For our last Friday the 13th dinner of the year we decided to dine at the Tornado Room on Main Street in downtown Madison. This was our first time at the Tornado despite having heard nothing but good things about it and telling each other for the past six years that we would have to eat there sometime soon. Don’t know why. Wasn’t trying to avoid the place. Just kept slipping our minds. But we had to come up with a legendary restaurant to eat at this Friday and for some reason the Tornado popped to the top of our list, so I committed by making reservations Thursday afternoon.

And a good thing I did, too, because the place was booked solid. I’ve heard that it was a hugely popular place to eat, and it was Friday besides so there were probably a ton of people there for fish fry, which tempted even me. You can’t tell me you’ve got pan-fried perch on special and expect me not to show at least a little interest, but I went there for steak & potatoes, and steak & potatoes is what I had for dinner. After I gobbled up some of the warm, fresh bread off the bread plate, scarfed down three jumbo shrimp from the shrimp cocktail I shared with My Darling B, and finished off a bowl of French onion soup. Good thing I decided against the 14-ounce cut of sirloin and went with the 8-ounce cut instead. I did a respectable job of eating a bit more than half of it and all of the potato. Poor B was nearly full even before she took her first bite. Doggie bags all around.