A TALE OF TWO ANNIVERSARIES

My son Jeff and his lovely wife Susan

just celebrated their 12^th anniversary

this past weekend 

at a very top-rated Chicago restaurant ALINEA.  

You can only make a reservation

 a few months ahead of the date,

and must prepay your dinner.

The dinner was half taste sensation,

half theatrical presentation, 

and totally unlike anything

they had ever witnessed or experienced before!

       When Jeff described

the large amount of staff employed

 to serve and present this meal, 

I had a lovely flashback to the best anniversary dinner

 that my husband Dave and I ever enjoyed. 

It was either March 1974 or 1975...

just look at us young things:

We were driving downtown

 to the chichi Pump Room

 (our version of Alinea then),

 in our newly leased Cadillac sedan…

no future pickup trucks

 or family van crowding our garage yet! 

We had our beautiful babes Matt and Niki 

tucked in their suburban beds

 in our brand new Schaumburg home. 

I thought—and probably said—

that we were now at THE TOP!  

Supreme luxury and success for us!

   

  The famous Pump Room in the Ambassador East Hotel

 welcomed us at their lavishly decorated entryway. 

We observed some famous diners

when we looked around us. 

The celebrated “Booth One”

was reserved for this In Crowd.

  (Plebeians like us sat at ordinary tables.)

And so we savored our supreme meal

at the Pump Room

with all that hovering wait staff.

 I ironically observed

that we even had a special waiter

dedicated to just keeping

our butter pats intact!

       Back to our contemporary couple, Susan and Jeff.  

The entrance to Alinea 

(unlike that showy Pump Room entrance)

is so understated, 

that most people have trouble finding it. 

Only the numerical address 

appears on the plain brick storefront,

 with nary a restaurant sign in sight--

 The diners wander through 

dramatically lit hallways....

around and around.....

(Like Alice in Wonderland falling through the rabbit hole!)

until finally the cozy dining rooms appear! 

       While the Pump Room specialized 

in their signature Flaming Skewers,

 Susan and Jeff saw their centerpiece of orange

 fired up during one course

 so that the aroma of the oranges 

could waft gently over their taste buds. 

 Susan described another course

 on her Facebook page: 

“All I remember is a bed of burning evergreen

 with 2 balls of fried dough 

filled with pork and a bunch of other stuff on top. 

It was delicious!”

       While Dave and I had 

some kind of ordinary dessert (maybe Cherries Jubilee?)

Jeff and Susan were served,

 along with a plated finale,

 GREEN APPLE FLAVORED HELIUM BALLOONS!

  

I asked Jeff how they (ahem) “ate” the balloons.

They were instructed to “kiss” the balloon gently.  

After their voices were comically altered by the helium,

they then tasted the spun sugar.

       So each celebrating couple, 

in their high-end dining,

 separated by forty-three years,

 shared a loving memory 

they will never forget.