Celebration- Charleston Style

Now that the three of us who needed new jobs have them, we went out to celebrate.

Our intention was to go to our favorite downtown establishment, Fleet Landing, but that place was crowded and we were not interested in waiting over an hour to start our evening. So, we decided to go to Birdie's favorite brunch place, Eli's Table.

We discovered that it is not our favorite dinner place.

The ambiance was lovely and our server was delightfully witty.The building itself was charming and no one made you feel like they wanted you to eat and get out. But, the prices were high because the food was fancy. And I'm not a fan of fancy food.

The kiddos had wine-

And beer--

I had water, which was also fancy.

The conversation was lively and we put Baby in the corner. Haha! It's funny because of the movie and because, she's not the baby. Or something like that. I don't know. I could smell the wine so I must have had a contact buzz going.

Anyway, we waited for about an hour and a half for our fancy food. There was salad and escargot (NOT mine), and bread (also NOT for me because I haven't had a delicious carb since the next to the last week in May for crap's sake).

The entrees were over priced and fancy (did I already mention that?) and, apparently, they hired a designer to arrange the fancy food on extra large plates. Sheesh. Just put the food on a plate. Rib eye steak and shrimp, roasted chicken, fancy mac and cheese, catch of the day which DID have mushrooms even though Breezy, who DETESTS mushrooms, was assured the dish contained none of the offending fungi...

Here's my fancy food of the night- the salmon. Yummy crusty top and blechy rawish middle.

Still, we had fun! We passed our plates around to each other and had samples- though I did NOT sample the escargot, Ew- and we joked and laughed and enjoyed the company of one another. Which was the important part anyway.

L to R: Breezy- new job as an artist complete with the key to the studio! Evan and Birdie who already have great jobs. DoodleBug who is the newest first grade teacher at our school which is the same elementary school the lovelies attended when growing up. Deanie is the third receiver of a new job but she lives in Nashville and couldn't be here. We included her anyway. AND, she would have LOVED the fancy food. LOL

Oh, one more thing- they have ONE restroom there with ONE toilet and ONE sink in a tiny room that you get to by walking way too close to other diners' food. It was like trying to walk through a department store that crams the clothes racks in so tight that you have no choice other than knock a few items off those racks as you pass through.

Maybe you're not supposed to have to go to the restroom in an establishment that serves fancy food.

Or maybe our family simply shouldn't be allowed out in public.



SO- Eli's Table: for dinner? Thumbs down. For brunch? Absolutely!