Wonderful people

To often we take for granted the people who serve us, in many ways. This is especially true of those working in the restaurant business. From chefs to busser we wonder if that is really their vocation or if they are just filling time till something else comes along.
Regardless of their "long term plans" the great majority of these folks really are dedicated to what they are doing and deserve our respect and thanks.

Following this thought let me report on just two, outstanding examples, of the kind of "special interest" of which I refer.
"Pelican's Reef" 7261 Beechmont Ave Cincinnati, OH 45230 (513) 232-2526 is a place I have posted numerous times. Fun, "Key West" Seafood based and almost always good companions and food to match.
But this posting is a "Love Letter" to the management and serves. Our daughter, an MS patient, is wheel chair bound. She also needs help with all her daily activities. Friday night she, along with her husband and daughter joined us for a somewhat special evening (she had just been released from a hospital stay and our granddaughter was on her way overseas). In the afternoon I called "the reef" to tell them we would be coming, around 7. I was giving them a "head up" for our daughters special needs. I spoke only with whoever answered the phone, not expecting "special treatment". When we arrived there was the usual mob, which the place richly deserves, waiting patiently their turn in line, as we all do. To our surprise one of the owners meet us outside the restaurant and took us thru another door to a perfect table, for our group, which was open and obviously set for us and the wheeled chair. A wonderful server appeared and we were under way. I don't know if any explanation was given, or needed, to those waiting but the treatment of our daughter was outstanding. Who doesn't love people who are nice to ones children?
Incidentally the food that night was as good as always but a couple outstanding items were the "tomato basil lobster chowder" and the "chocolate eclair pie', very much like the "Boston Cream Pie" I remember as a child.

The other special mention is "La Poste" 3410 Telford Ave, Clifton, (513)281-3663. Last night three of us went to dinner at 7 PM. It was the first night of a new menu and that is always exciting to me and my taste buds. Our waitress, Amy, explained each new item thoroughly as
well as bringing our guest ( first time for her) up to speed on the "old standbys".
I wished to try several of the new items and Amy was extremely accommodating, especially with one which was just the side item for another main course( sweetbread hash to go with a steak).
We mixed and matched through the whole meal and ended with a wonderful "old favorite"( written about many times)the superb cherry bread pudding, covered with Carmel sauce, plus a "newbie" lemon panna cotta with apricot sauce. The meal was handled flawlessly by Amy and the whole kitchen staff. Besides the sweetbread hash, chopped sweetbreads and mushrooms in an excellent wine emulsion, I had started with a lobster salad which contained not only the lobster meat but pineapple chunks, sweet peppers, orange bits and arugula all tossed in a light vinaigrette. A blown away evening.

More on a new place of two in the next posting.