerable checks over the years that followed some financial success. So thanks Linda at the Blue Grotto!

They brought us guava bread pudding with a candle, and we sang to D2. I sent a pic t D1 -- she had severe FOMG (fear of missing guava). I actually checked Fireman Derek's pie shop on the way home -- thinking I might buy her some guava pie and sent it to her via Wifey. Alas -- they were closed.

We walked Wifey and the Spaniel to her SUV, and then I crossed Bayshore with D2 and Jonathan -- chatting happily about old movies. D2 has adopted one of my favorite phrases, from "Lebowski:"  "This aggression will not STAND, man!" I love it when she says it...

So our Ds are 28 and 31. They're married to awesome men. And the Blue Grotto lives on, in memory, across the decades...