Dining Alone

Rest assured, my inconsistent effort to document my adventure here is not for lack of material. On the contrary, this past week has been a full one.

Besides the good company, the visit from Jilian and my Mom left me with the unfortunate habit of needing to visit Bouchon Bakery for a Bacon and Cheddar Scone every morning for breakfast. Additionally, I did no work on the financial model for O'Brien Estate while they were here. We did, however, visit a number of wineries, frequent an array of fine dining establishments, watch bocce ball with the locals, score some legitimate mexican food (I had "lengua", or cow tongue tacos), fight about the life expectancy of my sick golden retriever Shadow, and, generally, have a great time.

Since they left, I have done nothing else besides sitting at Peet's Coffee in Napa, drinking coffee, and building the financial model for O'Brien.

I have also read The Razor's Edge, gone to yoga a few times, ran some decent mileage, worked as the "popcorn guy" at an event at the winery on Saturday night, and done laundry.

Still, I feel like all I am doing is this model.

This is me as the popcorn guy by the way. The help gets no respect. Stay in school:

After a full day of modeling work, frustrated by the fact that my model is now unnecessarily robust, overly detailed, and cumbersome to navigate, and the fact that my apple computer running Windows 7 is not quite as powerful as my work computer (the model takes 45 seconds to save or 25 seconds to insert a new row or column), I decide to treat myself to a late night meal at Ad Hoc. Today is Fried Chicken Monday, Ad Hoc's most popular night. Every night they offer a four course prix fixe meal--take it or leave it. They are full every night. Reservations are hard to get. Every two or three Mondays, they do Fried Chicken Monday--more people than usual take. Reservations are impossible to get.

Being alone, I am able to sneak into the last available seat at the bar. After exchanging niceties with the manager and a few of the wait staff (I also treated myself, and sat at the bar, on Friday night. They remember me--I am glad I tipped like I might come back, but feel kind of like a lonely, pathetic person, who sits by himself at the bars of nice restaurants), I ask the gentleman to my right how he likes the fried chicken:

"Amazing," he says. "I come here often, but never before on Fried Chicken Monday. I work with a winemaker who has a wine by the glass on the list. You have been to Ad Hoc before I assume?"

Excited to have another interesting neighbor for a meal that I fully expected to eat alone, I tell him I have been here, but never on Fried Chicken Monday. He asks me if I live in Napa, or if I am just visiting. I explain my story, to which he replies:

"Funny, I just moved here from New York five months ago. I lived there for 12 years. Were you in the wine industry in New York as well?"

"No. The finance industry. I am volunteering for a month..." "What did you do in New York?"

"I started and ran a small retail wine shop in the city."

"Where was it?"

"In Tribeca. It was called Vestry Wines."

I live in Tribeca. Vestry Wines is two blocks away from my apartment. I went there at least once a week. Ashley still probably goes there once a week.

"I thought I recognized you when you sat down," he said.

Small world.