Club 33, part 2

We need to concentrate on our menu, but it’s so hard not to look at all the historic photographs and other items around us.

Even when we do focus on the menu, the selection of entrees is so enticing that it’s hard to pick just one. Here are our choices:

• Roast Monk Fish, Rock Lobster Bisque, Spiced Arugula Salad
  
  
• Pan Seared Chateaubriand, Tempura Maui Onion, Cabernet Demi-Glace
  
  
• Certified Organic Free Range Chicken, Truffled Mac & Cheese
  
  
• Farmed King Salmon, Bloomsdale Spinach, Manila Clam Jus
  
  
• Colorado Lamb Chops, Creamy Sweet Corn Polenta, Port Cherry Reduction
  
  
• Fresh Pasta Three By Three: Goat Cheese Veloute, Mushroom Marinara, Short Rib Bolognese

For those of us for whom eating at Fridays or Applebees is the closest we come to gourmet dining on any regular basis, this is a very difficult choice. Many of the terms used on the menu go over our head, though our collective addiction to the Food Network has helped a bit.

We hope to have some of the items explained to us, but our server – Kathy, I believe she said, is her name – has made only a brief pass by the table to say she’ll be back soon to take our order. Apparently several groups have checked in at once and she’s a bit harried. I didn’t really expect that here, but we’ll try to be patient – although if she delays too much more, the noise from ten stomachs growling may disrupt the elegant atmosphere.

Before too long Kathy is back with us and ready to take our order. Ironically, during the wait we each settled on a dish that sounded enticing even if we weren’t sure what all the words in the description meant, so there’s never any request to explain an item. Maybe we’re just ready to eat.

I order the lamb chops.

After everyone has given his order, we’re given directions to the buffet – past the elevator lobby and down the hallway to the right. She tells us that on the left is a self-stirring tureen of freshly made soup, today a broccoli cheese soup made with green chilies. Sounds wonderful.

Barely waiting for her to finish, the ten of us leap to our feet and charge out of the room towards the buffet, elbowing our server to the ground and knocking over chairs along the way. Okay, not really, but I am almost hungry enough at this point to do that and get to this fabled Club 33 food we’ve dreamed about for so long. We stand quietly (and hungrily) to head towards the buffet.