Whoa. Labor day has passed. And like ever year, the weather seems to cool down on that very day! And everyone says… “Where did the summer go?”
(And we all put away our white clothes because of that “No white after Labor Day” rule that someone with real clout made up!)
We got a call from friends (3) days ago asking if we wanted to join them for dinner and a show after… Steven Tyler at The Wang Theater. Why not? Last chance to wear white and all…Sunday night…Labor Day weekend…
The only “but” was–Really…The Wang Theater? Steven Tyler? New country music album?
Before the show, we visited a friend’s restaurant–one of the better choices in the South End, less than a mile from the theater. If you don’t take 3 wrong turns.
Great drinks, great bread, great food, great atmosphere. “But” (again) it was nice (and painful) to see that my friend struggles with the same issues that we all do in the restaurant business where good help gets harder and harder to find–especially on Sunday nights when often staff is newer folks, the least trained, as veterans work the busier nights. Our waitress was so bored when she said “I’m Mona and I will be your waitress tonight.” We joked afterwards, that it kind of sounded like she said “Unfortunately…I will be…” or “Apparently..I will be….” Jenna did NOT want to be there. She never smiled. She then forgot to bring bread plates (the hostess gave us coffee saucers), didn’t tell us what the kitchen was out of, brought the wrong wine, brought the appetizers at the same time as the meal….
As I said…The drinks were great. But trust me when I tell you–finding a whole staff of caring, attentive, trainable, smart people never stops being hard!
As we headed to the theater, a good buzz and ready for rock n roll Aerosmith-style, I was definitely concerned that we would be sitting in the Wang staring at those beautiful ceilings while Tyler used us as guinea pigs for his mid-life career epiphany. NOT! (Though the ceilings are indeed incredible)
Dude rocked with his new, incredible band. Sassy, fresh, full of stories…a banging pink haired female drummer, harmonica dueling, fiddles, a badass tuba player, some Zeppelin and Van Halen tribute…Tyler played all the hits including a couple forgotten gems, with 3-4 new country-ish songs mixed in from the new album. They didn’t suck.
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