Happy hour with Hadley

You may recall that back in Jan I related the story of Hadley, who wanted to convert her list of local restaurant specials into a blog, with other content as well. She asked me and a few other locals to write for the blog with her. I wrote a few pieces for her and will do more if my crazy schedule will just calm down.

Hadley and I have been wanting to meet her in person ever since Jan, but we just couldn't seem to get our schedules to match up. But finally last night the planets were in perfect alignment and we met in person for happy hour. From our emails and one 15-minute phone call I knew we'd get along great, and we did.

I invited her to happy hour at Saketumi because they have a terrific 1/2 price sushi menu at the bar between 4:00-6:00. My friend/manager Kim was there so I knew he'd treat us like royalty. We met at 5:30, ordered our 1/2 price sushi, she had Pinot Grigio and I had my current favorite cocktail: a Cosmo made with Absolut Berri Acai. (If you haven't tried this yet, what are you waiting for? Its delish!)

I invited Spouse to come along, thinking we'd only be there an hour (90 minutes tops) since I didn't really know Hadley. He passed on the invitation, which was probably good in the long run because Hadley and I sat at the bar talking, eating, talking, drinking, and talking for 4 hours! I couldn't believe it.

We discovered some crazy coincidences in our lives and really related to each other's work and personal life situations. Although very different on the outside (she's straight, female, is a mom, etc) we're surprisingly alike on the inside. We had a really good time.

While telling her about last Saturday's Summer Bash, we were overheard by a couple seated next to her at the bar. Turns out the guy (Chris) is a food broker who donated the meat for the Summer Bash. I quickly told him the barbecue brisket was my favorite item this year, which was the truth. Then we discovered Chris and Hadley grew up in the same neighborhood outside of Atlanta! Chris' girlfriend lived for many years in the DC area, as did I, and we compared notes on each other's work and home towns. It was a truly wacky!

So Hadley and I decided we will definitely hook up for happy hours and dinners again in the near future, and we may even let our spouses come along! It might just be too much fun for 2 people.

Crush du Jour: Jake Mitchell