A few weeks ago I came to a chilling realization: Glory's birthday was fast approaching and would be her second consecutive observance spent under pandemic measures - no outings with friends and no visitors for a party at home either.
This was a tough pill to swallow for me, so I went up to talk to her about it.
I told her how sad I was that she has not had a single opportunity to go out with her friends since she has turned 18 almost a year ago. She was not happy about the situation, obviously, but to her credit, has remained philosophical about it.
"Well, I am not happy about it either," I confessed, "so here is what I am thinking - I feel, that before you turn 19, we need to go out, as a family, to a nice place, with a decent cocktail menu, have someone else bring us food and drinks and then take a taxi home. What do you think?"
She was completely onboard with the notion, and to my delight, she opted with the first place I suggested: Louisiana Purchase. It met all our criteria - great food, good service, not too far away, and with a robust cocktail menu.
So on Friday night, once she and I were off work, we spruced up a little bit, took the Flex over to St. Albert Trail, parked it close and were seated in the Chandelier Lounge. Our server, Maddie, was bright and friendly, and when we explained our motivations for being there, she carried off our order for a round of hurricanes and returned with them before we had even fully decided on our dinners.
There was plenty of spacing in the restaurant and diners are expected to wear their masks whenever they are away from their table, which everyone seemed to be doing.
Louisiana Purchase is a wonderful place and an Edmonton original (and c'mon, that alligator with a face made of cutlery is some A-1 design work too), so if you have an inkling towards cajun cuisine I can recommend it without hesitation. All the food was spectacular, from my blackened catfish to Glory's Pasta La Rocca.
And the drinks! We were there long enough to follow up our hurricanes with Delta Ladies, Buffalo Sours, a Lynchburg Lemonade and a Louisiana Leprechaun and a fancy martini called a Scarlet O'Hara.
We had actually intended to skip appetizers so we could justify getting four different desserts and then trading bites but realized that not only do we not eat out very often any more (first time out as a family in well over a year) but Fenya pointed out that we almost never eat at places that serve alligator, so we made sure to order a couple of swampsticks at the start of our meal.
We still ordered four desserts of course - after all, there was a whole year to make up for! - and traded cheesecake, bread pudding and two different versions of bananas foster.
After all was said and done, there was a little trouble with getting our taxi home, as the automated systems send a car by default, and they can only carry three people under the protocols. But eventually a van was found and we made our way home, satiated and a little tipsy.
Throughout the meal and long into the night, the sentiment that kept recurring was this one, from every person in attendance: "I am so glad we did this."
Thinking back, it was a milestone evening in a lot of ways - this was our first evening out together in over a year, thanks mostly to pandemic measures and our own caution, but it was also the first time the four of us sat down to a meal out where everyone at the table was of the age of majority, and able to drink if they wanted to. (Sorry, something in my eye - I think they are playing "Sunrise, Sunset" in the next room...)
It was, by any measure, a lovely evening with lovely people, and my only regret is that I can't say when we will be able to do it again.
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