good friday

last night we were meeting friends for dinner. we had just had larosa's thursday night, so that was ruled out. john, who was joining us, said he had no desire to be around a bunch of screaming kids at a fish fry, so that was a no go as well. we settled on dewey's in clifton, home of my favorite pizza, the green lantern. we were actually almost on time, arriving before jenny and john. this made beth and eric believe the apocalypse was upon us. no matter.
eating with me sometimes resembles dinner with sally from 'when harry met sally'. on the side is a very big thing for me. i ordered the peppercorn ranch salad, sans bacon, dressing on the side, followed by a calzone with artichokes, pesto and tomatoes. i have been trying to cut back on the food intake, because, unlike my husband who can maintain his girlish figure (6'1", 165 lb) even though he is consuming an entire pizza and two beers for dinner, my ass continues to expand. i ate half the calzone. my weakness is dessert, especially opera cream torte from the bonbonerie. i did give up dessert for lent, but that pretty much went to hell the last couple weeks of the quarter (sorry, jesus). i had introduced brian to the opera cream torte on one of our first dates, and he has been obsessed ever since. it was even our wedding cake. we each had a piece. i didn't want to have food envy. and i didn't mean to eat the whole piece. but it was right in front of me.
after dinner we debated about where to have more drinks. several clifton bars were eliminated because of an unacceptable level of dirtiness. as one approaches 30, dirt is suddenly visible that would never be noticed by the average college-aged cliftonite. and, as my friend beth so eloquently stated, now that smoking has been banned in the bars, you can smell what they really smell like, and you almost wish for the smoke. divine inspiration led brian to suggest cactus pear. margaritas...mmm. the perfect ending.
eating in clifton is enjoyable because the restaurants are small, good for the most part, and the crowd is diverse. you'll see as many lip rings as business suits. it was a sad day when they tore down blocks of what i remembered from my undergrad days - how i mourn the loss of inn the wood!