Wandering

Pretty good Friday night. Went straight to hang with Phil and everyone after work. As I arrived they were watching the last bit of Edward Scissorhands. I hadn’t seen the movie before somehow, but it was pretty fun despite being a little dark. Afterward Chantal asked me about the whole Free Joe thing so I got to tell a short version of that story. I think Chantal and Alan were impressed a bit.

We had planned to go to Nojo; I guess the head chef there had been on Top Chef, or maybe a friend or something like that. Either way it had good reviews, but it was all the way across town. We were in Potrero Hill, so we grabbed the bus but there were some hilarious/loud women that got on at the same time. So it was an interesting experience listening to them be ridiculous.

After the bus it was still a bit of a walk. We passed the time chatting and pretending that Chantal was our charge (I suppose she was, but we took it more seriously than normal :P). When we finally got to Nojo, it turned out that our friend Migs (and his buddy Takeshi) had also just gotten there. They were waiting on a table, but it was a really long wait so the four of us just said hi and left.

So we wandered around Hayes Valley looking for somewhere to eat randomly. Of course, on a Friday night everything was packed (except the fast food joints); we asked at Suppenkuch but they said “not tonight.” finally we found a little restaurant called Bar Jules and the hostess said there was a reservation for four which was 20 minutes late, so we could have their table.

None of us really knew the place, evidenced particularly by the fact that we asked what dish the place was known for. “We’re known for our rotating menu, but there are only three entrees each day anyway.” We asked what she would pick — “if it was your last meal?” it was kinda funny how she became a bit uneasy. We joked that we weren’t actually threatening her, but of course it can be a lot of pressure to choose someone’s food for them.

It turns out that the menu items included rabbit, tuna and skirt steak. She recommended the steak and three of us got it. Phil decided to go with soup and salad instead somehow. It the meantime we had water, wine and bread. Phil joked that the sparkling water was $13 dollars per bottle; I guess Chantal is extremely trusting and gullible, but actually the joke wasn’t very far from the truth.

Alan had been carrying his camera with him all night. There was a moderately cute girl at the table next to us, waiting by herself. Alan is apparently always in hunting mode, so he asked her to take a photo of the four of us, hoping to break the ice and open up communication with her.  She was nice enough to take the photo, even a second time after Alan adjusted the light settings for his camera.  Afterward, however, she turned back around, facing somewhat away from us.

She was eventually joined by three other girls.  I didn’t find any of them exceptionally attractive, but Alan and Chantal at least agreed they liked the original girl the best, with Alan referring to her as “the photographer.”  He went on to explain that it’s good to establish internal nomenclature for girls in such a group, so that we can talk about one or another without it being very obvious (and especially since we don’t know their actual names).  But that was mostly it with the ladies at Bar Jules.

The skirt steak was written out on the board as “wood grilled skirt steak with a cauliflower, leek, and anchovy gratin.”  Cauliflower is one of the vegetables I dislike the most, I almost never eat anything with leeks in it, and I always think of anchovies as being too fishy or salty.  But the moment I took the first bite of the steak with some of the gratin, I thought “this is the second best steak I’ve ever eaten.”  Alan, Chantal and I agreed it was really amazing (third best steak for Chantal, and the best Cauliflower ever for all of us).  Chantal tried to give some to Phil, but he still wasn’t really interested for some reason.  At one point, Chantal was like “that guy got the skirt steak; I want to see his expression when he takes the first bite!”  Anyway I felt very lucky that the line at Nojo was so long, and especially that someone didn’t show up for their reservation so we could eat that steak :)

After dinner we got up and started looking around for a bar/lounge to go to.  There were a lot of places we passed that were too loud or to packed (or both), but we eventually found a place called Sugar Lounge, which looked pretty cool, was reasonably quiet and almost empty.  We went in, got a few drinks and decided to take the table next to the front window.  It was essentially off in its own corner, in contrast to the other tables which had more tables next to them etc.  Anyway we sat for a while and chatted, and before long the place started to fill up big time.  I thought maybe it’s because we effectively put Chantal in the window, but maybe it was just that time of the night :P

Eventually three girls sat at the table behind ours.  Alan said we should try to meet them, and to start we numbered them (simply 1, 2, 3) for our internal reference.  We talked about which was the cutest, and I made a quick trip to the bar so I could get a look at the third one on the way back.  They were decent, but it was kinda hard to tell without being very obvious in that light.  From there, Alan started to discuss with Chantal about how to open up communication.  ”Why don’t you tell them you’re from out of town, and ask where is a good place to go dancing?”  It’s a perfectly legitimate thing to ask, but it was hilarious because Chantal was a bit anxious about it (“it’s going to sound rehearsed!”).  I decided at that point, if/when Alan and Chantal both move to SF, I really want to go out with them and be a fly on the wall for Chantal’s wing-woman-ing with Alan.

As it turned out, the girls talked to us first, though it may have been due to our strategic placement of Chantal.  They wanted a photo with all of them, so we took it and started talking a bit after that (having them take a photo of us, taking a photo of them with Alan’s much nicer camera, etc.).  It wasn’t long before we brought them over to sit at our table with us, freeing up the table they had been sitting at (which was immediately occupied by one of the many groups which had been standing).

As we talked, we discovered that the girls were high school friends, originally from a much more northern part of California.  One of them is now living in SF, and the other two were just visiting for the weekend.  ”You’re not still in high school, right?” Alan asked, but of course they weren’t :P  When I discovered how young they were, I was like “cool, not worrying about it anymore for myself.”  But it turns out they’re right above Alan’s threshold for creepy dating, and he’s apparently cool with it, so it worked out.

We talked for a little while, with Alan telling some interesting stories about work and adventures (they did sound really cool), but eventually we decided we’d go somewhere to dance a bit.  Somehow we picked Beauty Bar (one of the girls picked it I think) so we grabbed two cabs and headed over.  When we first got there, we just chilled and had a few drinks toward the entrance.  One of the girls ‘whispered’ to me that I should have Alan grind on her friend.  It wasn’t obvious to me which she meant, but one of the girls was clearly dancing more than the other so I very obviously pushed him over toward her.  I think it was correct according to instruction, but we would later find out neither of those girls were interested in dancing with anyone in particular.

I had been hoping for more of a club, but Beauty Bar was really small and didn’t have a coat check.  So there really wasn’t a place to put my coat if I wanted to hit the dancing area.  Instead I figured I’d be a team player and held Alan’s stuff while he went to dance with the girls.  We also sent Chantal to hang with the four of them.  So for a little while it was Phil and myself chilling near the entrance, having a few beers and trying to chat occasionally.  We made a few scouting expeditions to try and get an idea of how Alan was faring, but when we looked over, two of the girls were up on a small platform dancing, so we figured he might be dancing with the third.

Eventually Chantal came back, saying that she was tired and had put up with drunk dancers long enough.  So we gave Alan his coat, took his camera and left.  Before catching a cab we stopped at a taqueria (I don’t recall which one) to grab some food quickly.  Chantal and I each had a taco, while Phil grabbed a burrito.  We ate the tacos quickly, but Phil took the burrito with him in the cab.

I guess that’s more or less where the night ends.  I found out later that Alan kinda hit it off with the girl who’s living here in SF, and we saw her Saturday too (maybe I’ll write that later).  Overall a great night, the kind I hope to have a bunch here :)