Bagel Buddy
Monday night my good friend Julian Horwich came by to have dinner. ... Well he thought he came by to have dinner. As is sometimes the case, meeting up with Marty to do something routine becomes an adventure.
The full story is for some other time, but the short story is that my car (a Ford Explorer) had broken down at the University of Chicago in the middle of Sunday night, I had a tow-truck come out, replace the battery, then when that was insufficient tow the car to their garage. I took a taxi 50 km out to my hotel, and got about 2 hours sleep Sunday night. Monday the garage replaced the alternator, and my car was ready.
So Julian arrives at my hotel thinking that we will drive about 1/2 mile to a Japanese Restaurant (see tomorrow). But soon he is "Shanghai-d" into giving me a ride to "Western & Touhy" (50 km back into Chicago) - the location of the Service Station which has my car. As it turns out, that is near where Julian grew up, and he knows (or at least 'knew') the area well. After a few "Julian-turns" we made it to the station and I picked up my car. We then drove, as a 2-car convoy, to a nearby restaurant which is Julian's favorite delicatessen.
Because Julian is a regular customer, we were ushered ahead of the line of waiting customers and seated immediately. Julian is evidently a very good customer because the waitress provided such good service - it was as though we were the only customers in the place! We enjoyed traditional Jewish food - I had "Matzo Ball Soup" and Potato Pancakes, and also half of some cold Fish Dish that Julian ordered. I enjoyed the good taste and saved a pancake for breakfast the next morning. We "closed the place down" telling each other stories and jokes before I had a chance to take a "SnapShot" for this series.
We took one outside in the parking lot. The delicatessen had a truck parked near our cars, and it had a license plate that said "Bagel". It was very appropriate, and I took a photo of my "Bagel Buddy" Julian Horwich.
2001-02-12 22:13
Suburban Chicago