Just to recap the weekend: On Friday night Thom and I went to Solstice for a fun little happy hour for our friend (and Thom’s former co-worker) Julie, who has left their former department and is starting a new job. (I like this photo of her and me looking talky, and this one with Thom is darling too.) By the way, Julie is in a band at Blue Bear; we saw them do a showcase at Café du Nord last week, and they rocked!
On Saturday Thom and I had dinner at Chez Panisse with a few of my college friends to celebrate Jennifer’s birthday. We ate upstairs in the café, and it was fabulous. There were five of us, and on the menu apart from appetizers there exactly were five entrées and five desserts — so of course we ordered one of each and shared them all! Definitely a treat.
Tangent: I have fond associations with Chez Panisse not only because we had eaten there a few times as poor but epicurean college students (how bohemian), but also because of the name. It’s inspired by Marcel Pagnol’s 1930s trilogy of films, Marius, Fanny, and Cesar, and the restaurant has many vintage posters. Panisse is one of the main characters. When I was a senior in high school, our spring production was Fanny, a 1950s musical based on these films, and I played Marius.
On Sunday night we met up with Thom’s friend Peg, who was visiting from the East Coast, and her folks in Oakland. We ate a delicious dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, Red Sea, and had a nice time catching up and visiting their place afterward.
Good times!