Way, way back (peers through the mists of time) in 2006, My Darling B worked on the west side of town, almost in Middleton, at the DMV. I worked at a bank in the center of town, right on capitol square. Every morning, she would drop me off on the square, then continue on to her job, and every evening I would wait on the sidewalk outside the bank for her to come pick me up.

One summer evening, after she pulled up to the curb and I got into the car, she asked, “What do you want to do for dinner?” And after we kibitzed over a few ideas, I said something like, “Well, why don’t we try this restaurant right here?”

‘This restaurant right here’ was Peppino’s, a fine Italian restaurant across the street from the bank. Ordinarily, we would not have considered eating there, because a typical meal for two cost over a hundred dollars. Back then, we did not make enough money to dine in a place like that. But why not treat ourselves just once? And to my great surprise, she said yes.

That meal was, as they say, ‘to die for.’ It was so good that, as the meal came to a close, we began to brainstorm ways to return for another special treat in the future. I believe it was Barb who came up with the idea of dining there whenever Friday The Thirteenth rolled around. There were usually only two per year, some years only one. We could swing that.

Every new year we would check the calendar to see how many times Friday The Thirteenth would roll around, and start saving up. We went to Peppino’s every time until they closed in 2010. We still miss that place. We went to several other fine dining establishments in Madison, but the only place we enjoyed nearly as much as Peppino’s was Estrellion, which specialized in Spanish dishes. I still close my eyes and go ‘mmm’ when I recall how delicious the paella was. Sadly, Estrellion closed in 2021 because of the pandemic.

We fell out of the habit of dining out after the pandemic, but this year when Friday The Thirteenth rolled around again, Barb suggested we go out to dinner at Sardine, a place we’ve visited before and we both liked it quite a lot. Unfortunately for us, our special day dropped the day before Valentine’s Day, so reservations at Sardine, and at all the fine dining restaurants in town, filled up before we thought to call for one.

We ended up going to Alchemy, one of our favorite places to stop for a bite after work. In the pre-COVID years, it wasn’t unusual for us to stop there for dinner every other week. It was on the way home, the food was always good, and it was a great place to hang out. There are no TVs, the music is never turned up way too loud, and we both feel comfortable there. It was a natural place to go back to on our special day.

Alchemy is by no stretch of the imagination a fancy restaurant, but I’m so glad we went there tonight. We had the fish fry in mind for the entree, which is pretty darned good, but while we were enjoying our appetizer with cocktails they posted the night’s special, gumbo with shrimp and chicken, and we both immediately changed our minds. When they brought out those big bowls of gumbo, we knew it was the right choice. Rich broth, not too spicy, they didn’t overcook the shrimp, and the portion was so generous that B took some home with her. I ate every bite of mine. I probably shouldn’t have, but I did.