The Gathering

As you might surmise, we did not eat dinner at The Wellington. Darlene thought it might be a good idea to try some different places down the street. A few suggestions were thrown out and we settled on the Gathering Bar and Grill which features card tricks at your table!

It was literally just a hop, skip and jump from The Wellington...

When I hear the word "Gathering", I think of that card game, "Magic - The Gathering". Turns out that this place was burnt down a few years ago and they reopened in the early 2000's. It's your basic American food joint with a few Mexican dishes thrown in. There is a big wooden bar in the middle and tables all around.

There was also a silver haired gentleman at a nearby table that looked A LOT like former KGTV reporter Jack White (No, not the dude from The White Stripes). I didn't think it was him but as he left (he was in a motorized wheelchair), one of the workers said, "Goodbye Jack! See you next time!" !!!!!!

OMFG! It really WAS Jack White! He's a local legend! Remember the UNKNOWN EATER? That was him! I grew up watching him on Channel 10. He reported on the PSA plane crash in 1978. He reported on some psycho dude who shot up some people at this trailer park next to McDonald's on 3rd and Naples in the early 80's. He was also known for his restaurant reviews on the news. He was one of my favorite reporters and it was sad that his position was eliminated in 2002. He didn't even have a big sendoff like weatherman "Captain Mike" Ambrose but kind of left quietly. Jack White was also one of the main consultants for "Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy"!

I wanted to eat light so I ordered the half sandwich with soup.

Unfortunately there were no card tricks that evening because they only do that on Fridays and Saturdays (Saturday dude below).

Here's the Friday magician.

My sandwich  was turkey with lettuce, tomato, avocado, some pubey alfalfa sprouts and mayo (even though I had asked them to hold the mayo) and the soup of the day, which was Cream of Potato. Wow, bread overload for me! I ate most of my sandwich and ended up deconstructing it at the end. The soup was really filling but also kind of salty. Maybe it's because my tastebuds have become accustomed to no sodium these past three weeks.

Instead of going somewhere else for dessert (Donut Star was suggested earlier), Leanne shared the heart shaped chocolate chip mini cakes I bought for her from Hans and Harry (as seen in this previous post from H and H). They were nice and light and covered with a light dusting of powdered sugar. Hopefully everyone enjoyed theirs. I thought it would be cute to give this to Leanne since she was getting married and the cakes were heart shaped.

Again, it was a lovely evening meeting some really nice ladies, asides from the ones I already knew. It must be exciting for Leanne knowing that her wedding is coming up. I remember it was also a pretty exciting but stressful time for me. Man, that was so long ago. I felt like the oldest married hag there, ha ha. Most of the women have been married for less than ten years; some were recently married just a few years ago [Edit - Mary is the only unmarried one but she is NOT single!]. Awwww. Smiley face with rainbows and hearts. I hope that Leanne and her fiance have a lovely wedding and a happy life together! Cheers!