something new

I want to be more diligent about writing on my blog, but I don't want to spend every post blathering on about what I ate for lunch or how difficult of a time I'm having concentrating on my work (which is obvious by the fact that I am blogging in the first place).

So, there's nothing all that grand going on in my life that I can discuss right now. I already covered our upcoming trip to Europe. Instead, I am going to borrow an idea from several of my grade school English teachers. I'm going to give myself a topic of discussion, and free-write, as they say.

Today's topic: "restaurants", inspired by a tag on del.icio.us (I'm scratching for something here, people).

And of course, the obvious place to start here is- my favorite restaurant. The obvious answer, for many years, has been Outback. But I think Outback, along with a fondue place in Mantiou Springs called Mona Lisa, has become reserved for very special occasions, when it is okay to gorge myself and eat more than I typically eat in an entire day. I love both restaurants, but they would not be my favorite in the sense that I would pick them more than once in a blue moon.

Here in Wyoming, the two restaurants that I would probably pick to eat at most often would be Lovejoy's and Sanford's. Both of them remind me how important a restaurant's atmosphere is- probably just as important as the actual food. I love Sanford's because it has license plates all over the wall and a roll of paper towels at every table in place of actual napkins. It's like Joe's Crab Shack, without the obnoxious picnic tables and birthday songs. And Lovejoy's is a great place to hang out with people and have a drink. Eating out at a restaurant is all about the social function.

Something I realized about myself while living in Brooklyn: I'm not too concerned with how sanitary a restaurant is. There was a Chinese place a few blocks from my apartment, and it was certainly not the model of clean food service. I saw a bug or two on the walls, and the entire place just seemed to be caked in grease. But that is by far the best egg-drop soup I have ever had in my life.

What's your favorite restaurant? Are you picky about certain things like service or cleanliness?