(My) Midnight in Paris

Cafe de Paris, Columbia MD

A friend from work and I went out to dinner last night. Since Jan is on the west coast - it was a good break from three nights of Chinese food leftovers from the Joy Luck takeout close to our house. Charlie is a regular at the Cafe' de Paris in Columbia. He is single now, and says he typically eats out half of the time. When I asked whether he wanted to go out this week, he immediately asked,


"Would you like to go the the restaurant a friend of mine owns, but it is a long drive?"

"Sure."

After following him on the freeway north to Columbia and stopping by his house to let the dogs out - really nice dogs - he rode in my car and directed me to the restaurant. He asked if it was OK that we sit in the bar - sure - so we sat at a bistro table by the window, while a couple of musicians played and sang familiar tunes fitting for an over 40's crowd and as patrons slowly began to fill the small lounge on a dark and rainy Friday evening.

We pretty much avoided talk about work, other than how the folks at work and friends had helped him make it through the past couple of years since Jane died. Charlie is interesting to listen to, he is taking guitar lessons to get back his level of competency he had in the 70's, but for jazz rather than rock music. What I learned new was he is a collector of aviation art and books, with a specialty for World War I planes - an expert. He said he has even written pieces for the Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine, and was working on a book until his co-author died. I did a Google Scholar search, and found Over the Front, the magazine of an association for WWI aviation. With a little cross searching, I found in the the magazine's 1998 issue table of contents an article: The Last of the Foggiani by Theodore M. Hamady and Charles L. Walthall - I will have to request a reprint. One of his books showed a print of an airplane scene in Nancy, France (1) - he has the original.

Scallops and the fixings

The owner of the restaurant, Erik, stopped by to chat a couple of times while after we had ordered and waited for our meals. (the chef gave his regards, too.)  I learned during one of our conversations that his 16 year old daughter had announced that she wanted to go to the Naval Academy - he said that he was quite surprised with the news, but was quite pleased - that would be one college expense he wouldn't have to worry about. When our meals arrived at our table, there wasn't much room for the two entree plates, but the presentation of both was perfect. My Blackberry camera doesn't do justice to the presentation - one of the dinner specials: scallops with Bearnaise sauce, glazed vegetables, and saffron rice. Cutting into thirds the scallop closest to me, and tasting the first piece - magnifique. The saffron rice steamed as I broke into the neatly piled scoop - the vegetables were warm and crisply fresh. (I wondered whether they were organic.) 

It was a great meal - a Julia Child experience - and will be worth a road trip for another meal after Jan returns.
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(1) Funny coincidence, Nancy is the city where Mathias Bonnard lives - the gentleman who sent me photographs of numerous Ellie Bogardus paintings.