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We met up at Kerry’s home in the Art Museum neighborhood early Friday evening for cocktails and conversation. Kerry has just had her place redone in shades of yellows, reds, blacks, an exciting palette that produced a warm and welcoming atmosphere, very chic.

Besides Kerry were Chuck, Bonnie, Barbara and Joe. Too much to go into as to how we know each other but at the bottom of it we are teachers and husbands and wives of teachers.

We had 8 o’clock reservations at Trio and arrived about 8:05, concerned we had kept them waiting five minutes.

Kerry has brought people here ten or so times, at least once with ourselves. We were told a party of six had finished their dinner, had coffee, paid their check about an hour previous and were sitting and conversing. Yes, that was the one and only table available for our party of five. We waited until 8:35 for our table. There is not a lot of space to wait. I made friends with the poor folks at the table just inside the door who had to contend with the people waiting.

Most impressive were the two beautiful women who joined their table bringing with them a case of Lite beer. Yo! guys. Hope they did not go home alone.
Whoa! we live, not in a time of knights on white horses, but in a time of beautiful princesses bringing beer.

America is a wonderful country.

We tried to convince a front of the room person to politely inform the table, that finished an hour ago, others were waiting. Myself, I could think of ten different mannerly, funny ways, of asking them to be considerate. The staff at TRIO were of the opinion they could not interfere.

Well, most of the staff.
Seamus, a part of the waitstaff, deceided he would let us know it was not in a waiters best interest to ask the guest to move it along, not that we had asked.

Considering the party had finished up an hour ago none of us thought it would be too outrageous to politely let the party know another reservation had arrived and would they be so kind as to take that into consideration.

Since Seamus really had no business adding his two cents, which was only worth .375 cents, ’cause you hate for anyone to think their opinion is not worth nada. Bonnie took out her 22 and shot him in the leg. She then requested from the owner and hostess that Seamus, when, and if we were finally seated, would not be assigned as our waiter. That seemed reasonable to the rest of us.

We were finally seated and Sylvia, a pleasant, intelligent, dark haired young woman of mystery explained the night’s specials. My brother in law Charlie has taught me to always go with the chefs specials if they are not totally overpriced.

Trio prices their specials in an acceptable range. Acceptable to me means, you go into a restaurant and the dishes run from $5 to $25 and the specials run in the same range. Sometimes you are in a restaurant where the food runs from $5 to $25 and the specials run from $15 to $50. Always, always, ask the price of the delicious sounding special.

The first time I had dinner at this byob I thought it was very interesting and good. This time, I thought the food was even better.

Calamari Salad was really special, crispy and tender. House Salad with Walnuts was lightly dressed and refreshing. The Tofu seafood appetizer special was filled with tasty seafood, pineapple pieces and a sweet dipping sauce, a great starter.

I had the seafood special which was made up of the most tender and tasty calamari, shrimp, rock lobster, chunks of unseeded crunchy green and yellow squash and a subtle white caper sauce with rigati ziti. Very tasty and satisfying.

The best thing I can say about the other dishes is we were so involved in eating and conversation I did not pick up the food comments. Basil Chicken, Pad Thai, and a Red Snapper dish….all plates were cleaned, all diners seemed happy.
Our waitperson, Sylvia, who I sometimes called Zelda, thinking of Fitzgerald, helped us greatly in our selections.

Seamus had returned from the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania and was back waiting tables. Bonnie took out her 22 and winged him slightly in both arms.

All of us shared two deserts, of a chocolate nature. A nice sweet ending to the evening.

Bonnie, wanting to calm down after the shooting, had a cup of coffee.

I don’t know what else you can ask for in the course of an evening, interesting conversation, flowing libations, clean satisfying food, congenial waitstaff.

Tab for the dinner with tax was $124.12 not including tip, lawyers fees, bail bondsmen fee….$24.82 per person.

How Lucky Are We