Dinner Sans Big Cheese
I mentioned the other day about a business dinner with some executives. The day of the event (Tuesday), the execs decided to bail on us. They had just finished a big presentation with a cruise line and had "the flight from hell" returning. That was OK. We still got to go out as the Little Big Project (LBP) team.
We went to Ocean Prime. The food was fantastic. Everything was extremely fresh and well prepared. Our waiter, Mark, was great. He really knew his stuff and was also rather funny. He took care of us for the entire evening, often making the decisions for us (with our permission) and never steering us wrong.
We started with cocktails. They have a bunch of unique drinks, but I went with beer. After about 30 minutes of chatting Mark asked if we wanted some appetizers. He said he would put together a sampling if we wanted and we agreed. I don't even know what all we had, but it was great! There was chilled crab that was the best I've ever had. We had jumbo shrimp, some sort of cheesy bread thing, and another appetizer I don't remember. Right before we ordered dinner, we browsed the wine list. Again Mark assisted and I'm glad for it. We had a 2005 Cabernet that was very light on the tannins. As soon as he decanted it, it had a strong but pleasant and rather fruity smell. For dinner I had blackened swordfish. We also had a handful of "sides" including asparagus, jalapeno-infused potatoes (but not too spicy), creamed spinach (but not slimy), and a really usual mushroom mac & cheese. After that Mark brought us a bunch of desserts. They were complimentary because the food took longer than expected. As we told him, we didn't even notice because we were socializing. Anyway, we had a creme brule, 12 layer carrot cake, chocolate lava cake, and a peanut butter cheesecake-like thing. I ended the night with a Dalwhinnie15 year (Scotch).
I know I spent a lot of time on the food, but it was very good. Plus I love food. But I should say that the company was good too. There was me, my boss (Jay), his boss (Tim), Joshua (web dev), Alisa (PM from HQ), and Pat (PM and Alisa's boss). The relationship between Detroit and the Mothership has always been odd, but as we find out more and more, once we get away from the IT groups, we often get along smashingly well. By the end of the night my face ached from laughing and grinning so much. We really had a great time. As often happens, as the alcohol continued so did the gossip and somewhat raunchy humor. We had fun all the way to the end. We all laughed when the bill came and it was a, um, "respectable" amount. Pay (who paid) said that we all had to chip in $50-100 because we didn't eat at Fridays. You see, there was a corporate mandate not long ago that we are now pretty much required to use sibling company services (TGI Fridays, Radisson, etc.) Finally we huddled around for a group picture, thanked Mark for his awesome service, and went out separate ways. It felt good to be recognized and pampered a bit.
We went to Ocean Prime. The food was fantastic. Everything was extremely fresh and well prepared. Our waiter, Mark, was great. He really knew his stuff and was also rather funny. He took care of us for the entire evening, often making the decisions for us (with our permission) and never steering us wrong.
We started with cocktails. They have a bunch of unique drinks, but I went with beer. After about 30 minutes of chatting Mark asked if we wanted some appetizers. He said he would put together a sampling if we wanted and we agreed. I don't even know what all we had, but it was great! There was chilled crab that was the best I've ever had. We had jumbo shrimp, some sort of cheesy bread thing, and another appetizer I don't remember. Right before we ordered dinner, we browsed the wine list. Again Mark assisted and I'm glad for it. We had a 2005 Cabernet that was very light on the tannins. As soon as he decanted it, it had a strong but pleasant and rather fruity smell. For dinner I had blackened swordfish. We also had a handful of "sides" including asparagus, jalapeno-infused potatoes (but not too spicy), creamed spinach (but not slimy), and a really usual mushroom mac & cheese. After that Mark brought us a bunch of desserts. They were complimentary because the food took longer than expected. As we told him, we didn't even notice because we were socializing. Anyway, we had a creme brule, 12 layer carrot cake, chocolate lava cake, and a peanut butter cheesecake-like thing. I ended the night with a Dalwhinnie15 year (Scotch).
I know I spent a lot of time on the food, but it was very good. Plus I love food. But I should say that the company was good too. There was me, my boss (Jay), his boss (Tim), Joshua (web dev), Alisa (PM from HQ), and Pat (PM and Alisa's boss). The relationship between Detroit and the Mothership has always been odd, but as we find out more and more, once we get away from the IT groups, we often get along smashingly well. By the end of the night my face ached from laughing and grinning so much. We really had a great time. As often happens, as the alcohol continued so did the gossip and somewhat raunchy humor. We had fun all the way to the end. We all laughed when the bill came and it was a, um, "respectable" amount. Pay (who paid) said that we all had to chip in $50-100 because we didn't eat at Fridays. You see, there was a corporate mandate not long ago that we are now pretty much required to use sibling company services (TGI Fridays, Radisson, etc.) Finally we huddled around for a group picture, thanked Mark for his awesome service, and went out separate ways. It felt good to be recognized and pampered a bit.