On the Road Again

I am travelling for work again this week, but since it's a trip within driving distance Mike decided to ride along with me. We put the crazy-dogs in a "doggy-care" and headed out, only to hit traffic on the road the divides New York City from Connecticut. Of course that traffic doesn't hold a candle to Massachusett's insane traffic, but it did mean that we got here much later than we'd planned and we were STARVING. And (such bad news) it turned out that the hotel's restuarant was mid-construction (something the hotel definitely should have admitted to on its website), so we had to rely on the front desk's restaurant recommendations. (Danger Will Robinson, Danger!)

Among the restaurants recommended by the front desk was Blue Lemon; we flipped a coin and decided to give it a whirl. Calling the Blue Lemon for a reservation (does it count as a reservation when you are already in the car on the way to the restaurant?) revealed that there was only patio seating. The sun was shining, so patio seating didn't seem to be such a bad idea and heck, we were already outside the restaurant. To get to the patio seating from the restaurant's front door you have to walk through Blue Lemon's dining room, which was full of senior citizens. We walked out to the patio and I quickly realized that I'd freeze on the patio (I'm ALWAYS cold) so we had to walk back through the dining room to the bar where there was a free table, squeezed in among the senior citizens who also populated the bar. Every time we walked though the dining room the conversations stopped, highlighting just how out of place we really were.

This left is wondering, how did the restaurant end up with only senior citizens as patrons? Was there a secret sign that we'd missed? Was it the town we were in? (The houses did seem to be senior old money.) Was it the time of day? (It was 6pm on a Wednesday, was that too early) Perhaps the food at the Blue Hair Lemon? Or the word-of-mouth phenomenon? Maybe the first people who ate at the Blue Lemon were senior citizens and they then told their senior citizen friends who filled up the place, making non-senior citizens like Mike and I feel out of place when we showed up looking for food. We did notice that the staff seemed really keen to have us stay for dinner despite the full restaurant and we received VERY attentive service all night. Unfortunately for the Blue Lemon, but fun for us, the bar where were we sitting was located right next to the door and each person who walked in confirmed our conclusion that we were not the target market.

The Blue Lemon's saving grace (and its raison d'etre) was the good food and the wine recommendations. We started with the "taste of Spain" which was Serrano ham and manchego cheese with a lovely fruity olive oil drizzled over the top. Mike and I both got gnocchi with duck ragu and asparagus (we generally try to get two different dishes, but the gnocchi seemed too good to pass up) for our entree. It was excellent gnocchi, not too heavy, and the duck was nicely balanced by the freshness of the asparagus. Mike got a flour-less chocolate cake that was way too chocolate-y for me (but Mike thought it was great) and I had apple crisp (if it's dessert with fruit, I want it).

The best part about Blue Hair Lemon was that Mike and I got the chance to see what we'd be doing in 40 years. Luckily, there are worse things (shuffleboard anyone?) that we could be doing in our senior years. Of course the trick will be remembering which restaurant it was that had the good gnocci and people our age.

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