La Central, Denver

My friend, Joe, called early afternoon with the idea of having dinner but with no specific place in mind. I will learn later that Joe intends to move back to Arizona with possibly a foot in Los Angeles so this brings to an end our practice of having such occasional dinners and catching up. 

We made up our minds in the car, that is, Joe made up our minds in the car, we would go to La Central, a favorite place nearby my house which has the advantage of minimizing travel. I've been earnestly pressing for another place with no success, also nearby but not so near as La Central, a Greek restaurant that is quite good but apparently people associate Greek solely with gyros and dolmades. Oh well, I am always up for La Central even though I was there just two weeks ago with another friend. The point is, we did not make reservations, and if nothing else that is just plain rude. 

This is the waiting area. The bar is behind the seated man.

From my spot in the waiting room in front of the bar, a shot of the first dining room on the main floor. From this area other rooms are connected like an octopus with only four arms, so that would be a quadropus. Maybe a Tripus. Look, I didn't count them, okay? One goes down to a lower level that then bends around to another section, another doorway leads to a long back covered patio that runs the full length, another goes off to a different direction, which is were we were led, so now there are five separate areas, and which apparently also bends around and leads to another set of bathrooms and off in another direction to yet another dining area. I think. I don't know for sure because I never explored any of that. I just go where they lead me and sit down and mind my own business. I suppose eventually I'll be seated all over the place. 

They were kind to us even though we failed to call in advance. We ordered cocktails at the bar and by the time we had them in hand a table was already set up for us. It was clearly a makeshift arrangement, a small table tucked into a corner of a separate room that was hosting a large dinner gathering, so we were appendage to that. There was hardly any room for the waiter to maneuver in the space between the large table and our small one. Had he not been thin it would not have been possible. 

Do you want to hear something otallytay upidstay?  I forgot to take pictures of our dinner which is the point of bringing the camera. The thing is, there was no space between the wall behind me and the table in front of me and my lens is a fixed focal length. The table simply could not be pulled out any further than it already was. We were really crammed in there. It could be done, yes, with some trouble, stretching upward or getting up from the table, but it just wasn't worth it. 

We both had mussels which is their speciality. Usually people share a large bowl for starters but instead we each had our own bowl without sharing. I guess I just don't like to share. Here is a photo of another bowl of mussels taken from a previous visit to La Central, not from the visit last night. They are very consistent, they all look the same. 

These are the people at the other table from where I was sitting in the corner. By now it was dark. I did not use flash, because what, do think I'm insane? 

This is Christian, our waiter.  Joe is standing behind him. 

Christian was very patient with us, troublesome as we are, asking all sorts of unnecessary questions unrelated to the task at hand. He is engaging and interesting, wisely cautious with personal information, which  we are eager to break down for some childishly perverse reason. I asked if I could take a picture and he said, "Sure. Never had anybody ask that before but go ahead." Which in my mind made it okay to snap way, see, you give a guy an inch and they take a mile every time. 

This is Joe again, standing, the other people are leaving. These give an idea of the little room we were in. Hey, it's that same guy as before in the waiting area who came in after us.  That means they tucked us, who didn't call in advance, into the private room with the large party who did call in advance. That makes us intruders. 

Apparently it is easier for the people to file past if Joe stayed standing. If he were sitting then there would be less space to move, which explains why Joe is standing so much. He went to the loo and returned just as they were leaving which precluded sitting immediately, space was that tight.