Oh, how you're pulling my heartstrings and oh, let's go downtown

[sovay]

For our fifth anniversary, spatch and I returned to Waypoint, the only restaurant from which I have ever wanted to steal a neon sign. It makes me think of a Roman dolphin and casts the whole room in phosphorescence. It has the best drowned atmosphere.

By now we have some traditions, like starting with bread that tastes of the sea and finishing with absinthe that looks like it, and the rest is improvisation. This time we followed the salt-sweet of sugar kelp and squid ink with delicate tentacles of wood-grilled octopus over a porridge of farina studded with black olives and scoops of bone marrow, otherwise known as the classiest preparation of Cream of Wheat either of us has ever encountered; then tiny, intensely sweet bay scallops under a glaze of pear juice reduced until it was as sticky, dark, and savory as the thin parchment slices in the tartine of the fruit itself. I was drinking the Professor, which is orgeat and absinthe with enough lemon and honey to make a case for medicinal application; Rob had the Absinthe Cobbler, which made an equally convincing case for quince as an ideal pairing with anise. Despite the ingredient repeat, we ordered the octopus polpetti because it was the most interesting-looking of the pasta we had not already tried—previous entries, squid ink gemelli and uni bucatini—and somehow we had forgotten that the pasta at Waypoint really is two-person eating even without small plates, but it was so ridiculously delicious that we put a significant dent in its long, soft scrolls of spaccatelli drenched in garum and lemon and green chili, tossed with dry curls of ricotta salata and heat-wilting leaves of fresh mint, and crowned with the polpetti themselves, which Rob described as "hush puppies—with octopus!" In honor of selkie's queer Regencies, as soon as I saw the cocktail made with Batavia arrack, I ordered it even though it was (there was ouzo in it, still not an excuse) called Ouz Line Is It Anyway? Rob had moved on to something called Dans on Chairs, which having been made with coffee liqueur was off-limits to me. We shared the sweet corn spooncake and its various garnishes of chocolate cream, torched meringue, and sugared rice crisp for dessert. We ate well and oceanically.







Having been reminded by shewhomust that five years is the wood anniversary, we visited the load-bearing piano which witnessed our marriage; we are saving the harborwalk for a night that is not so bitterly cold. The cats made piteous complaint that we had not taken them out for oceanic dinner. I gave my husband a reprint of Clayton Rawson's Death from a Top Hat (1938) for the first night of Hanukkah; tonight he gave me the copy of Raymond Durgnat's A Long Hard Look at 'Psycho' (2002) that I had sadly left in Raven Used Books last Thursday. Our candles so far are lit for love, peace, wisdom, and health.

A good way of being in the world. A good anniversary.

Comments

[gwynnega]

That meal sounds magnificent, in spite of the ouzo pun!

[sovay]

That meal sounds magnificent, in spite of the ouzo pun!

We can afford this restaurant once a year and they are worth it!

[thisbluespirit]

A good way of being in the world. A good anniversary.</I. I'm glad. :-)

[sovay]

I'm glad.

Thank you!

[aurumcalendula]

That sounds like a lovely way to spend an anniversary!

[sovay]

That sounds like a lovely way to spend an anniversary!

Thank you! It was!

[cmcmck]

Glad it was good! :o)

[sovay]

Glad it was good!

Thank you!

[selkie]

The slight underwaterness of the whole place is just great.

*hugs* *and weird vintage spirits*

*....the drinks kind*

[sovay]

The slight underwaterness of the whole place is just great.

It may be my favorite decor in this city. We walked past it for weeks in 2016 wondering about it because it looked so aquatic. The ceiling beams look like pilings from a pier. There's a set of lights not visible like moon jellies behind the slats of a lobster trap. There are bits of seagrass in the shelves and alcoves. There's even a second neon sign (actually right behind me in the photo above; it's the source of the aquarium-tank light you can see filtering through the glass) and it shows a perch in green and blue and gold. I just don't want to steal it the way I want to steal "Au Nid du Doré."

*....the drinks kind*

Good call.

*hugs*

[lemon_badgeress]

I don't LIKE ink as a flavoring and I don't eat octopus ever and I STILL want to take this meal and put it in my face. You describe food amazingly.

[negothick]

Amazingly. That food is weird enough that without the photographic evidence, I would have assumed you were instead narrating an amazing dream.

[sovay]

That food is weird enough that without the photographic evidence, I would have assumed you were instead narrating an amazing dream.

Waypoint does bear some strong resemblance to places I visit in dreams, but it's on Mass. Ave. between Harvard and Central and I really appreciate it.

[sovay]

I don't LIKE ink as a flavoring and I don't eat octopus ever and I STILL want to take this meal and put it in my face. You describe food amazingly.

Thank you! I like food. I'm glad to know it comes through.

[choco_frosh]

...load-bearing piano?

[sovay]

...load-bearing piano?

It spent about sixty years in the orchestra pit, which was shuttered and built over during the Depression. People joked for decades about the load-bearing piano, but when it was uncovered during the first round of renovations in the '90's, it turned out that it actually had been supporting its portion of the floor. It now resides on the mezzanine level with a little placard about its history which I have imperfectly synopsized here. I would have a lot of affection for it even if I hadn't been married in front of it, so, bonus.

[spatch]

When Ian gave us the tour of the place for the first Byfar, pre-renovation, I got to see the load-bearing piano in its native environment, through the little door off the basement green room. I think I have a really bad picture of it somewhere.

[sovay]

When Ian gave us the tour of the place for the first Byfar, pre-renovation, I got to see the load-bearing piano in its native environment, through the little door off the basement green room.

I thought it had been unearthed even earlier! Okay, choco_frosh: more like three-quarers of a century in the orchestra pit.

[phi]

Congratulations!

[sovay]

Congratulations!

Thank you!

[selkie]

Where are we getting the lighting the candles for different symbolic things? Did you make it up? It just came up at work!

[sovay]

Where are we getting the lighting the candles for different symbolic things? Did you make it up? It just came up at work!

My family's done it my entire life! I have no idea where they got it! I didn't know it wasn't traditional until I met other families who didn't!

[coraline]

<3 <3 <3

I do love waypoint and it makes me wish I liked absinthe.

Happy anniversary!
You mentioned a photography project about the two of you one time -- I'm still interested if you are :)

[sovay]

Happy anniversary!

Thank you!

You mentioned a photography project about the two of you one time -- I'm still interested if you are

We are very broke, but we are still interested!

[coraline]

I love being monetarily valued for my work but I also just like making art with people for the sake of art. We should talk :)

[nineweaving]

I think you dreamed Waypoint into existence, and unbound the piano from its spell: they do their best to thank you. That meal sounds fabulous.

Nine

[sovay]

I think you dreamed Waypoint into existence, and unbound the piano from its spell: they do their best to thank you. That meal sounds fabulous.

Thank you. (It was.)

[selidor]

Those are delightfully happy photos. I am glad you live in a city with such a restaurant; it seems so perfectly suited it would have to migrate to your city if it had first turned up elsewhere.

[sovay]

I am glad you live in a city with such a restaurant; it seems so perfectly suited it would have to migrate to your city if it had first turned up elsewhere.

Thank you!

I find it hilarious that we came out smudgy in low light and the restaurant looks like a magazine, but we are happy.