Satisfy Your Curiosity

For the past few weeks, I have been walking home through Union Square, after 11 p.m. usually, when it is really dark out.  Union Square itself is pretty deserted.  The usual skateboarders are out in full force, doing skateboard tricks.  I, with a chapeau and a bookbag, am usually lost in my Ipod, and wishing I had not left my gloves in my other coat.  

As I reach the west side of the square, on the corner of 16th street, I pass Blue Water Grill.  And I always walk slowly and look inside.  The diners always look so happy, and they are all classy.  They are still eating, even though it is after 11 p.m.  There are couples, business meetings, and girls night out.  I always see a few waiters whispering by the bar.  The inside is so gorgeous.  

I stand outside and I feel like a puppy left out in the snow.  I almost think, if I stand out here long enough, with a little sad face, the host will see me, come outside, and say "Please, come in.  Have a seat.  And dine with us."  Or, I feel like this red lamp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I07xDdFMdgw.  Please, watch the video.  You have to watch the video to understand. 

Here is the strange thing - I have been to Blue Water Grill.  I went for restaurant week over the summer with blog readers Mom and Denise.  We had an excellent time.  The food was great.  The wine was great.  The service - amazing.  We were there for two hours.  Overall, it was a really fun evening and I really can't wait to go back.

So, feeling like a lost puppy or a kicked out lamp is a little ridiculous since I already know for a fact that the experience at Blue Water Grill is great.  But there is just something about passing the restaurant all the time that makes me want to go even more.  Looking inside so much makes me think that any bad day could be solved by joining the abundance of happiness inside this restaurant. 

I think you all might have a restaurant or two like this.  A restaurant that you come across so much, that your curiosity as to its ambiance, taste, value, and experience is piqued more than any other restaurant.  It does not have to be a super fancy restaurant.  It is just that somehow, by passing it all the time, it is part of your daily routine, and you wonder what it would be like to go.  Think about how many times someone might ask "Have you ever been to (insert name of restaurant or bar)?" And you respond "I pass it a lot, but I have not been."  For some reason, you don't just answer "No, I have not been."  Somehow, the fact that you pass the restaurant all the time creates this connection between you and the restaurant, even though you don't really know much about it.  

Go.  Figure out what restaurant piques your curiosity in this way, that is somehow always in your mind, always what you pass on the way home from the gym, or the place you feel like everyone has said they have been to, but that you still have not tried.  The mystique behind having never been and wondering what it is like will vanish completely.  But that means you will start to notice a new restaurant, and you will create a whole new curiosity. 

Too expensive to go? It is almost 2010.  A new year.  Put it on a goal list.  Make a few cuts in your dining out (lunches out, excess coffee, etc.) for that week and go to the restaurant.  Maybe it won't be all that you wanted it to be.  But at least you will know.  And there will be this satisfaction that you personally experienced what everyone else has experienced as you pass by the restaurant everyday. 

It would be wrong to not follow my own advice.  Perilla has been my fantasy restaurant for two years now.  I don't pass it, but I hear about it a lot.   I am an avid Top Chef viewer and fan.  And Harold Dieterle is the head Chef.  He is also the VERY FIRST Top Chef winner.  And so anytime I say "I love Top Chef!"  someone responds with "Have you been to Perilla?"  And I always have to say "No, but I really want to go."  So even though I don't pass it, I get this constant reminder that I have not been.  

On Thursday night, I am going to Perilla.  It is a little out of my price range, so my bf and I are going as our Christmas celebration dinner (a little early, yes).  We have been purposefully going to more opentable restaurants lately so we can get our $20 dining gift certificate soon, and we set a lower spending limit on Christmas gifts for each other so that we could enjoy an amazing dinner, since it is one of our favorite things to do together.  

I am so excited to go.  I am so excited that after watching six seasons of Top Chef, I am finally going to the Season One Winner's restaurant, after all this time.   And I can't wait to share it all with you... on Friday.  

Have a delicious day!

NYCMenuGirl