pasta with friends

after the tour, there were two things on my agenda: to see my friend, sheri, and to go to the anss social, where i was supposed to meet my anss buddy. if things had gone as planned, i could probably have done both. but, our other friend, kara, also wanted to join us for dinner and she was flying in that evening. so, while waiting for her to get in, i missed the window of opportunity to drop in on the social.

as soon as kara got in to her hotel, sheri and i walked from our hotel to hers. though we were all staying at hyatt hotels, kara's hotel was the grander one. it had wonderful art such as this installation.

though i had a list of restaurants where i wanted to dine, i didn't think we could really get seating on a friday night with no reservation. so, we asked the concierge. we decided on venice ristorante. though we were all rather starving, we had to walk to 16th street to catch the free mall bus to get us in the vicinity of the restaurant.

the place was rather full, so it's a good thing that the concierge had made reservations for us. we had a very personable waiter, and the service was very good.

for appetizer, i ordered the crabcakes with pesto sauce and gorgonzola sauce. this was alright. sheri had the insalata fresca: "field greens salad with tear drop tomatoes, aged balsamic vinaigrette and shaved parmesan cheese." i didn't get to try it, but it sure looked good. kara had the carrot soup. that was pretty good.

for my main entree, i had the triangoli d’anatra: "triangle shaped ravioli filled with roasted duck; served with a wild mushrooms, marsala wine and cream sauce." this was yummy--probably the best out of the three main dishes. sheri had the lobster and halibut ravioli. as i don't like fish and i often find lobster tasteless, this dish was just alright for me. kara had the gnocchi with gorgonzola cream sauce. i don't know that i really like gnocchi, but this was tasty enough.

the concierge at kara's hotel had given us a coupon for free dessert. i think we were only supposed to be given one dessert, but our waiter gave us two complimentary desserts. we went with mousse al cioccolato and vulcano al cioccolato (with two kinds of gelato). mmm. mmm. what a way to end the meal. even better since we didn't have to pay for them.

after dinner, i took this picture of union station, right outside the restaurant. pretty, isn't it?

we had a great dinner. while i felt bad that i didn't get a chance to go to the anss social and meet my anss buddy, i can't say that i regret choosing to be with my friends. i usually only see these people at these conferences, so i'll take it when i can get it.