crave

date: january 15, 2006
bet: will olive or mason divulge a smooch in front of co-workers?
stakes: lunch
winner: none
loser(s): olive and mason
location: crave (201 west gorham street, madison, WI)
cost: $76 (including meals, several top-shelf drinks and tip)

olive: now that our relationship is old news 'round the old office water cooler, we thought it would be fun to see who, if either of us, would be willing to display some affection toward the other during an office happy hour. the exact bet went something like this: (1) at an office happy hour, either o or m had to place arms on or around the other and plant a kiss on the subject's cheek (it's not as easy as it sounds), and (2) at least two co-workers had to witness the event. the winner was whoever accomplished the challenge first.

i must say, i love bets like this. both contenders have a fair shot, and the anticipation of who will make the first move is F-U-N. unfortunately, the turnout of this particular happy hour was quite pathetic. i won't speak for mason, but i was far too nervous to make a move in the presence of that teensy, hawk-eyed group. had there been a larger crowd (and presumably more drinks and distractions), the outcome of this would probably be a bit more interesting.

mason: yeah. i'm with olive. first off, there were only four other people at the happy hour beside olive and myself, and of the twenty or so people we work with, they were probably the last four i would have chosen to be witness to a public display of my olive-flavored affection.

secondly, for some reason everyone (except for me) was drinking like they were at a high-school party and hadn't quite acquired the taste for beer yet. i mean really, by the time everyone has finished their first beer i was on my third (not to mention the whiskey/coke with which i kicked the happy hour off).

so there we were, sober as a couple of republicans at church, talking about work outside of work (which is always fun), and wondering what these four must be thinking about us. maybe they thought we were playing footsies under the table (we were seated directly across from each other). or maybe they were just waiting for one of us to start pawing at the other. but i doubt it. instead, we drank (if you could call it that) for an hour and then all went on our separate ways. there was a fraction of a second at one point toward the end of the happy hour when i switched chairs to avoid having to talk further with the super-boobed pilsner girl that was peddling her company's wares (though not before i drank two free mini cups of said ale) where the bet could have been won by either of us, for we were right next to each other and the rest of our coworkers were as drunk as they were going to be in each other's company that night. but alas, neither of us pulled the trigger. jack bauer would be ashamed. ASHAMED!

i will say this, though. after we left, we did reach a pretty significant turning point in our relationship when i stopped half-way through our walk home to urinate in an alley. i wasn't sure how olive would take this, as we haven't quite reached the "comfortable with poo and pee" stage yet, but she handled it just like i thought she would -- cool as a cucumber. and speaking of cucumbers, how bout the meal we ate to celebrate the neutral outcome of this bet, olive?

olive: right. so for the (non-)prize meal, we went to crave during a visit to madison, wisconsin. that's right, wisconsin. we're broadening our horizons in preparation for some international reviewing (hint hint). anyway, crave is an uber-cool martini lounge and restaurant. the decor is extremely pleasant. pale green walls, cozy booths, dim lighting, down-temp music. everything about the design of this place is sleek and soothing.



i ordered the spicy tomato soup to start and created a salad from the appropriately titled "make your own salad" menu, for my entree. the soup was presented with a mini-heap of homemade croutons and freshly grated parmesan on top. the flavor and consistency were delightful and contained just the right amount of spicy. my salad consisted of mixed greens, red bell pepper, tomatoes, carrots, snow peas, goat cheese, boiled egg and balsamic vinaigrette. the veggies were fresh, crunchy and artfully arranged. the meal left me quite content, both in belly real estate and taste-bud satisfaction. i was also pleased by the grey goose-soda-splash-o-grapefruit-juice liquid delights that helped wash it all down.

mason: ah, washing things down. is there anything better? i too washed down a delicious meal at crave, though mine was a bit more hearty (remember, i am a MAN). i chose the spicy chicken and penne with bleu cheese, balsamic onions, roasted red peppers, portabella mushrooms and spinach. man, if that wasn't a spicey meat-a-ball then i don't know what is. my buds were bursting with hotness to the point that i believe i may have contracted a permanent case of the jimmy-lips. i had to stop eating a quarter of the way through the meal to take a vodka tonic break, which was just what the doctor ordered (and allowed me to reconvene chomping shortly thereafter). i should also note that i started with a salad that could have used a bit more dressing, but was otherwise outstanding. the croutons, as olive alluded to above, were like a meal unto themselves.

so in summary, crave hit the spot. the service was friendly, the drinks were just strong enough and the food was top-notch, even for wisconsin, which, as we found out the three days prior during a ski weekend at devil's head just outside of madison, was anything but par for the course in this state. wisconsin may be famous for cheese, but i must say that i have never eaten so many consistently terrible meals in a row than i did at devil's head. now it may have just been the resort, but i have a bad habit of macro-sizing micro-sized experiences and forming somewhat unfounded prejudices based on isolated incidents. it's not naive, it's really quite mathematical. bad food at devil's head=bad food in wisconsin as a whole. see? mathematical (i used an equal sign didn't i?). so we may have been a bit biased during our experience at crave, but i'm pretty confident that even if the previous three days hadn't been rife with disgusting food intake, our meal at crave still would have done our respective tummies justice.

last on the list of things to mention: the "new format" of olive and mason eat chicago that i alluded to in a previous post. while we're still very intent on taking this sucker to the next level, it's taking us a bit longer than we had anticipated (damn technology!). so please bear with us and thanks for your patience in the meantime. we promise we'll carry on our traditional posting with much more consistency than we have in the past month as we lead up to the dramatic unveiling of our first olive&mason-cast.

until then, keep eating and keep reading!