Dear readers,
Apologies for the long gap, we have visited tons of good places in the meantime, but just not had time to blog about them. We had visitors for the first time tonight, and were excited to show them around. We spent the last week looking for places that they might like, and since they were staying over for the night to prepare for a long bike ride the next morning in the Marin county, they suggested starchy foods, such as Italian. We checked out E'Angelo last week, and even though Mr. Calamari enjoyed his eggplant parmigiani, very cheesy and it just melts in your mouth, everything was very greasy, leaving a thin layer of orangy oil at the bottom of every plate, and Mrs. Calamari decided we would not be back. Right across this place on Chestnut, however, was Bistro Yoffi, with a list of jazz bands playing several times a week. Both of us, especially Mr. Calamari, was very excited as he loved live Jazz and swing music, and we soon agreed on this place. Not until later in the week would we realize that it's not an Italian place, but it wouldn't matter.
After our friends arrived and Mr. Calamari showed off the 360 degree views on our apartment roof, while Mrs. Calamari displayed her scrapbooking stuff, we headed out to Bistro Yoffi. We got there before the band started setting up and immediately noticed the cozy atmosphere. A couple small tables intimately set up before the band, right next to a bar area, with another dining area slightly further back, and a very nice garden with heated lamps in the very back. At first the four of us sat in the dining area further back, next to an unused old piano, but got lucky and sneaked into one of the cozy tables right in front of the band. The menu is very New Orleans and we loaded up on appetizers -- the cheesy garlic bread is very flavorful, and the crab cakes delicate and wonderful. We also ordered blackened catfish strips, fried calamari and something else -- and that calamari was some of the most tender and best battered I've eaten.
As we enjoyed our morsels and waited for main courses, the place filled up and the band started playing. They were from New Orleans, and it was lead by a DJ artist who mixed in recordings with keyboard, along with drums, acoustic bass, strings, trombone, sax, clarinet. With the trombone pushing in and out, maybe just 20 feet in front, the dim white christmas lights illuminating the LP covers of Billy Holiday, Louis Armstrong, and other legends on the walls, the coziness of the room itself, and the wonderful seafood gumbo right in front of me, the atmosphere couldn't be any more perfect. Our friends, who are both musicians, loved it. It helped that the band was very talented, both with faster and slower tempos. Mr. Calamari wanted to dance several of the songs with Mrs. Calamari, but there was not enough space. The next day, one of the tunes kept going round and round in Mr. Calamari's head. It was such a good experience that dessert became secondary.
