food and family

Returning from the restaurant after 11 last night, our cab is filled with overly full people.  My mom and Jean decide they don’t want another big meal and we cancel brunch plans for today.

But then, we wake up, and surprise, surprise, we are no longer full, and the plans for brunch are reinstated.  My mom, Jean, Valerie, Abbey, and I meet at Atlantic Grill.  Alexander is working on a paper due at midnight and can’t come.  The rest of Jean’s family is on their way back to Boston (after leaving last night, blowing two tires, and having to return…”a nightmare” as my mom accurately describes it, “but no one was hurt, thank G-d”).

I love Atlantic Grill.  It never disappoints.  The place is filled, mostly with families and babies.  Everyone enjoys brunch.  Today we don’t overdue it, and I don’t bring my camera (it’s not my birthday anymore so I have no leverage to convince people to be photographed in a restaurant).

Valerie and Abbey leave, and Jean and I hang out with my mom.  We walk Third Avenue, going into a fantastic lingerie store (Lingerie &Company), tea store (David’s Tea), and Bloomingdales.  By six, we are hungry.

And oh, the agony of picking a place.  Jean is meeting a friend so it’s just my mom, Alexander and me.  I let my mom decide.

What do feel like eating?  “I’m not really hungry.”

What if I make a salad or something?  “No, we can go out.”

Chinese?  “No; my stomach is funny and I don’t want to get sick.”

How about Bella Blue?  We’ve been there before and you like it?  “No, I don’t want a big meal.”

A diner?  “Hmmm.  I don’t know.”

The bagel place?  “That’s not very nice, though, and it’s cold there.”

Greek? (My mom loves Greek food and there’s a great Greek restaurant near me.)  “No; I’m not in the mood for Greek.”

“Are there any Jewish deli’s nearby?”  I don’t know of any where you can be seated and that is in the neighborhood.

“I’m really not hungry.” 

Okay, want to skip dinner and you can just pick up a slice of pizza later?  “No, let’s go somewhere.”

Want to have the leftovers from last night and I can pick up some vegetables?  “No, I don’t feel like doing that?  What else can we do?  I want something light."

It feels like bedtime by the time we decide on Al Forno, a great local pizza and pasta restaurant that meets none of my mom’s criteria for a light, non-rich meal.  But that’s where we end up and eat everything in sight. It's perfect.