CIAO, BABY

No, I’m not leaving, that is the name of the restaurant TLW (The Little Woman) and I visited yesterday. My nephew, the macaroni man gave us a gift certificate to the place. (See my blog on “My Nephew The Macaroni Man. April 8, 2006)

It sits in a very busy strip mall and when you enter, the first thing you see is the bar, populated by young people (anyone under the age of 30), looking at you like you are naked. I checked my fly and continued on to the young lady that stood behind the desk and asked for a table. She said: “Walk this way”, and although I tried, it wasn’t working for me.

We were seated at a table that was squeezed into a long line of tables that almost touched. A young fellow came over with aspirations of becoming a living Henny Youngman, opening up his act by asking me if I had ever been to Ciao Baby before. I said “No” and asked him how long it was around. He said 7 years and I said “No wonder I never heard of it before!”

It’s not enough to have one waiter: we have to have two! One would take our main course and appetizer order, and one would take the drinks and desserts. They start off by reading the “specials” that take about 1 hour 20 minutes. Interceded by jokes about the physical appearance of the new Henny Youngman. This is followed by an explanation of the printed menu, and the fact that you can ask for anything you want, and they will try to make it.

We decided by ordering what TLW wants. It is a meal for two, and a “great” dish, I mean great in that it is a huge platter for about 6 people! But to order it, we have to get by Henny Youngman again, exhorting us to order it. “Oh, I order this myself, and love it.” Says Henny. Well that is good enough for me.

The problem with these places is the help wants to please, like every mouthful they ask “And how is everybody doing here?” after six mouthfuls I was ready to make Henny join his idol, the real Henny Youngman!

Dessert time and Henny’s sidekick appears, and as we look at the dessert menu, suddenly a beautiful young lady appears sitting next to me, which causes me to jump out of my skin, because she must have come down from out of nowhere to encourage me to order anything on the menu, which comes in a 3-dementional format, tossing around all the fake desserts and really making me want to order now.

As we drive home, I feel like I had just sat down to eat with an insurance salesman who happens to work for the mob, and better push the food.

The food was great, the ambiance wonderful, and the gift card was really appreciated, as well as the help that tried.

Thanks, Macaroni Man, I had macaroni, and like you it was great!