I wanted to publish some pictures of our visit to the Girl and the Goat but for one thing I kept eating all the stuff they brought out before I remembered to take the pictures and in the second thing my camera was a bit under-charged and most of everything was blurry. Plus all the pictures of me sadly displayed my pronounced gut. Of which I think we'll have to go back to addressing pretty soon around here.Let me say that I enjoyed myself immensely. Every last thing that came out was great, except maybe the liver spread for the fat bread. But if you're a liver-lover you'd like it. But that's it. The chickpea fritters, the baked cauliflower and the steak strips with house pickles and beets were out of this world. We also enjoyed the cocoa nib donuts with pomegranate seeds we had for dessert - and they even brought that out with a candle for me. Thankfully though, no hand clapping Happy Birthday chain restaurant bullcrap.
I did see Stephanie Izard there but, you know what, I didn't try to grab a picture of her or try to snake into a picture with her either - though people were doing that.
I've seen some "celebrities" in person in public and one, Carlton Fisk, was basically him and me in an airport and he would have had no problem with it. But I just didn't. I didn't take any pictures with Bill Veeck - who I easily could have because we were sitting at Murphy's having a couple of beers at a booth. That was different anyway; we started a conversation in the bleachers and just moved it on, by his invite, to Murphy's. So that didn't count for "bugging a celeb."
I never grabbed a picture with any "celeb" I saw in person. Ever. I don't know. It feels too intrusive. I think a lot of times they're, you know, just people and they can't always be "on." I give them their space. In Stephanie's case, she was working up and down the kitchen. OK, standing outside the kitchen but moving up and down the open window to all the stations.
And people came up and they were all "oh hai we love you amen" and she smiled nicely and accepted people putting arms around her and all but I just said - you know what, she's busy and that just looks incredibly uncool. And I would rather die than appear to be uncool. But, more to the point, I just think it's kind of rude in a way. So anyway I don't do it.
Oh. That's a picture of Soupy Sales and Pookie up there. I don't know why I put it there. I never met Soupy Sales or Pookie. I just thought about that early 60's kid show this morning. No idea why. When the weather starts to turn my mind just gets all nostalgic or something. I don't know. And then things I hadn't thought of in 15 years just pops up. Weird.
I did put some pictures of the restaurant up on Facebook, but they're blurry, and none are of me and my gut. But I am going back as soon as I can. MrsRW is not a big fan of gastro-pubs and did the best she could to look like she was having fun. So I'm taking my two daughters next, who will explode over it I'm sure.
You just wish you were one of my daughters, that's all I'm saying. Well... no you probably don't. Because they couldn't get away with anything when they lived here because whatever they did I probably did worse at some point and you couldn't fool me. I was good at checking eyeballs without looking like I was.
Okay that's enough for now. If you are a vegetarian the Girl and the Goat has Top Chef-style dishes just especially for you. Plus fish of all kinds for that kind of taste. If ever in Chicago - you simply have to. That is all.
EDIT TO ADD I meant to say, with wine and I think we ordered six plates plus dessert we got out of there for much less than we've spent at other "high profile" places. It's not inexpensive, but when you compare it to the older, established places in this town - which is decidedly a restaurant town to be sure - it's more than reasonable. OH... and the coffee, per my coffee-drinking expert wife, was the one thing that was totally out of this world.
4 comments:
Yeah - I've often thought about how my kid won't get away with anything when she's older, too. I like it. I think sometimes I'll let her THINK she's getting away with stuff just to see how far she'll try and take it.
Am I an evil mom?!
I think I'd love that place, even though I'm not sure I'd love all the food they brought me.
I think I've only once gone out of my way to say hello to a celebrity. But it was Cheech Marin and it was basically him, Tommy Chong and a publicist talking by themselves on a street in Manhattan. I certainly wasn't going to interrupt. Then Cheech broke a way and was just kind of wandering. That's when I went up to him. Other than that, I usually just ignore them.
Gave Laura Linney a "what's up" nod on a subway once. And James Gandolfini and I shared a "this is taking forever" shrug once while waiting for our bags at an airport. Well, there was that time I told Sarah Jessica Parker that I loved her, but I was drunk and a bit high from having met Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft earlier in the evening.
Look at me being a name dropper. ;)
PS - Glad you had a good experience at the restaurant. I love joints like that.
I'm with you on the celeb bit. I've met many, and I don't have one picture to prove it. I don't own any autographs either. That stuff is just so, I don't know, classless.
I don't really get the whole geeking out over someone because they are famous thing, either. Now, there are some people whose artistic/creative work I really do admire, and if I happened to meet them, I suppose I'd tell them that. (And I guess I have, on a couple of occasions at book signings.) But that's really a sort of one-sentence interaction that they hear ALL THE TIME, so there's really no point in belaboring it. And the whole photo thing seems really intrusive.
This might be somewhat related to my own, very roundabout and very minor "tastes of fame", of which I've had two. The first, as a young (high school) guy who played in the house band for a local youth group (I know, I know), I actually had the experience of being "recognized" by people I didn't know (a lot of people came through those meetings), usually while working my much less glamorous job in the mall food court. That was pretty weird.
The other, which has happened a handful of times, is having someone come up to me at a scientific conference and fawning over a paper or two that I had published. I mind this a great deal less (the rewards in my line of work are few and far between!) but it is still pretty awkward for me. I just find someone knowing stuff about me when I know nothing about them really creepy.
I don't think I'd like being famous.
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