Blue Sea, I'm Ho-oome

Casey McCall: So, the name of this restaurant is Tony Anthony's... Anthony Anthony. In Cuba, Ricky Ricardo would've been Ricardo Ricardo.

--Sports Night, "Small Town" (1/12/99)

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My boss has been wanting to take me out to dinner for awhile. This is something he does a couple of times a year, and we usually have a very pleasant time, even if he does tend to deviate into shop talk. He brought it up a few weeks ago, prefacing it with something we could do when GF was past the surgery.

She's been having some complications, but we decided to take a shot at going last night. So early this week he sent me an email that said we had reservations and that dress was casual. And that was all I knew. Later in the week he told me that we were originally going to Chameleon Cafe, but he didn't like the time that we got for our reservation, so he arranged for a new reservation at a different place. Thus it was that at 7:00 we found ourselves leaving the car with the valets at the Blue Sea Grill on Water (heh) Street.

This restaurant is blue. I mean, it's BLUE, everywhere. Blue carpeting, blue paint, blue lighting...the wall closest to our table was a mosaic of varied shades of blue tiles. This, I think, is what it's like to be taking Viagra. The intent, as I understand it, is to give you that whole "undersea" feeling. They did that at the Finding Nemo ride in Epcot, too.

Actually, the Blue Sea Grill, while indeed blue, is also quite a nice place. It's one of those restaurants where the waitstaff rides that very-helpful-without-being-obsequious line with great ability. We had fried calamari and an oyster cerviche for appetizers, and then we all shared green beans and a lobster macaroni & cheese as side dishes. Frankly I couldn't tell you whether the oysters, or the bed of very thinly sliced vegetables, which had been tossed in a light vinegary sauce, were tastier. For the entree I had the halibut, GF had some shrimp ravioli which was very good. My boss had crabcakes and his date had a seafood paella which looked great. (We didn't share anything between couples.) The waitress caught part of our conversation, which included the fact that GF's birthday was this week, so they gave her a dessert of pineapple upside-down cake, topped with coconut ice cream. We all had some of that as we sipped coffee and tea.

On the way out, we all took a peek into the lobster tank. We'd been told that there was a six-pound lobster in there. At this restaurant, that's a lobster that they'd sell for over $150. Let me tell you, six pounds is a pretty impressive lobster. I think I'd have to broil it because steaming would take too long. And I'd have to share it with everyone else at the table, because otherwise you're talking about eating an entire stick of melted butter along with it, right?

At any rate, we had a very nice time and a great meal, and it was a nice change of pace to just get out of the house for social reasons.