Lately, there haven't been that many dining meetups held on weeknights. Since I am booked most weekends, it's been a long while since I've been out to eat with any of my groups. So, tonight was a refreshing change of pace.
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Since RQS had stayed over until Tuesday morning, I decided to cancel attending Monday night's meetup with this group. So I figured that I should get off my butt to attend tonight's gathering. Only one problem - I was tired, and could have used another couple of hours napping on the couch. But I made myself get up then got showered, made up and dressed to go out around 5:30.
Luckily, the meetup was in a restaurant 20 minutes from home. Although parking wasn't hard to find, it wasn't as close to the restaurant as I'd have liked - the lot is shared with commuters, and they don't start clearing out until 6:30 pm. So I had to walk a little more than I wanted to get inside.
As one can see from the picture above, there is a caboose on the left and an old coach car on the right. The former Valhalla railroad station between them is the main body of the restaurant, with both non-mobile pieces of rolling stock now being used as dining areas. Once inside, I looked to the left and saw my meetup group inside. It was nice to be wearing a dress to dinner, as it will soon be too cold to dress as feminine as I'd like.
After greeting my fellow diners, I perused the menu to see if there was something interesting I'd like to eat. There was, but I made a mistake in choosing it. It's October, and the restaurant had Oktoberfest specials to choose from, and I selected the Wiener-schnitzel with a side Caesar salad. I should have gone for the cheeseburger instead.When the Wiener-schnitzel arrived, the server didn't even know what it was, much less how to pronounce the name of the dish. So the dish ended going back and forth between our table and the kitchen until someone realized that the waitress didn't know what the specials were. I should have gone for the cheeseburger. Not only was the schnitzel leathery and overcooked, but the potato pancakes served with it were devoid of moisture and flavor. I should have gone for the cheeseburger! But the Cookies and Cream ice cream truffle was pleasant. Too bad I didn't go for the cheeseburger first....
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Once done with dinner, it was off to the supermarket to do some shopping. While on the way, I chatted with my brother, confirming a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum this weekend. It'll be nice to spend the day with him, although it would have been nicer for me to spend the day with RQS visiting a few Open House NY sites. Well, maybe next year....
