Ha-HAH! I knew this crap would peter out after a couple of weeks! I can't keep anything going!

I'm going to get a slice of pizza or a burrito and go home and drink beer and watch tv tonight. Screw you, internet!

Hey! That's what happened to Foster Brooks!



This week, there will be no edition of "Table for one, please," due to the fact that Laura just got back from a four-day business trip and I will be dining with her tonight.

Now, last week- thank you, thank you, thank you Internet for sending me to Ludwig's Garten. Oh, it was quiet (read: empty) and the mug of Dunkel Warsteiner was very large and cold and the spatzle (pronounced "spatzley" by the server) with sweet peppers and Italian sausage baked with provolone and marinara sauce was just wonderful. Plus, the side dishes- a crisp on the outside, soft and warm inside potato dumpling and a not-too-vinegary potato salad- were excellent companions to the main dish.

About potato salad- since about the age of birth, my perception of potato salad was a but skewed. I only knew it as boiled potatoes mixed with a heavy mustard/miracle whip sauce, sweet pickles and celery. Hated it. But, in my 20th year or so, I discovered the much lighter existence of German potato salad and... well, I apologize to all potato salads for my blind hatred. Just like people in this crazy, mixed-up world of ours, some potato salads can be good, some can be bad. We shouldn't just judge all potato salads with the same blanket prejudices. Egg salad, however, is a terrible, terrible bastard, no matter how you mix it.

One week from today, you will be able to once again tell me where to eat food. But, for tonight, everyone enjoy your dinners.

Okay, now I have that week two momentum going.

Same as last time- I'm likely going to eat some food this evening- you, the internet public, get to decide exactly where that's going to be. If that's not enough explanation, read this. This week's theme: restaurants located along Sansom Street on the way home from work.

TO THE BOARD!

Poll #700349 Table for one, please- Week 2
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 34

SANSOM STREET BLOWOUT '99!!!!!

Restaurant: Warsaw Cafe (winner, with 14 votes)

Dish: Hunter's Stew

Beverage: Yards Love Stout

I have to admit that Warsaw Cafe was the one restaurant on the list which I was least enthusiastic about trying.
( But how was the meal? How was it?!? )

Three things have led to this:
1) I have had, for my entire life, had a bit of a phobia about dining alone.
2) My beloved wife, faeryhead is vegan. Though there are many, many options available to us for dining in this fine city of Philadelphia, there are also many, many places where we won't go because it just doesn't make any sense. There are a few of these establishments whose menus I'd enjoy sampling.
3) On Wednesdays, Laura has a standing date with tawdryjones for dinner, wine and making fun of horrible tele-vision programs. I usually just grab a slice of pizza on the way home and read or whatever.

So- with the help of you, the internet, I'll make a list of 4-5 restaurants every Wednesday and you will choose the one at which I shall dine that evening and tell the host/hostess, "Table for one, please." Tomorrow, I'll write a review of my meal. For this, the inaugural week, the theme is "Places near my apartment."Poll #695804 Table for one, please- week 1
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

Where will RJ eat dinner this evening?

Also, if anyone has any tips about the dining alone thing without feeling weird, feel free to leave them. Is it rude to read a magazine or newspaper while having dinner in a restaurant? I'd rather not stare off into space. I was thinking this month's Atlantic Monthly, there's a great article about the NSA.