In 1975 it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This year it was on a Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend. My husband decided that we should splurge a little and made a reservation for 5:30 pm at The Jefferson Hotel restaurant Lemaire. When Sarah heard that she warned us that it was the day of their tree lighting ceremony and there would be a huge crowd.
We went way earlier than planned and she was right. Lots of people. But when we drove up we were told restaurant guests had complimentary parking and took advantage of that.
The greeting at the entrance?
They are famous for having a huge gingerbread house every year. And it supposedly really is all gingerbread. Well, my father's were never that big but we always ate every little morsel of it after Christmas. Ha-ha, probably even started cutting away at the back even before. I really need to dig up some of those photos.
We wandered around and it was fun. The lighting had not quite started yet.
There was time to find a seat in the bar. And it was happy hour. A nice beer for $3 is not bad.
Reservation time. We had a prime table for two at a window. View of the main entrance. It was fun watching people come and go.
Mussels for me as appetizer.
Squash bisque for James.
Happy main course! Duck for James. Rock fish for me. The texture of my fish was fantastic. It was very salty though. I was contemplating whether I should send it back but it is an ocean fish and it just might be that salty so I didn't.
(Several days later we were at Wegman's and there was a nice server at the fish counter. I asked him and he told us that rockfish is NOT very salty. I should have said something at Lemaire! In Germany we say that the cook was in love, forgot and salted twice.)
We did have a great time though.
After that we wandered around. The official celebration was over but still plenty to see. Santa Claus was posing for photos, sometimes even with babies on his arm.
Upstairs you could get a very delicious complimentary hot chocolate. We passed on the cookies. Too bad it wasn't some of that gingerbread. Mrs. Claus was wandering around too but she looked like she was actually Mr. Claus' mother.
We found comfortable seats on the balcony upstairs and enjoyed our hot chocolate and watching. Next morning we learned on the news that this Santa Claus had died in the night only 55 years old. That was bad news. Otherwise it had been so nice.
1 comment:
What a wonderful afternoon! I love the Jefferson and have had casual meals at their bar and even afternoon tea, but haven't ever eaten at Lemaire. It's on my wishlist! As for the salty fish, chefs are famous for oversalting things. I don't know if it is because they are tasting things all the time or the fact that so many of them smoke, but they are known for it.
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