A return to perennial group favorite Capital Grille to kick off the New Year. On our previous trips high marks were in store across the board, would this trend hold true?

The crowd was light as most of Chicago was recovering from the holidays and attempting to keep their new years resolutions to eat less for at least the first week of the year. The fine gentlemen of steak night will have none of such nonsense and stuffed their faces the first Thursday of every month as always.

A large group of 9 were in for dinner including special guest TC “Sausage Fingers” Canterra. TC has a bit of a cult following among the group for his starring turn as “the guy passed out in the hall”, forever immortalized on the coasters in Brad’s apartment.
8 of 9 people arrived by 7:45 and enjoyed some pre dinner drinks and banter. At 8:00 we were seated minus Glick. One thing you can count on at steak night is that Glick will be late, period. Late period, he is like a pregnant chick.

Apps included oysters, calamari and lobster/crab cakes. The calamari is easily the best in the city. The lobster bisque had huge chunks of lobster and was delicious .

I went with the porterhouse medium rare and it was cooked to perfection and oozing with flavor. Unfortunately I know some were disappointed with their steaks. The lobster mac and cheese, au gratin potatoes and creamed corn were all top notch. All in all a great meal.

Dinner conversation focused on the upcoming BCS Championship game, the NFL playoffs, a steak night Vegas trip, reviving poker night, potentially adding new members and Glick’s tiresome act of arriving after 8:00 each month.

It was decided we would place all the playoff teams in a hat (or in this case an emptied out sugar packet holder) and each pull a team, whoever’s team wins the Super Bowl gets a free dinner in March.

Brad Ray was to good to use the steak knife the restaurant provided, he brought his own. Holinger won at credit card roulette again, despite the ridiculous protests from Glick, which fell upon deaf ears. It was Crenshaw’s birthday and he received a free glass of champagne, a nice touch.

Almost the full crew hit Hubbard Inn for after dinner drinks. The crew slowly called it an evening until only Holinger, Crenshaw and myself were remaining. It was at this time that Crenshaw led a spirited discussion on the merits of Facebook to get pussy. On to next month.

Rick “The Drunk Idiot” Ray

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