Our calendar for August is jam-packed already – family coming in this week for several days and then 3 weekends out of town – so we purposely didn’t fill up the current weekend with a lot of social events. That left us with a rare Saturday evening wide open for just the two of us.
Volunteering at the Price Cutter Golf tournament landed us a coupon for a free meal at The Tower Club so we decided to take advantage of that perk last night. The Tower Club is a favorite place of ours because that’s where we held our wedding reception almost 5 years ago. We attend events there several times a year but since we’re not members and it’s a private club, we don’t have access to going there alone for dinner without a gift certificate.
The dining area in the bar was sparsely filled last night and we had the luxury of feeling like we were in a private restaurant – complete with a wonderful view of Jordan Valley Park and downtown Springfield, a white-jacketed pianist playing romantic music and an attentive wait staff. We started with the recommendation of a frozen margarita – a drink that previously we thought no one could mess up – but we were wrong. The bartender was obviously new and the drinks we were served were bland and tasteless and there wasn’t even a hint of flavor or tequila. Our waitress was most sympathetic and quickly replaced them with something more our liking.
For dinner we both picked the Veal Tenderloin which they prepared tableside with mushrooms, shallots and garlic in a red wine reduction sauce, served with lightly seasoned angel hair pasta and garnished with feta cheese – plus yummy asparagus tempura. The portion of veal was huge and we brought home enough for another meal for the 2 of us. Despite calling it a “doggy bag” there is no way we’re sharing with Mulligan.
We both agreed it was a great date night – just the two of us, good conversation, great view, excellent food and service – a rare treat which we need to do more often.
