Fun, Food, and Inside Jokes
By howey • February 18th, 2007One of Ormond Beach’s finest restaurants, Julian’s Dining Room and Lounge set the locale for a mucheMarvelous NASCAR dinner celebration Friday night.
Hosted by the Grande Dame of dinner party organizing, Tia the Terriffic, we enjoyed a delicious dinner and lots of comraderie and inside jokes.
In attendance were Tia, her funny hubby Flash, CaliforniaDave, British Redneck and She That Must Be Obeyed, Howey, and various friends including the delightful NASCAR Nudie and Nekkid Pete.
The night didn’t start out great for me. Calidave shows up at the front door, asking the hostess if she knows “Howey”. Of course she does and she heads to the packed Mini-Bar hunting me down. After Gerri the Hostess informs me “my party’s here” I head to the table I thought was reserved for us.
Not really recognizing anyone at the table (I only know what Tia, Dave and Allan look like), I butched up to the best of my ability, walk up to the table, and proudly announce “HI, I’M HOWEY!”
Several very silent moments later, I realize these are not Chronics sitting there looking up at me with all-knowing smirks on their faces. Aware my cheeks were redder than my butt after a good spankin from The Guardian, I ran like hell to the front of the restaurant to see who really was there.
Thankfully, Dave recognized me and we went to the Mini-Bar to wait on everyone else.
Following the arrival of Tia and Flash in the biggest tank truck I ever saw and a frigid welcome outside the Mini-Bar, we proceeded to our table to wait for Allan, Maggie and company. Hungry as hell. Seems like Allan and crew were stuck on I-4 with the rest of the country Florida headed to Daytona. But they were only a couple of minutes late and the party ensued. Allan was lucky enough to be seated between She That Must Be Obeyed and the Queen. Everyone was presented with their souvenier MucheMenu and started ordering.
NY steaks, Prime Rib, Stuffed Flounder, and more. With Julian’s world famous Black Bean soup (yup, that’s all that’s left of him now that Russ chewed him up and spit him out) as a first course, we were ready to roll.
Before I continue, a warning. Use caution dining at a fine restaurant during special events in Daytona. Even the Tavern on the Green couldn’t keep up with the hundreds of cold, hungry NASCAR fans demanding their gas tanks be refueled all at once.
Our waitress, albeight new and confused, was nice and friendly. Our other waitress was tasked with ensuring Waitress #1 didn’t mess up.
Once my NY Strip posing as a Prime Rib was replaced and a couple of steaks cooked a little longer (can you say, MOO?), we all proclaimed the meal as excellent.
Door Prize time! Nekkid Pete wins a NASCAR mug, NASCAR Nudie copped a box of NASCAR note cards as did Tia’s friend. Poor Dave won a fabulous to die for (why do I sound like Betty’s nephew Justin?) decorated NASCAR tote. Before I could rip it out of his hands, he traded it to Tia’s friend for her note cards.
Conversation during dinner was race, cold, and Monsters/board-centric, not necessarily in that order. And, to prevent further confusion, I answered the question of the week: Am I Tawny? Note to readers: What happens at dinner, stays at dinner. One interesting tidbit:
Now that ticket scalping is legal…..a good supply of longjohns would have netted a frikkin fortune in this town yesterday!
After stuffing ourselves and calling it a night, we all headed our respective ways. Tia, Maggie and I plan to visit the cold cast members at the stadium today and enjoy their misery while sitting in our warm cars, drinking hot chocolate.
See Calidave, I didn’t print a word about youknowwhat!
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