It seems shallow during a visit to our nation’s capitol to be talking about food – and I promise that the next blog entry will be something about memorials or statesmen or cathedrals. . . but I simply must talk about last night’s dinner. We dined at a place close to our hotel called Ted’s Montana Grille, and I am so glad we did. Its ad in the hotel directory quoted the Washington Post as saying “. . .comfort food doesn’t get much better than this” and all three of us heartily second the motion. Kathy had the Beer Can Chicken, her dad had the Bison Meat Loaf, I ordered the Bison Pot Roast, and we loved every bit of our meals. Bison is great, by the way. It’s quite tender and a tiny bit sweeter than beef, and I really hope I have the pleasure of having it again someday. And beyond that, everything else was perfection, right down to the old-fashioned paper straws in our delicious homemade lemonades.
I don’t know at what point in the meal it occurred to me that three months ago I would be filing away every detail of this superb meal in order to recall them for my next Morning Show visit with restaurant critic Dennis Getto. I would have told him about having my first bison, about the soup of day (spectacular Red Beans and Rice), about the country style green beans that melted in my mouth. . .and he would have hung on every delectable detail in his inimitable way. Truth be told, over the last ten years I have probably gone out of my way to eat at interesting places or order intriguing things so I could tell Dennis about these experiences during our frequent on-air conversations. (Were it not for that, I would probably have stuck to Fuddruckers and other predictable chains over the years. “I hate to risk a meal,” I can hear myself telling Kathy when insisting on playing it safe-and-expected.)
Regrettably, there aren’t going to be anymore Morning Shows with Dennis Getto – but I hope that one lasting legacy of our friendship will be that adventurous streak for dining out which he first inspired in this cautious boy from Iowa.
pictured above: the front window of Ted’s Montana Grille in Arlington, Virginia.