We had a lovely anniversary. Instead of our usual Sunday dinner-full English breakfast combo down at the pub, we went to a new Italian restaurant that opened last week. Turns out that the place is a franchise, and we enjoyed it a lot. The service was good, and so was the food with the exception of the crust of my pizza, which was horrible. The toppings were OK, but that crust! It wasn't crusty, for one thing. I suspect they forgot to put yeast in the dough. Maybe they never do because our waiter didn't seem to think anything was amiss. They might as well have made it on a tortilla, because the crust was flabby and doughy and incredibly thin. Now, I like thin crust pizzas, but they need to be crispy on the bottom and somewhat breadlike. A paste made of flour and water just doesn't do it.

Next time, I'm having pasta. Elvis had pasta, and his was great. They had a nice tiramisú and (Elvis' fave) limoncello. They had comfy chairs as well, and we sat in the window watching the world go by. A lot of the world seemed to be riding on tour buses yesterday, but never mind.

After dinner we went to the pub. The owners bought us a bottle of Asti for the occasion, which was awfully sweet of them. Almost as sweet as the wine, in fact. Again, never mind. It was nice.

Friday night we went into Lisbon, and ate dinner at a pub with gastronomic intentions. The food was pretty good-- although not always matching the menu descriptions-- but the service sucked. Not only that, but the band (which is supposed to start around midnight) decided that they wanted to practice a bit, and then maybe hang out and jam for a while. Loudly. Very, very loudly. Not nice, and especially considering their considerable prices.

We spent a good portion of the meal shouting at the waitress and each other. However, once the (new) manager stopped by to see how we were getting on (he's done some business with one of our friends), things did improve. He even sent over a round of Irish coffees after dinner. Oh, and Maud ordered a piece of cheesecake for us to share and it was to die for. The best I've had in Europe, without a doubt.

On Saturday, in keeping with this weekend's unexpected theme of not doing what we usually do, we stopped by my friend's new restaurant, which opened Friday. We didn't eat there and I doubt we ever will because there is nothing on the menu that Elvis would possibly eat. She's after trendy, eclectic food, some of which I might enjoy trying and some of which sounds just plain odd. I also suspect that everything that comes out of that kitchen is highly vertical. At the very least, though, they ought to have at least one item-- a steak, perhaps, or some chicken-- that is familiar and prepared with less than twenty ingredients. I might just mention that when I see her later this week. Not everybody wants "interesting" food, and in her case "interesting" is downright fascinating.

What we did do (after the pub, of course), was have a couple of drinks in the bar. It's very nice, minimalist and trendy without being cold. Rather sophisticated as well, which makes a nice change for the area. They have decent background music which stays there, so we just chilled out for a while, chatting. It was pretty relaxing, actually.

We went to the Late Night Bar of Evil on Friday, but NOT on Saturday. Shocking, I know. Thing is, the owner was out of town, so they had the little weird guy playing DJ. Lady Jane and Sir went away for the weekend, so we couldn't joke around with Sir and there was nobody to pass out the sparklers for Hey Jude. Hell, they didn't even play Hey Jude. Not only that, but there was a serious teen infestation. Consequently, the LNBOE just wasn't the same place at all, and we wanted no part of it.

Next weekend, things will be back to normal, I would suppose.

Well, as normal as they get around here.