For the second time in our short history, our plans were waylaid by Mother Nature. I love Winter as much as the next Nebraska native but this winter has pretty much made me wax nostalgic about those long hot muggy torturous days in the dead of August when you sweat in places you shouldn't mention in a PG blog just walking from your office to your car. Icy rain/snow/sludge mixture convinced us not to head north for our late January convention of The SupperClubSix KC so as the host I had to choose Plan B. I played it safe with Carmen's Cafe located only a few blocks from my house in Brookside. We met at my house for pre dinner wine and commiserated about the lousy weather. One member shared some jaw dropping happy news causing us to refill our glasses while we pummeled her with questions: how? where? when? really? seriously? (More on this development on a later blog but we may become Supper Club Six Plus One.)
By the time we left for Carmen's, Mother Nature let loose with a flurry of white flakes making the walk from our cars less than ideal. Luckily, we were seated immediately. Carmen's bar area is usually quite cramped. We were seated at the first table in the dining room and it was dark. By dark I mean, we couldn't read our menus. I don't remember it being this dark and I've dined at Carmen's (or catered Carmen's for bookclub in an attempt to pass it off as my own) numerous times. Luckily, I always travel with a book light in my purse. People may mock me (okay they do mock me and did mock me at dinner) but it has saved me on numerous occasions. There weren't enough candles to go around the table and I feared lighting the tablecloth on fire so we shared my book light. We also had a pen light our waitress gave us after we pointed out that we still weren't ready to order because we couldn't read.
We have yet to order six different entrees. We cluster order. A couple of us had the Chicken Spidini Jacqueline--chunks of chicken breast marinated, breaded, charbroiled and served over angle hair pasta with crushed tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and fresh basil. One member ordered the Tortellini Andres -- donut shaped pasta, stuffed with prosciutto ham and chicken served in Alfredo sauce with mushrooms and peas. A few opted for Judy's Rigatoni which is pasta served in a Vodka tomato cream sauce with mushrooms, peas and prosciutto ham. All in all the food was delicious. I've always experienced consistently excellent food at Carmen's. Our service left a bit to be desired. There didn't seem to be much concern about the lighting and she was pushing the wine. For once, we were resisting.
