Good Eatin'

I read my friend Steve's blog yesterday where he was talking about eating at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. This got me to thinking about the first (and only) time that I've eaten at this restaurant.

Back in June, Keith and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. Over the past 5 years we haven't really done anything special to celebrate our anniversary, but we thought this was an important one so we decided to go to San Antonio for a couple of days. This was my first time leaving Garrett overnight and I was so ready to get to sleep in for once in the past 2 years! We went to San Antonio and stayed in a nice hotel. When we first got there, the SA Spurs were having a parade down the river in celebration for their NBA championship. It was a little chaotic downtown, but neat to get to see the actual parade from our window.

On our last night in town (we did all the typical tourist stuff while there, Alamo, riverboat tour, mall, etc) we decided we wanted to eat at a really nice place. Keith had been to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Chicago, and maybe another city like New York?, and really enjoyed it, so he wanted us to go there while we had the chance. We saw the address where it was located and figured it wasn't but a few blocks past the mall, which was where we had been walking to every day. We figured we could handle that walk and got started. Now, first thing is that this is the month of June, in San Antonio, Texas. At 5:00 pm. It was hot and humid outside. By the time we were halfway to the mall, we're both sweating. Because Ruth's Chris is a nice restaurant, I had called to check on their dress code and learned that I would be fine wearing nice capris. So I ironed mine and Keith's clothes and tried to make us look as nice as possible with what we had brought. By this point in our walking, all of that effort had gone down the drain. I'm sure we looked like someone had thrown us in the pool with our clothes on. Once we got past the mall, we looked ahead a few blocks and see the interstate! Not only is it the interstate, but it also doesn't have sidewalks running underneath it. We cannot see Ruth's Chris on this side, so we assumed it's on the other side of the interstate. Now, we have two options, one, we can hike under the interstate probably walking alongside some homeless people and will be mistaken as one ourselves since we look awful by now, or two, we can get a cab to drive us like 3 blocks. We got a cab. Keith is very familiar with the cab routine, but this was my first cab ride. Thankfully he had the a/c going full blast so we were able to dry ourselves off and fix up as best as possible before arriving at the restaurant. When we walk inside Ruth's Chris, the hostess of course had seen us arrive in a cab. She asks us where we're staying and after we told her the name of the hotel, she says, "Oh, we have a free shuttle that takes our customers to and from the downtown hotels. Be sure to let your waiter know when you're finished with your meal and the shuttle will take you back." Boy, didn't we feel dumb! We could have saved ourselves permenant sweat stains on our clothing had we asked about a shuttle, but who knew? Live and learn.

Seeing as how we arrived at the restaurant around 5:00, we were two of the few people there. I'm sure they thought we were senior citizens in young peoples' bodies, but we were hungry. The food was excellent and the service was outstanding! It is definitely not the place to go for a cheap dinner, but you will get your money's worth. Keith and I both had salads for an appetizer, delicious steaks for the main course along with several side dishes that were outstanding, and then it was followed up with dessert. They also brought us a small loaf of bread while we were waiting for our salads. I cut off slices for the two of us and while we were eating them, the waiter comes over and replaces our loaf with a new one! On the one hand that is so wasteful! I hope someone took that loaf home and ate it because it was good. On the other hand, it's always nice to be treated as if you're someone super important. We would take a sip of our drinks and someone would immediately come to our table to refill them. Impeccible service, most definitely! The final bill wasn't too bad considering how excellent the whole experience was. We paid a little over $100 for everything including a (very generous) tip. Of course that could have been their early bird special. I am definitely ready to go back for more of that great food!