a big and happy birthday

Valerie turns 60 today and we all celebrate at Park Avenue Spring (the restaurant changes names with the seasons).  Two years ago we were here for Abbey’s 60^th birthday, but the restaurant was Winter than.  I’ve never been here for Spring.

I decide I need (probably not the right word) something new and fresh to wear.  Maybe a new pair of pants?  Or a sexy silky peasant blouse?  I get as far as walking to the bus stop, before realizing my idea is a bad one.  I don’t need any new clothes.  I return home. 

I contemplate getting my hair blown out for the occasion, but cave and do it myself.  I don’t have the patience or talent to do it nearly as well as the professionals, but it is passable.

I skipped last week’s manicure so I am definitely ready for one.  I like my nails short and decide on a bright pink, a first for me. 

I wear nice black pants, a long white never-worn silk blouse, and leopard shoes.  I look like I always look.  I leave my camera at home, as I don’t want to my sister telling me that this is not the kind of restaurant where you take pictures.  I notice too that my roots are starting to show.  I hope no one else notices.

I take one last look in the mirror before I leave.  I decide my nails are too pink and my hair, which may have been passable this morning, now looks frizzy and unkempt.  But it is certainly too late to do anything about that.  Or my too-bright nails.

This is a fashionable crowd and I typically feel not quite fashionable enough.  But that’s just my insecurity among this beautiful, well-coiffed, exquisitely dressed family group.

Everything about the restaurant is different from my last visit.  The canopy outside.  The inside décor.  The menu.  Only the address and the excellent service is the same.  I have eaten at many fine restaurants over the years, but tonight’s meal has to be one of the best I’ve ever had.  The presentations are magazine-worthy.  And the quality and offerings are amazing.  I wish I had a better culinary vocabulary to describe the excellence of the meal.

I start with a yellowfin tuna.  It arrives as one long piece of rolled tuna, enclosing chopped avocado.  I have never eaten anything like it.  It is spectacular.  We get all six sides on the menu, with the most notable being the fries, the mini potato latkes, and the crispy artichokes with malt vinegar aioli.  For a main course I get Thai roasted lobster with coconut and long beans.  Amazing.  The desserts are pieces of art.  We get several for the table and finish them all. 

Valerie loves my gift, with scarves being the apparent gift of the night.  Valerie's kids also give her an Hermes scarf, and Jill’s family gives her a Louis Vuitton scarf.  She is genuinely appreciative of everything.

The bill comes with a little note.  Abbey’s mother, who is still in Florida, has sent a card that includes her gift of this dinner.

And then, to my surprise, someone says we should take a group picture.  Now I’m sorry I hadn’t brought my camera.  But in a pinch, an iPhone will have to do, even if our pupil-less eyes would make us perfect extras for the next Twilight movie.