Last Man Standing

I'm the last man standing here at the SD. I kinda like being the last one out. I get more done that way. Actually, if I could, I'd change my hours to 11:30 to 7:30. I heard this from someone last night and it sounded good to me.

So about last night...

I was supposed to go to the Botanical Gardens with mama C, papa R, and J+R, but I fucked up at work (and didn't find out I'd fucked up until 6:00pm when I should have been leaving) so I missed the Festival of Ale and Scarecrows in the Garden. oh well. womp.womp.

I did manage to meet up with them at Top Flr (no I didn't misspell it). It's down the street from mama C and papa R's place. They've been several times and always raved about it to me, so when we were carving pumpkins on Sunday and they suggested we go for J's birthday, I was IN! Note: When I say we carved pumpkins, I mean me, because I'm the only one that managed to clean out my pumpkin and put a face on it.

Unfortunately for papa R, who recently had some pins and a plate put into his broken ankle, Top Flr really is on the top floor. It's a climb - and I'm not even on crutches! I wouldn't say the climb was worth it, but it was decent.

We started off with the lamb skewers, cheese plate and hummus. The lamb skewers were dreamy and the hummus was fantastic (even the break its served with). The cheese plate was meh. I ordered an arugula salad (peaches, some sort of shaved hard cheese and toasted almonds) and a shrimp/cheese ravioli entree. The arugula salad was one of two that I could have ordered. Luckily, R ordered the other one. I liked hers better. Mine was too bitter for my taste, but I guess that's what I get for ordering an arugula salad. Papa R commented that the peaches tasted more like apple. I didn't agree, but they were really hard. I could have eaten an entire plate of those roasted almonds.

I have been trying to break away from my meat standard when I go out to eat, but I think I need to go back to what I know. At FAB I ordered fish (swordfish I think) and I was not impressed. The shrimp and ravioli dish at Top Flr wasn't impressive either. The shrimp was too fishy. I know you're supposed to taste seafood when you bite into something that came out of the sea, but it was overpowering. Do you know what I mean? No? Ok, maybe it's just me. I could have eaten the shrimp all night if that's all I'd ordered. It was okay on its own. Just like the ravioli. Great on it's own, just not mixed with the fish. Anyway, I kinda frowned at it after I took my first bite, so papa R graciously offered to switch dishes with me for a little so I could try my second choice order, the duck confit pasta. Much better. When papa R and I swapped bowls back, there wasn't much left. Guess he liked it.

I shouldn't have had dessert, but I was already out. My theory is, if you are already out stuffing your face, why not go all the way? Oh I went for it. I ordered the ice cream sandwich. So when you think of an ice cream sandwich, don't you think of smooth vanilla ice cream between two squishy rectangles of chocolate goodness? I do. So when a cookie, only slightly bigger than an oreo, came out with leaky/liquidy chocolate ice cream slapped int the center, I was bummed. You can't gourmet up an ice cream sandwich. You just can't.

Overall, 2.5 stars out of 5. Five being "I will die unhappy if I never eat here again".