Great Dinner at the Atheneum Hotel

Celebrating Linda's birthday at the Atheneum Hotel

As I mentioned yesterday, the Atheneum Hotel was offering a five course dinner for fifteen dollars, the purpose being to give their new staff the opportunity to practice serving.  It was Linda Mc Clure's birthday, so I made reservations for 6:00.  When we arrived, it was a bit overcast or we would have sat outside on the terrace, but we decided to sit inside.  We met Fred and Judy Gregory as we were seated, and they interested us to two couples, one which we talked to later, when we were walking back to the car and, interestingly, their son Pete, a good friend of Jill's, went to Reserve.

After Dinner Stroll at Chautauqua Institution

Anyways, it was not particularly crowded, though I assume they did not want to overbook the staff the first day.  It was a leisurely meal, though our waitress was quite good, a student at Colorado College.  We had choices for each course, and the best was the old fashioned shrimp cocktail, with six shrimp hung on the edge of a wine glass, the sauce in the glass itself.  It reminded me of the old days, the 1950's, going out to dinner with Grandad Davis, being allowed to order a shrimp cocktail. What a treat that was! We then had a choice of soups. I had clam chowder, Evie strawberry lime,  both quite good.  Then, a choice of salads, a typical greens, a celery and apples, or a pasta/prosciutto salad.  For the main course, I had duck confit, Evie and Linda at filet mignon, Ron had pork tenderloin.  Then dessert, a choice of carrot cake or blueberry cobbler.  We were able to order beer or wine, and we probably were there for almost two hours, not rushed, not impatient.  We all enjoyed it immensely, thought the food was wonderful, and it was fun to eat inside the flowered wall papered dining room.  After dinner, we went for a stroll, stopped to talk with a couple whose garden we were admiring, realized we had just met them at the Atheneum, and I realized this was a house where one of my student's used to live.  Well, it's still his house, and once we made it clear we were from Reserve, we had lots to talk about with his parents.  They have owned this cottage since 1984.  It has four apartments, and they rent out three of them all summer.  It is literally next door to the Amphitheater so it's an amazing location, and their garden is filled with neat little touches, not kitchsy but tasteful, plants but also stones, water elements, knickknacks, all kinds of visually interesting pieces.

We went off shopping this morning, stopped at Weggies, of course, but our big purchase, or small, was a mini fridge, 4.5 cubic feet, which will help us with beverages and food not only during the summer but during the year.  Rather than get a bigger, new refrigerator, we decided to try this and see how it works out.  It's small enough so we can put it in our back closet, where we already have a freezer.  It fits pretty well, could put it on the back porch in warm weather, so I hope we are happy with it.  I made Momofuku scallion/ginger sauce to put over noodles with dinner, and we will grill a couple of chicken breasts outside.  It's turned out to be a really beautiful day, as it changed from overcast around noon and since then, it's been blue skies and lake, about 74 degrees, warm in the sun, cool and breezy in the shade.  Perfect.  I also made some sourdough bread today, kind of a 7  grain sandwich bread and it turned out to be like a brick, heavy and solid.  Right from the start, the dough was too sticky so I knew I was in trouble.  Maybe it will taste decent, especially if toasted.

Linda and Ron at the Atheneum