Nights Out

   Our city is rather small compared to major metropolises such as Los Angeles or Cincinnati, but you wouldn't think that from the traffic or from viewing the number of apartment units being built (and still hearing that there is a shortage of housing).  This state is still primarily a Mormon stronghold, even if the city of Salt Lake itself has diluted its population to just half that, a sign of the urbanization effect by companies such as Adobe and Goldman Sachs among others.  But among many of my Mormon friends I have found only generosity, openness and a genuine willingness to give of their time (and no, nobody has ever tried to "convert" me).  To be honest (and this holds true with me for many religions) I know little more than an inkling about the religion's beliefs, but one thinig I understand is that tithing is part of their obligation, something commonly practiced by most religions including Islam, Christianity and Judaism; for the LDS church, the 10% tithe to the church holds true whether you work at a fast food counter or are heir to a vast fortune.  But in many cases, Mormon families have extended that giving far beyond the required amount, helping to provide funding to open cancer research centers and centers for the arts.  Granted, there are many people in all denominations who prove equally generous (and more and more, want to remain anonymous in their giving); but in our rather small city of just over a million people (this includes all the cities located within Salt Lake County, for the city itself is just under 200,000), some of these venues are rather impressive.  The other night my wife and I happened to venture to our even smaller neighboring city (pop. 95,000) to see a production of the Broadway rock version of Aida (as created by the songwriting team of Elton John and Tim Rice) happening at the new $80 million Hale Center in their opening season...we didn't expect much.

Center stage atthe 900-seat venue

   What's nice about not expecting much is that it's the opposite of expecting too much, that movie everyone is talking about or that book you've got to read (heaven forbid that you don't like it).   So here we were, zooming in well ahead of schedule only to discover that parking was, well, everywhere, covered and just a few minutes away from the entrance.  Then we make our way into the lobby to get our tickets and...we're first in line.  Wha-a-at?  We stand outside for another five minutes until the doors open, easily find our way to our seats in this 900-seat theater, and enter to discover plush seating with nary an obstructed view.   But as the show opens, the lights go completely dark and the stage and actors arrive in what seems a typical play setting.  Voices strong, no idea of the story this time, and then...the entire set disappears into the ceiling, the back walls surround us 360 with graphic led displays (we're on a boat floating in Egypt) and the bottom stage opens completely as a full-on ship emerges complete with the next set of singers.  As it would turn out, the stage was just one of nearly nine versions, segmented and each operating on its own to create everything from a center platform to keyhole shapes to half-stages to just quarter points.  Up and down the dancers and singers went, the sound (no microphones to be found) and lighting spot on as aerial ballerinas descended from the ceiling.  It put Vegas (and single stage set-ups) to shame.

The Gateway plaza over the holidays, site of Fleming's

    Back up a few weeks and our neighbors are inviting us to Fleming's*, a steakhouse known for expensive ala carte dinners and packed with eaters one-third our ages.  Wait, $45 and all you get is the steak?  Salad $15.  Side $10.  Drinks, through the roof (corkage $20).  But here we were, Costco discount card in hand and ready to help them celebrate their special anniversary outing (37 years, the most we've known of anyone other than parents).  So buck up and just order (since I don't eat meat, there wasn't much for me to order besides the $43 solo fish dish).  Besides, it was New Year's eve so why be a grump?  The meals arrived (one ordered the $89 special which included a filet, a lobster tail and all the additional courses), my wife ordered the Sunday special (a $42 prime rib dinner which also included all the sides including dessert...they're known for their made-to-order lava cake), and I ordered 2 sides, one of which wasn't as expected but then hey, if a place specializes in steak you generally shouldn't order fish).  End result, the gruff waiter turned out to be a nice guy and took off my "disappointing" dish (which we never asked him to do), skipped the corkage fees since it was our friend's anniversary, took all of our Costco cards ($100 of credit for $80) and even dropped my martini charge in half (he must have felt sorry for a pescavore coming into this arena).  And the bottom line, almost everyone in the party, their canine teeth unashamedly proving their worth, said that their meal was the best prime rib/filet they'd ever had (and for my wife, that encompasses a lot of history).

The grand clock at the Gateway

   Jump now to the flurry of specialty and high-end foods.  Bloomberg Businessweek featured a spread on butter, timely perhaps because of the current shortage of such taking place in France.  But this is not the quartered commonly seen butter, but rather artisan butter, as in not $5 a pound but 10x that.  Even the magazine had to ask, "are we really ready to pay $50 a pound?"  Considering how basic the ingredients are—butter is nothing more than milk cream churned into semisolid, spreadable fat—the shortage seemed implausible...Commercial producers separate cream from milk in batches of several gallons each, pasteurize the cream, then machine-churn it into a semisolid spread recognizable to anyone who’s ever eaten a dinner roll.  Craft makers, on the other hand, ferment the milk after pasteurization, maturing their product for anywhere from one hour to two weeks.  In an earlier piece, the magazine also asked, "Is This Steak Worth $700?" The article mainly dealt with that dreaded item on fancier menus, that dish with no price other than "market price."  Said the piece: Last year the price of meals away from home—that is, at restaurants—rose 2.6 percent, even as the cost of ingredients fell 1.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  And yet, market price dishes are proliferating...But beef doesn’t fluctuate often enough to warrant an MP label, says Mark Pastore, president of Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors in North Bergen, N.J. “When I give beef prices to a restaurant, they’re set for a week; guaranteed for seven days.  If you tell me you’re not printing the price of my steak on the menu because it might change overnight, it won’t.”  Most of his clients can reprint their menus whenever they choose.

   To their credit, I have a few friends who I would consider true "foodies," where doling out $600 for a meal elicits little more than a swallow.  This is not everyday, mind you, but their quarterly treat to themselves when visiting a city or reading about a restaurant that was raved about in a review or one that has those coveted Michelin stars.  Is it worth it, I asked them, paying that much for a meal to which they replied that they have had extraordinary meals and meals that proved less than satisfying.  For my wife and I, there is little doubt that you would ever find us in such a place even if I had the money just dropping out of my pockets.  For one, my palette is more comfortable at a diner and at a campfire vs a place where even the tip would be out of my range (in some New York restaurants, the tab with wine can easily top $3,000 so a 20% tip would a nice one indeed).   Yes, I know what I like to eat and what tastes good, but not enough to swirl my tongue at that tiny piece of crackling and decide that it was the most delicious thing I'd ever tasted, being cooked in $50 butter and rolled in pieces of $700 steak; I'm honestly not sure that I would be able to taste the $750 difference.  But such places thrive (in Silicon Valley, one restaurant has a prix fixe dinner priced at $425 a plate...and is booked months in advance) and likely many of the patrons are walking away quite thrilled with the results.

   Still, there are times when we all need to pop out of our comfort zones, however reluctantly.  Sometimes this will mean an extra expenditure and one will has to decide if it is worth the gamble.  Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't; but then life is like that, getting a bargain one day (a smile or a wave of the hand to let your car cut in) and overpaying the next.  Our theatre tickets were "only" $40, a relative bargain compared to such a production in New York; and by the time the bill for our meal arrived, it also proved quite a bargain.  Yet beyond the money was the experience...being with friends, being dazzled, tasting new flavors, just getting out.  As with the song we could almost hear, the new year was coming in with those words: Pick out a pleasant outlook; stick out that noble chin; Wipe off that "full of doubt" look; slap on a happy grin!  And spread sunshine all over the place, just put on a happy face!  Old comfort bubbles were popping like champagne...

*Word from our friends was that the successful chain of restaurants known as P.F. Chang's is also the owner of Fleming's.  And the owners?  A partnership of Paul Fleming and Peter Chiang...