pooch posterous

I spent a lot of time on a lot of small details, 8-12 hours a day, nearly everyday for the last month or so in particular, on top of my regular obligations. It will be nice to move on , and see about the rest of this summer.

So why "Rosetta Stone Cafe?"
Well, let me tell you.
After finishing the painting yesterday, Nikki and I were famished. After throwing myself into the fine details of downtown for so long, I thought it would be nice to celebrate down town. We had heard about the new, "Lemon Grove Cafe" and wanted to check it out. When got downtown, we talked about the big improvement there compared to 10 years ago, and that it's difficult for aging town centers to survive, when they aren't situated on major travel routes.
We went To Cedar's first for a drink and were surprised to find the doors locked. We walked up to Barley's passing the open door of the pizza place. You could see a single employee at the end of a big empty room. I think it's great to see these places open, yet I wonder how they do it. It's sort of surreal. Barley's looked the same, the bartender was alone. I ordered a Long Island Ice Tea. As often happens when you order that drink, and you're the only ones in the bar, It was virtually all booze. I drank some and asked for more coke in it. We saw that Barley's now serves Papa's Puerto Rican food. We enjoy the Papa's that's located near us on Mathew's road. I said to Nikki, that now we'd have to pick between 3 places to eat: here, The Lemon Grove, or Rosetta Stone Cafe. Nikki excluded, "here" because we've had Papa's, and had never been to the other 2.
We were both starving.
I hadn't eaten a bite all day, and now it was 7:00 p.m. I tried to get Nikki to help me finish my drink,  but she wouldn't, so I chugged the nearly straight alcohol, and we left. We flipped a coin, and it was Rosetta Stone Cafe. It looked like a nice place, rather dark. Nikki thought it smelled good, I was conflicted about the smell. We were seated, and looked at the menu. The prices were high. Now generally speaking, we won't go to a place if we know in advance that the price are that high, unless that place offers something exceptional.  We have been in this position before. When we try a new place, and see prices that high, we don't get up and leave, we don't even stick to the cheapest menu items. When in Rome, we try to be graceful. In such a setting, I also expect to see ultra-small portions, but my best hope is that the meal will be prepared well, and of really good quality, otherwise something's really wrong. So I ordered:

Shrimp Scampi Rosetta Stone Style                                                          18
jumbo prawns, proscuitto, bleu cheese, scampi butter, linguini

(the, "18" is 18 dollars)

I frequently use proscuitto finely minced in my Italian dishes, it adds a good flavor when cooked down in various sauces. I was looking forward to something really good. Nikki ordered:

Chicken Rosemary                                                                                      16
sautéed breast of chicken, white wine sauce, roma tomatoes, rosemary,
mozzarella  

It took quite some time to get our drinks, and refills on our drinks and our food. I've worked as both a waiter and a cook, and know how things go, so I usually overlook a few things, but at a point, begin mentally reducing the tip I would have left from 20%. Our salads came, very small, not surprising. They were a little wilty, but I was pleased about that, they didn't seem to have any, "fruit fresh" type preservative used at most restaurants.
When our meals came, they looked okay. There were only seven shrimp, and a noticeable lack of cheese. There was none on the dish, or on the table. A nice, strong Pecorino Romano would have gone well. I can understand not including it on a signature dish, but I think it should have been at least been on the table.   The dish wasn't put together well. It looked like Italian from Eat-n-Park. I couldn't detect any garlic. Scampi without garlic? It seemed like, shrimp, parlsey, butter, proscuitto, and pasta. Now what makes that all worse is that it was obvious that the pasta hadn't been drained well. So basic. Can you image how you would make such a lack-luster dish worse?-add water. Nikki's pasta came in a separate bowl, but when she added it to her chicken, her meal also became, "watered down".
We had to ask for all of our drink refills. Our waitress brought me a second cup of coffee after I asked, and it was cold. I was going to tell her when she came to see if our meals were o.k., but she never came back. I didn't hold the quality of our meals against her, just her poor service. I left her $5.00 on a $40.00 check.
In the car, I was again complaining about the lack of cheese, and how I was surprised that a signature dish had been so plain and poorly prepared. The Nikki mentioned the Bleu cheese, and how she expected it to be interesting on account of it. Bleu Cheese. There was no bleu cheese, I had forgotten the menu said it was part of the dish, and I got mad at myself. I would have loved to have pointed that out before I had eaten it.
Now comes the bad part of this story.
About 1:30 a.m. I began to get nauseous, and  sweaty. The whole meal came out, much the way it went in.
That was the only food I had all day.
Can I say without a doubt my dinner from Rosetta Stone Cafe made me sick?
No, although I can't remember the last time I puked, it's been years and years.
I felt immediately better after that food was out of me.
Can I say without a doubt that I had a sub par experience at Rosetta Stone Cafe?
Absolutely.