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When I was a teenager, the most “upscale” place one could go was Nate’s and Leon’s Pimlico Hotel. A large, deli based restaurant in a predominately Jewish neighborhood, near the Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore, with a Chinese menu added a little later in the restaurants life.
It was a great eatery with wonderful food, and full of adults. The only time you went there by yourself was after a prom or some big date event. It was, for me, a special place to go.
It was, as I remember, very expensive. You had great service and food, but as a kid you might have been a bit upset with the prices. So, one night with a date, I had ordered an iced tea instead of a plain coke, and then I wanted another one. I believe it came in a tall, frosted glass with a very long spoon toped with a red ball end that sort of looked like a cherry and was really good. I ordered another and sort of figured it was all you could consume. I was at a table full of friends, and the bill was long and complex, but clearly I had to pay for two iced teas, at about $1 a piece! I was upset and did the only thing I could think of to get “my money’s worth”, I took the spoon! I slipped it into my hand and up the sleeve of my sport coat (I was, after all, on a date).
I was home the next day and my mother asked me about the spoon. I told her what happened and she chastised me for stealing anything, even this special spoon. I had envisioned myself having iced tea at home, for free, with my new long spoon! It was not to be.
My mother took the spoon away from me never to be seen again!
After my mother passed away in 1997, as we were cleaning out her apartment, there was the spoon! It had survived 40 years in my mother’s kitchen drawer, and I had never seen it! As soon as I saw it I was flooded with the memory of this story.
The funny thing is, the spoon survived the restaurant!
It was a great eatery with wonderful food, and full of adults. The only time you went there by yourself was after a prom or some big date event. It was, for me, a special place to go.
It was, as I remember, very expensive. You had great service and food, but as a kid you might have been a bit upset with the prices. So, one night with a date, I had ordered an iced tea instead of a plain coke, and then I wanted another one. I believe it came in a tall, frosted glass with a very long spoon toped with a red ball end that sort of looked like a cherry and was really good. I ordered another and sort of figured it was all you could consume. I was at a table full of friends, and the bill was long and complex, but clearly I had to pay for two iced teas, at about $1 a piece! I was upset and did the only thing I could think of to get “my money’s worth”, I took the spoon! I slipped it into my hand and up the sleeve of my sport coat (I was, after all, on a date).
I was home the next day and my mother asked me about the spoon. I told her what happened and she chastised me for stealing anything, even this special spoon. I had envisioned myself having iced tea at home, for free, with my new long spoon! It was not to be.
My mother took the spoon away from me never to be seen again!
After my mother passed away in 1997, as we were cleaning out her apartment, there was the spoon! It had survived 40 years in my mother’s kitchen drawer, and I had never seen it! As soon as I saw it I was flooded with the memory of this story.
The funny thing is, the spoon survived the restaurant!
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