Remembrance of Things Pabst

We have really been burning the midnight oil. Witness the facts that I have not been posting. I have been feeling like shit and filling up with water. The doctor prescribed some water pills and I have been taking them and peeing like a racehorse. I am supposed to be eating right and resting. So of course I am working like a dog and going out to eat. A two week push and we should be done. So I have to suck it up and keep grinding.

We decided to keep it simple and went to one of our old favorites: Red Rose. This is an old fashioned spaghetti and meatball joint that I should have taken Spinelli too as it sounds like his family's restaurant that he sometimes talks about when he is lost in nostalgia. This is the family who used to have a candy store on Cheever Place that I wax nostalgic about where I would get the big heroes at lunch time. They went and opened a restaurant on Smith St. about forty years ago and I have been going ever since.

This is like the old school restaurant on "Big Night." Only it is the spaghetti parlor with the Chianti bottle with the red checkered table cloth. There are a lot of cross currents and stories with this joint. First of all we had to take it off the list because they never turn on the air conditioning. Or rather the Mom who sat at a front table smoking cigarettes would always get up and shut it off. One night we were there and we would ask the son Santo to turn up the A/C and then five minutes later his Mom would go and turn it off! Now the son is in his late forties so it is kind of funny. Anyway the Mom kicked off and she is somewhere where it is not a problem because it is always pretty hot. And they have the a/c blasting.

When we got there the place was hopping. It was an interesting mixture. Mostly old school neighborhood people. Some hipsters who are clued in on a good place with great food and a lot on the plate. An mixed bag. But it was a full house so we had to sit at the bar.

Now this is an old school full bar. Santo's wife was sitting at the bar. Another person we had a history with. She is plus size and should have been a big customer of ours since she needs clothes for work. But she only came to the store once and bought one thing. She had a liquor store that failed. I had bought some stuff there but I used my regular guy on the corner of my house for most of my wine purchases. I mean I have to do what is right for me. If she was a big customer in my store I would have made it my business to spend more in hers but that didn't happen. Anyhoo she was bartending so it was time for a lot of phony "How is the store?" and "How's business?" discussions. Lisa had a Cosmo and I had some juice while we waited for a table to open up.

I was just sitting and chilling and letting Lisa carry the conversational ball while I relaxed. When we finally sat down it was right under the a/c duct. Yippee! We started with a rice ball and an eggplant ball. The eggplant ball was a rolled up deep fried eggplant with mozzarella inside covered in red sauce. Pretty tasty. The rice ball was the old reliable with peas and chop meat. Delicious.

For the main course Lisa had angel hair with grilled chicken and artichoke hearts in white wine sauce. I had my old favorite old fashioned Meatballs and spaghetti. I haven't had that in years. When I was a kid we ate that at least twice a week. It was nothing for Mom to whip it up. It took the place of mac and cheese in our house. I was in heaven.

I choose the stuffed meatballs that were stuffed with mozzarella and were just great. No desert because we had broke enough rules for the night. We paid said our goodbyes and went out for a walk down Smith Street checking out all the other places that were open. There were a whole bunch of new restaurants and bars and places to go but we were happy at an old stomping ground where we have history both good and bad.

Because as long as we have each other it doesn't really matter where we go.