Little Food, Little Culture, No Running Talk!

I’m interrupting this running blog to discuss my ‘culturing up’ I received on Friday night. My lovely wife Kathy celebrated her birthday early in the week so we made plans to go out on Friday night to dine and to attend the St. Louis Symphony. As an aside, her birthday is a big yearly milestone for me because she becomes the same age as me. In August, I get older again, but for the next few months we are chronological equals.

Anyway, I made reservations at The Melting Pot, voted St. Louis’ most romantic restaurant in 2003! I’m not sure what has happened since then, but they are still celebrating that vote as evidenced by the plaque in the waiting area. As you might expect from the restaurant name, they are a fondue restaurant. They seated us in a secluded little alcove (this must be part of that romance thing) and gave Kathy a red rose for her birthday, claiming the rose was from me! That was a nice touch on their part. But, I feel nothing says romance like many sharp sticks and extraordinarily hot liquids. You better get along pretty well before going in, because the risk of bodily injury is potentially high. We had a very tasty meal: a cheese fondue with assorted dippers, a salad course, and then the entrée – raw meats and veggies to be cooked in steaming hot liquid. The meal must have measured out at around 2000 calories. And that was skipping the dessert! One more wonderful thing about the place. The four course meal is one price, but they allow diners to take a rain check on the dessert. Now we can go back anytime and enjoy our bits of yummy treat dipped in blazing hot chocolate. That and drinks will probably easily fuel me up for a future ten mile run. I avoided both burns and punctures so the meal has to be considered a success.

Then, off to Powell Symphony Hall. Our plan was to listen to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra play some oldies but goodies. They had Mr. Beethoven on the program. The first piece was the Leonore Overture #3, a little piece that the symphony busted out. It was exceedingly well done – very easy on the ears. The second piece was Violin Concerto in D Major, featuring guest violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Christian rocked (or classicaled) the piece and the timpanist was stellar, but some of the other symphony players were kind of stiff. Beethoven was an angry composer at times, and some of this concerto came off like that. The third piece was the classic, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. You know, Da, Da, Da, Dum; Da, Da, Da, Dum! The symphony rose up and PERFORMED! This is such a classic piece that got the players fired up. While I’ll never be a classical music fanatic, getting a little exposure occasionally is good for the soul. Plus, whenever I hear Beethoven, I’m reminded of this:

Ludwig van Beethoven