We tend to be a very noisy group, so we are glad when the restaurant is a bit noisy itself. This was the case tonight, we had to shout to hear ourselves talk. The abundance of good feelings exhibited at the restaurant tonight was probably why we befriended the table behind us - Mel, Marilyn, John and Linda. They were celebrating John's birthday. The restaurant is a small space and the seating is intimate. The back of my chair was right next to Mel's chair - it almost seemed at times like one of those old fashioned chairs that have an S curve forming the backs of two seats on opposite sides of a chair bench. So when I leaned back I was looking right at Mel. We began talking about the food and all of our dining partners. He was a retired High School principal and college professor. His table gave us good reports on all of their meal selections.
The restaurant that was chosen for tonight was on Girard Ave. in Philadelphia. It was called Modo Mio - meaning my way - the name made me hopeful we could change the entree selections to appeal to our own individual tastes, but what it really meant was the chef cooked things his way. The food was very good; however, some of the comments I heard were a bit too salty ( I think it was the cheese) and for me the lamb was a little too fruity tasting, but excellently prepared. Everyone's overall opinion was quite favorable. That said I need to dwell on the location.
Paul and I gave ourselves an hour to get to the restaurant. We got off of I-95 on Girard Ave and followed it away from the river. As we were driving through the neighborhoods I was beginning to wonder how safe we were. I locked the car doors as we drove through Fishtown, under the el station on Frankford Ave. and into what I thought was Kensington, but was later told was the Northern Liberties ( a relatively new name for a old industrial neighborhood). We drove past the restaurant, and had to turn around. The side streets we went down were dark and empty looking although there were some house clusters on the street. On the way back I saw a small corner restaurant that looked rather elegant for the area, and was glad to see it was Modo Mio. We parked the car on Girard Ave, and said a prayer that it would be there a few hours later. We met up with another part of our group and had a lot of fun joking about the safety of the area.
We walked about a block to the restaurant. When we arrived we were immediately told we had to wait in the small lobby as our table was still occupied. We were told the group was done eating, but the chef came out to talk to them. About 25 minutes later we were seated. The crowd were mostly later middle aged, and everyone was having a good time. We, as usual, had a good time - good food, good wine, good friends - how could it not be all good.
We left the restaurant around 10 PM. The restaurant was still packed. As we walked towards the door there were around 15 people waiting to get in. What I noticed tonight was that as the night went on the crowd got younger. The group who left ahead of us were older than us - mostly our age while we were there, but the crowd outside were in their late 20's to early 30's. Hope it was a good night for the restaurant.
By the way - when we left we all found that our cars were right where we left them. Everything is relative.
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