Old Friends / New Friends

We had a really good time this past weekend. One of Lindsey's college roommates (Lauren) is moving to Tampa with her boyfriend (Sean), who just took a job transfer from Rochester. Both of them are from the Rochester area and we're looking forward to having them living near us. They were in town looking for a place to live and we met up with them on Friday night for a few drinks and dinner. Billy and Jess came up after work and we had a few drinks at the house before walking down to Channelside. It was pretty busy down there, so we grabbed a table inside at Tina Tapa's. The food there obviously isn't the most authentic you're going to get in town, but it's consistent and the ambience is nice. Low lights throughout provide a good setting for late night eats. We usually order a pitcher of drinks when we go, and this was no different... one red sangria and one mojito, which we had no problem finishing. We also ordered a mixture of hot and cold tapas to split, all of which were fairly good with no complaints. The carpaccio was fresh and tasty, the balsamic grilled vegetables were good, and everybody else seemed to like the papas con salsa blanca (fries with a chive dip). We also had an order of the goat cheese al forno and calamari. After finishing up there, I convinced everyone to drop into Gallagher's Steakhouse for a drink at the bar. Lindsey threw down one pink martini too many, and the rest of us also had a few glasses of wine and beer. With a long day ahead for Lauren and Sean, who were making the 7-8 hour drive to Key West on Saturday morning, we all headed out and walked home. On the way home, we met some interesting characters walking their English bulldog and spent a few minutes talking with them before eventually getting back to good old Grand Central.