Afternoon

While basking between this morning’s “dusting” and Sunday night’s “maybe” storm (see “weather” below) I had a nice interlude this afternoon.  Not much else going on, so this is kind of light.

I was finally able to match holes in schedules with a friend and we decided we’d go to lunch.  Since he lives “down” in Southern Maryland we decided we would try the St. Inigoes General Store, a place that people have informed the feeder about.  It has been on the “gotta go there” list for a while so this seemed like a good time to try it.  People seem to like it.

So we joined up in the parking lot, and went inside.  Indeed it is a “general store”, with shelves containing various items you would expect to find in a general store, cleaning products, various dry foods, that kind of thing..  There were a number of people standing around the counter, and nearby a white board presented sandwich specials, like an Oyster Po’ Boy for $10.95.  We looked around for the dining area, and guess what, we were in it!  As near as we could figure out, there is no sit down service available, but we didn’t ask.  So, we decided to vacate to another venue.  Problem: where are you going to go in the lower county?  Answer: Courtney’s!

Alert readers will know that Courtney’s is the king of my “Just Right” list now that St. James Pub has shuttered (and one might reasonably argue Courtney’s was always the king).  Due to the failure of Plan A, it was a little later than peak lunch time, and there were only two other groups seated.  One was a collection of (what we assumed were) Volunteer Rescue workers, complete with those jackets that have acronyms on the back.  Every once in a while, static squawking noises emanated from devices affixed to them..They seemed all to be in the veteran category, and were having a good time relaxing (you always have time to relax at Courtney’s).  Eventually Tom Courtney showed up at our table with the perennial cap affixed to his head, pad and menus in hand.  He stood with pencil poised and menus undelivered, but we kind of knew what we wanted, a bacon cheeseburger and an oyster basket, beer and coke.  He took down the order and left.  I thought he looked a lot more fit than the last time I saw him.  Five or so minutes later the (plastic) glass of ice cubes and plastic coke bottle arrived along with the Yuengling and frosted mug.

During the ensuing fifteen or twenty minutes we had plenty of time to catch up, enjoy the (now) sunny day and the water view, all the stuff on the walls, and general ambience.  Very pleasant.  At one point the food for the eight VRS folk arrived, complete with the ritual of Tom calling out the dish in hand, and the diner raising his or her hand to bid on it.  Normally I give crap for this kind of service, but in a place like this it is perfectly acceptable and even expected.  As it should be.

Our food eventually showed up, the ritual distribution placed in front of me the waxed paper lined red plastic basket with six plump fried oysters, hot crispy fries with those little bumps on them, and across the table the hamburger topped with obviously just fried real bacon, not that flat stuff you normally get.  And it was served on those kind of special rolls they always have.  My request for a second beer fell on deaf ears, but what the hell.  Why not?

While we were eating Tom’s wife, the chef Emily(?) came out of the kitchen with six cupcakes (still in their plastic six pack package), each one with a lit candle in it, and we all sang happy birthday to one of the VRS ladies.   How neat is that?  What an enjoyable afternoon.

Openings

On the other side of the peninsula and across the Patuxent, I see the “new” Lighthouse is opening for business (yes, you have to find this stuff out on Facebook) at least for lunch and happy hour. Prices are astonishingly low, but I suppose you gotta do that to “get them to come”.  I hope they do.  A picture looks like they have a very nice bar.  Since it is run by the Clarke’s Landing folk, they should have a leg up on the business.

Which leads me to think there are now quite a few opportunities for “fine dining” (a hazardous designation, I know) over there on the island.  The standby Dry Dock and remarkably good Bistro at Blue Heron Bistro Bed and Breakfast Bistro (I never remember the proper combination) are now joined by the “upstairs” at the Striped Rock and (presumably) the Lighthouse (caveat that the Feeder has not visited either place).    And while the CD Café is pretty much reliable and serves very good food, I don’t think I would classify them in the “fine” category.  However, I would put their Back Door Lounge right up there for a place for sips and small bites.. Some might mention Giovanni’s but I don’t.

Speaking of dining, some thirty one restaurants in Calvert County are participating in their Restaurant Week, which runs through this Sunday.  As I read it, there isn’t the hokey meal for $20.14 that is fairly common, just special menus (?) and prices.  Check it out if you wish.

Weather

An odious subject these days indeed.  Since I’ve mentioned Facebook a few times, I’ll keep going.  There is now a proliferation of “weather” pages, all trying to provide up to the minute predictions and conditions.  While I suppose they are all okay, if you want to follow one, I would recommend following: “Justin Berk, Meterologist”.  He is a retired professional having worked television for years.  He has pretty much nailed amounts, timing, and severity over the past few storms.  

Meanwhile we gotta go get

DFD