A bottle of white, a bottle of red...

...perhaps a bottle of rose instead
We'll get a table near the street
In our old familiar place
You and I, face to face
A bottle of red, a bottle of white
It all depends upon your appetite
I'll meet you any time you want
In our Italian Restaurant...

Ele, Kenny, D and me went to our favourite Italian restaurant tonight for the first time as a foursome since before the first lockdown (David and I have been, just not with E & K)  What a great night :-)

This tiny local restaurant really is amazing.  The food is fantastic, the staff are friendly and attentive, but not overly so, the atmosphere is relaxed, lively and fun, the manager is the best (he ran us home one evening when our taxi didn't show up! :-) and in all the many, many many times we've eaten there in the last 10 years be it breakfast, lunch or dinner, we've never once had a negative experience.  And we weren't let down tonight.

Ele and Kenny arrived at ours late afternoon.  Time for coffee and a quick catch up before freshening up and heading out to the restaurant (Ele has learned never to arrive at ours ready to go out because if there are pre-dinner drinks and nibbles, or coffee and biscuits late afternoon, like there was today, then there's a high chance Lola will rest her slobbery chops on her knees, leaving her mark.  Better to get changed upstairs then head straight out the door!  :-)))

G&T's ordered for Ele and me, local ale for Kenny and water for D (spot the driver :-) and the menu perused.  Our starters consisted of chicken liver pate with onion marmalade and toasted ciabatta, meatballs, beef ragu croquettes with mustard mayo, and chilli garlic prawns. Mains included fillet of halibut with Prosecco hollandaise, wild leeks and orzo, pepperoni pizza, chorizo & sautéed potato pizza, and pancetta carbonara.  For dessert David managed a creme brûlée but the rest of us just had a little honeycomb ice cream (I am noting what we had as future menu ideas :-)

What a lovely relaxed evening full of laughter.  It astounds me how much I took this kind of evening for granted pre-covid.  If anything good has come of the pandemic  it's that I now have a much greater appreciation of life in general.  

Back home to watch the golf highlights, whilst also keeping an eye on final set of the Nadal v Korda match at the Indian Wells Masters. Ele has happy with the result :D