Best Laid Plans

It was a lovely day - gorgeous, spring-like and I thought it would be a great evening to take advantage of a Groupon gift certificate my mother had given us for a restaurant on Belden Lane. I rang John and he begrudgingly said he'd come into The City to meet me for dinner. He wasn't thrilled about being in SF one more day since he spends six out of seven days there. We were to meet in my office lobby at 5:30, but at 5:35 I got a text that he was running 20 minutes late. So as not to give up our 5:45 reservation, I texted him back with the name of the restaurant (Trademark) and directions. I really didn't give it another thought.

I arrived on time at the restaurant and sat down; ordered 8 oysters at happy hour prices ($1 each) and a cocktail (Oh Pear!) at a happy hour price, pulled out my book and waited. And waited. And waited. At 6:10 I got a little concerned and pulled my phone out to call. Nothing. No dial tone--nothing. I walked outside. Nothing. I started to get a tad bit of an anxiety attack, so I asked to borrow the restaurant's phone. I called and it went to voice mail. I called again. And again. And again. Then my phone rang. Nothing. I couldn't hear a damn thing. So I tried calling back from the restaurant phone - nothing. And this happened twice. Finally, in a panic, I threw twenty bucks at the waiter - told him to leave the table set fora 1/2 hour and I Ran - and I mean ran, in my little cha-cha heels three blocks back to my office where I saw John walking up the street with Peet's in his hand. Running late, he had left his phone in his truck. He had used a pay phone (which I couldn't call back) and my phone was broken... all a perfect storm of bad communication luck (and Mercury isn't even in retrograde). Luckily we were able to hop right back into our seats, suck down a couple of cocktails and enjoy a fantastic meal.

We started with the oysters, then had a beet, apple and goat cheese salad with pistachios. We then had chicken livers with warm pears on toast triangles, an order of tuna tartare, and then we shared a main course of roasted chicken, with a garlic bread pudding.

Thankfully the food and service redeemed a potentially ruined evening. In the end, it all worked out and we were able to relax and enjoy ourselfs. Unfortunately though, my phone is completely dead. Guess what I'm doing tomorrow?