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Since we wanted to sit outside, we settled on oh-so-stylish Café Paragon. (I’m convinced you pay 15% for the restaurant name alone). But, who cares when there’s “Sun in the sky, you know how I feel…” I don’t know what possessed me to order the pizza in this place (my merlot?), when Nice Slice is practically next door and offers better grub at a fraction of the price, but I might have been motivated by the fact that everything else on the menu was either unappetizing for my taste buds or too appetizing for my wallet. So, we ended up with a bunch of Margarita pizzas (I set the tone since certain people just kept copying my orders, no names mentioned) and an $11 tuna tartar appetizer (yes, the damn appetizer was $2 more than the entrée!). But, I just had to have that dish since I was seduced by the Hemenway’s version. Paragon’s tuna was fatty, decorated with pleasant tangy aioli and accompanied by some dyed (pink) ginger and a surprisingly crunchy seaweed salad (I always imagined it to taste mushy). I did try to be fair (against my better judgment) and divided the dish into equal parts. So, yes, it was worth every penny.
The pizza, on the other hand, was no paragon; please pardon the pun and the unintentional alliteration. (Ok, stopping the insanity now.) I should have changed my order when the waitress was not sure how to answer, “Is it thin-crust?” Finally, she said, “It’s got some crust to it,” but by then, I was too famished to care. So, when it arrived, it looked exactly like it came from a box in the back of your freezer – the one that’s been there for a half a year, and better be eaten now or never. Yes, it had a somewhat thick and wooden crust and some nondescript cheese and forgettable sauce, but who cares? It filled the stomach, and we were having a good time.
Our gastronomic luck improved with the foray into Juniper. The relatively new establishment beckons with New-York style frozen yogurt (the easiest way I can describe it is – it tastes like yogurt that’s been frozen … you’ll understand once you taste it). Currently, they have two flavors (plain and blueberry) … well, three if you count the plain-and-blueberry combo. You can load it up with all kinds of toppings (gummy bears, strawberries, mango, chocolate-covered grasshoppers). Oh, good, you’re paying attention! But, if you don’t want to spend a dollar on two toppings or you are a purist who does not want to take away from the creamy-yogurt taste, rest assured that topping-free dessert still tastes great. I, of course, had to sample mine loaded with fruit (now I am thinking about writing a poem on the virtues of dairy with berries).
Some crazy woman decided that we should press our lady luck and get even more great dessert. When I’m thinking of sweets, I sometimes forget about the two-block line at Pastiche on Saturday nights. So, since Pastiche was not in the cards that night, we walked over to a nearby dessert place to satisfy the said woman’s sweet tooth. I’m not going to mention the name of that establishment since I don’t have too many complimentary comments to make regarding the experience (they did have comfy couches and great music, though – jazzy, breathy, sixties-style). The apple caramel pie tasted somewhat like – well, sugar with more sugar poured on top of it. The tiramisu was so old and stale that it was crispy. That’s a six-dollar two-day-old tiramisu I’m talking about. Do they realize tiramisu contains raw eggs?! Got to run now. ♦DiggIt! ♦Add to del.icio.us ♦Add to Technorati Faves
