OK, OK. It is late, not even morning any more, but I am going to get to it.

I actually wrote you a story this morning already, but decided not to do anything with it. Who needs dyspeptic commentary anyway? There is real stuff going on, some of it downright tasty.

So, I am not going to go off on who is vacationing where, or how much it costs to get them there. That would be an all-purpose rant that covers the Executive and Legislative Branches of government, by the way, which by my calculation is precisely a dozen days away from allowing a free-swinging and uncontrolled meat axe hitting both Defense and Entitlement programs.

If the alleged Grown Ups don’t appear to be much concerned with it, why should we? Party on, Garth!

Which is what we did at Willow last night. I finished some necessary paperwork at the office late in the afternoon and threw everything in the maw of the backpack that serves as my briefcase in these declining days of the American Empire and took the elevator down to the lobby and walked over to see who would turn up at the Amen Corner at the Willow Bar. Walking is good, I decided. That was one of the things I gave up on last Lent, and am not planning on doing it again soon.

I hope. I need to figure out something symbolic to give up this year.

(Tex waves expansively to the regulars from behind his bar.)

This was the first Friday of Lent. I had been sitting at the Corner on Ash Wednesday, looking at the faithful with the dark smudge on their foreheads. Quiet night, after a raucous Fat Tuesday.

Owner Tracy O’Grady had been raised Roman Catholic as her Irish heritage would suggest. I don’t know how observant she is these days, but she definitely honors the Lenten Season- the liturgical observation of the six weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

In Lent, you are supposed to give something up to show deference and repentance and sacrifice. I gave up responsible governance for the duration a while back, and that would hardly count. But I knew that the other ritual at Willow- the Shenandoah-raised, hormone-free, slowly-cooked, thinly-sliced beef piled high on Kate Jansen’s hand-made Kummelweck rolls with fennel and sea-salt, served with served with fried olive, dill pickle & horseradish.

Tracy is on a roll, and it is not just a Kummelweck. She just earned a three star ranking from the sleek Washingtonian Magazine and a spot in their “100 Very Best Restaurants” list for 2013. The magazine gushed that “chef/owner Tracy O’Grady’s kitchen is on fire” and highlighted some of the signature dishes, like her cauliflower-and-goat-cheese bisque and flatbread covered with duck and creamy leeks. The main courses are “well complemented by Kate Jansen’s “grown-up sweets” and cookies,” which I have given up for the simple reason that they are too good.

I gave those up a while back, but for beefless Fridays, Tracy has instituted a fish fry that is to die for.

She came out to the Amen Corner to greet the regulars before the kitchen got rolling. I know that Robert the Sous Chef was already hard at it back there.

She explained the details this way, since I am a little fogy on the ecclesiastical details. “Back before Vatican II,” she said, “Catholics were required to abstain from meat every Friday as a form of penance in honor of the death of Jesus on the Cross on Good Friday. It is in The Acts of the Apostles,” she concluded. “St. Peter had a vision in which God revealed that Christians can eat any food. So, when we abstain, it’s not because the food is impure; we’re voluntarily giving up something good, for our spiritual benefit.”

“No Halal or Kasher,” I said. “Works for me,” I said, and then I realized that Tinkerbell was back.

“Tink!” I yelled. “Holy crap, it is great to see you! How is your daughter NOLA? How are you?”
Tink’s smile was a model of Madonna-like calm as she produced her phone and showed us pictures, right down the line: The Master Chief, John with an  H, The Other Russian, Jon-Without, LTJG Socotra and his buddy Ryan. It was a good cast of characters, and we drank to the new cherup-cheeked New Orlean girl-child with gusto until five-thirty came around and the kitchen opened up for industrial production and the fish started to come out of the hot oil.

Here is what it looks like:

(The Master Chief’s fish fry platter. Next to him is John-with’s single fish taco for comparison).

The fish is cod, broiled or lightly tempura-battered and fried. The platter comes stock with home-made slaw, potato salad, lemon caper butter or tartar sauce with a side of Kate’s Irish soda bread. The lemon half comes in one fo those cool strainer bags with a little ribbon on top, plus, you get your choice of two more sides:

Green Bean Casserole with Fried Shallots
Macaroni & Cheese
Sautéed Garlic Spinach
French Fries
Mashed Potatoes
Creamed Corn
“Salt & Butter” Potatoes

(The Lovely Bea and Jon-Without-an-H study the Lenten Menu at Willow’s first Friday Fish Fry last night to try to figure out which sides to get with the broiled or deep-fried cod.)

In the end, I decided to give up the Fish Fry for this week. I waved at Tink for a refresh on the Happy Hour White. That is the best deal in the house, and I am defintely not giving up on that.

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com