So, apparently i Ricchi moved, some years ago. I remember going there when it was on I Street. Or maybe I just remember making reservations for Larry Garrett there, when I was his secretary. But I seem to remember we, the OFTS admin staff, went there for some function once. Ah, well. Doesn’t really matter.

When we get here today I do specifically remember having come with the ASH senior staff for some function, maybe Marty’s birthday. We sat in a private room way back somewhere, having to go past the kitchen and kitchen staff like gangsters or something. Today we’re in the little dining room across from the kitchen.

Our waiter is Carlos, and as soon as I’m friendly with him 5starjoe & 3pennyjane start to laugh and tell me to back off. Funny guys. And here I’d been planning on getting a glass of the Sant’ Elena pinot grigio in 3PJ’s honor. But they only have it by the bottle anyway. We’re not getting a bottle of wine for lunch. They get ice water and I go with the sparkling.

They don’t have like a special restaurant week menu; rather, it just contains certain items from the regular menu. I go with the pappa al pomodoro, Florentine tomato soup, as does 3pj. 5*J opts for the risotto, since he’s wearing a white shirt and doesn’t want to also be wearing tomato soup. So I tell a version of the famous joke:

Navy guy and a Marine are in the mens room. The Marine finishes, zips up, and goes to walk out the door. “Hey,” the Navy guy says. “In the Navy they teach us to wash our hands after we go to the bathroom.” The Marine replies, “Yeah, well, in the Marines they teach us not to piss on our hands.”

This leads to 5*j mentioning this movie with Jane Fonda that he rented or saw on cable or something where Jane Fonda’s character complains that all of the men lately that she’s met have for some weird reason decided to tell a dirty joke on the first date. I think he mentions that her next date, with Rod Taylor, goes the same way, so she walks out. So 3pj counters with a story of a man she knows who had a woman, on a date, tell him that he had perfect abs off of which to snort coke, in reply to which he threw the woman out of his apartment. So this leads me to mention that somewhere in life or literature along the way I picked up the understanding that the height of decadence would be snorting heroin off of little boys’ bare asses in Bangkok, and that I did in fact mention this once on a first date.

(Later I discuss with 3pj the absolute horrors of human trafficking and sexual tourism, especially in Bangkok. And I feel bad about joking about it.)

5*J mentions a disastrous first (and only) date, where he knew that she was going to say that she liked going to Club Five. That’s right next door to 18th Street Lounge, site of that first date with mention of snorting heroin off of little boys. (Although in fact mention of said depravity was later, back at her place, on the front steps of her apartment building.)

As for entrees, they both get the pork loin, whereas I go with the salmon. We all get the tart for dessert. I try to get a copy of the menu from the manager as we’re leaving, but he seems to lack any interest whatsoever in helping me. So I leave without.