Gentlemen before we get to the recap of the evening we have a couple pieces of business to attend.  As discussed and widely decided as long past due, the official Bill Conway Bachelor Pad Art Update GoFundMe page has been setup and is ready to accept even the most humble of donations.  https://www.gofundme.com/BillsBareWalls  He has caviar tastes on a Rose budget but anything can help.

Secondly, the NFL playoffs have already seen our beloved Bears fizzle out with yet another shank off the goal post, insert a Reeshard Ray metaphor here, however the playoffs do go on.  The luck of the draw is below:

Ravens – Don

Hans – Colts

John – Pats

Rick – Chargers

Mason – Chiefs

Jon – Texans

Brad – Seahawks

Jevon – Rams

Scotty – Cowboys

Conway – Eagles

 

Bears and Saints OUT

 

And now onto the evening at the Capital Grille, which despite being a chain is one of my favorite spots in town.  After my 2 month sa-baby-tical away from Steak Night I was eagerly looking forward to getting back to it.  I selected it originally at the request of our CTO Roddy who was supposed to be gracing us with his presence but was later detained elsewhere.  Nonetheless, looking forward to Capital Grille for some more calamari and pursuit of sisters.  The bar scene is less than desirable truth be told.  Its a long and narrow elevated platform that no matter how hard you try you will inevitably elbow some elderly patron in the head and knock a drink out of Brad Rays hand.  Given it was the first Thursday of the new year, we had it essentially to ourselves but it still feels like you cant really get comfortable here.

Our table on the other hand had quite the opposite problem.  It was a top notch location in the middle of the room and was immediately recognized to have considerable girth.  Usually when you put 9 gentlemen with our particular gift of gab at the same table it is hard to have a conversation with anyone except those on your sides but in this case it was not an issue at all.  I fired in the doubled up app orders of Cast Iron Garlic Shrimp, Tuna Tartare, and Calamari with Hot Cherry Peppers.  Honestly, this is my favorite calamari in the city hands down.  Its the right combination of spice and breading on the calamari that prepared perfectly.  The other two apps sounded good on paper but didn’t deliver.   A couple bottles of decently priced Adelsheim and we were underway.  A few went with a bowl of soup in addition to my initial order and I am still reeling in agony from the burns caused by the molten lobster bisque.  It defies all chemistry how they can get something that hot without it boiling over at the table, also pretty heavy handed on the sherry.

The kona crusted dry aged with shallot butter caught my attention and was also noticed by Cizzle.  In retrospect I know I shouldn’t order because of what comes on or with the steak but rather order the steak.  I ordered it medium rare, it came out medium but I think they switched mine with Cizzle…  The sides were all pretty middle of the road with nothing standing out to me as well.  If it weren’t for the impressive girth of our table and for all of those sitting around it, I would have said it was a disappointing dinner.  Capital Grille usually excels at quality and in this case really didn’t deliver.  Reeshard walked for free for about the hundredth time with his victory in the pick ’em pool.  It was decided by the group if you miss one week you are essentially done, which I propose we get a one week drop that can be used at the end of the year to level scores.  Nonetheless, this shall be debated by the rules committee.  After paying for Reeshard we headed over to Snickers to see what the riff raff of River North were up to and then called it a night.

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