Singed Synapses and Deranged Dendrites

Special Guests (#salt)

Late in the afternoon Meghna finished confirming a reservation and walked back into the kitchen. She saddled up next to her husband who stood in front of the prep station of the tiny restaurant they ran together.

"Does this need more salt?" Evan asked his wife, popping a morsel of food in her mouth. He noticed the shit-eating grin on her face. "What? Too much?"

"It's perfect," replied Meghna. She continued smiling.

"What is it?" asked Evan.

"We have some special guests coming tonight," said Meghna trying to contain herself. "They must have seen the New York Times review!"

"Who?" asked Evan who began getting excited himself.

The couple had worked their fingers to the bone getting the restaurant off the ground in a small, quaint brick-walled sliver of a space with only enough room for twelve bar seats along one wall. While they knew Evan had the culinary skills to pull it off and Meghna the brains and brawn to run the front half of the house and curate the wine, they were crippled three months later when the pandemic has struck.

Now, two years later, they had been listed in the "New York Times Restaurant List 2022: 50 places in America we are most excited about right now," and suddenly critics and celebrities had made an appearance.

"Tom and Jackie," replied Meghna.

"Nice," said Evan nodding in approval of Tom Douglas, a local celebrity chef, making a reservation at his humble restaurant with his wife. "I hope he orders the pig head."

"I'll recommend it," said Meghna, "with a glass of that silky red we just got in from Southern Italy."

"I wish I could have watched you take down greedy prosecutors in your former days," said Evan referring to his wife's former career as a corporate lawyer.

Then he returned to prepping for the evening meal. If his years of working in top restaurants around the world had taught him anything, it was that the more you worked before the doors opened the smoother the evening would go.

The sun set, and the first of the customers began to filter in for the first seating.

A middle-aged couple stepped inside.

"Name?" asked Meghna looking at the names she had written on a clipboard.

"Tom and Jackie," replied the man.

Her heart sank, but she hid it with a gracious smile.

"Welcome, is this your first time to Off Alley," she asked, already knowing the answer as she had kept every phone number and name for every reservation since they had opened.

"Yes," replied Jackie, "and we are so excited to try it!"

Tom and Jackie enjoyed a wonderful meal and many months later returned. As they speculated out loud how long it had been since they had last eaten at Off Alley, Meghna popped up behind them.

"Last December 3rd," she replied. "We thought you were going to be Tom Douglas and his wife Jackie."

Then they all laughed together good naturedly. Jackie thought secretly about what doors that coincidence could afford them in the future.

Sadly, Tom Douglas has not yet come to eat at Off Alley, but his wife has now been there several times.

_____

https://www.offalleyseattle.com/