Birthday Bash

Poor John - a classic Libra, always weighing decisions but barely able to make them. That's what happened with his birthday.
me: what do you want to do for your birthday
he: I dunno
me: really?
he: I dunno
me: bbq?
he: .......

So I put out a call to a few friends:
Dinner.
Friday night
be there -9 :15 p.m. Party like a New Yorker!

So we went to dinner at Plum. the new Oakland hotspot owned by famed SF Restaurateur, Daniel Patterson of Coi.

That was the night that Texas beat the Yankees - life was good.
Dinner - so, so.

With all the hubbub around this opening, i was really expecting something special. I got - different.

the "snacks" were overpriced - $4.00 for a bowl of "heirloom" popcorn. Not exactly sure what that means...old corn? Red & black kernels? then there were the potato chicherones - puffy potato strips w/no flavor and no dipping sauce (also $4.00), and the chickpea fritters - aka falaffel, also $4.00. The vegies were good (the roasted, buttery carrots). I ordered the slow roasted egg - that was a big "don't bother", but I heard that the beef cheeks and ox tail burgers were delicious as were the clams. so the moral of the story is - give a new restaurant time to work out their kinks. This place needs a little more time to work out the details.

As for the friends and the birthday - big, big fun. That was partially due to Harvey's expertise at ordering champagne, wine and his own two bottles of yummy red. Yeah Harvey and Happy Birthday to my hubby!