Because the weather was so beautiful on Friday night, I thought it might be fun to have dinner with my family somewhere that offered al fresco dining. (For those, like me, who for the longest time thought “al fresco” meant “without clothes” – please understand that it simply means “outdoors.”)
This would have been some excellent information for me to have had prior to my first “al fresco” dining experience.
I wanted to go somewhere nearby that we had never tried before. So after a bit of Internet sleuthing, I decided that it would be fun to go to a self-described dive bar in Fairfax, just a couple of miles from my office. All of the Yelp reviews for this place claimed that it had pinball machines (entertainment for my child!), a certain retro charm as it was unchanged since the ‘70s, and most importantly – a roof deck from which to enjoy the glorious weather.
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Conveniently, it would also work into the illusion that I am cool enough to embrace dives. For some reason, I want to be the person who loves places like this for their realness and lack of pretension. Someone who is low maintenance enough to just enjoy herself without wondering when the place last got a thorough cleaning. It’s the same way with camping. I want to be someone who can rough it and enjoy the great outdoors, but honestly – the great outdoors does not often come with a room-service menu and bug-free bedding.
Then again, neither do most of the hotel rooms in New York City.
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Walking into this place, we passed two guys who could have come straight from Central Casting (or one of my family reunions — I love my Harley uncles) — bikers with long hair, ponytails and tattoo sleeves — exactly the type of people you want at a place like this. And the interior was exactly as promised: paneled, full of pinball machines and smelling of stale smoke.
So we immediately asked for the maître d’ and ordered a couple of arugula salads and some pinot grigio.
Not really, but we may as well have. There were only three other people inside whom obviously all knew each other. When we walked in, they all stopped talking and looked at us. Instead of the people watching we were expecting to do, we were the people being watched.
It was kind of like my first al fresco dining experience all over again.