Note:  First I’m writing this post on Saturday morning.  The reason I’m writing this on Saturday is that I simply forgot.  Yesterday was a good evening of good food and good friends.  And when I got home I decided the chill and read a book.  Then about 5 minutes into my book I fell asleep.  Oops!  So I guess today I will be writing two post.  Okay now on to the post.

Yesterday was awesome because it was Friday.  Fridays are the day at work where can you actually almost get away with murder because of the fact that it is the last day of the work week and for the most part a lot of people don’t show up.  Not because they don’t want to but because a lot of people are on their 9/80 work schedule.  So parking is easy and actually productivity levels go up.  Not a lot of people in the building means that its quiet.

Also another tradition at work happens on Friday.  It’s Hawaiian Shirt day.  Every Friday my coworkers and I wear a Hawaiian shirt and impose the same rules as Tie Tuesdays.  And so far no one has gotten a free lunch out of the deal.  So I’m working on changing it up and trying to change a few rules to make it happen.  But so far I have not been successful.

It being the end of the week also meant that I was finally going to have some dinner with some really good friends that I’ve been trying to schedule dinner with for the past few months.  And today was the day that everything worked out for us to have dinner.

My friends Barb and Rowell are married.  I was fortunate enough to meet Rowell when I was starting in my photography pursues.  He was the first photographer friend I made and he was the first one to believe in my abilities to photograph a wedding.  I’ve second shot for him several times.  He truly help me more than he’ll know in my photography.

And I met Barb via Rowell, obviously.  Now that I think about it, I met Rowell when he was still single and they were dating.  But back to Barb.  I met Barb via Rowell but via social media.  I think it was a conversation either on Facebook or Twitter, I can remember.  But I think we started talking about some food and gave some suggestions on where to eat.  Well from there we struck a conversation and eventually a friendship.  I think the first time we met in person was when I was meeting Rowell for a payment from a photography a gig I did with him.

So fast forward to today, Barb and Rowell are married, and they have their first child, Gabe.  And Gabe is freaking awesome.  Kind of reminds me of when I was young, doesn’t cry and always seems just happy, at least that what my mom tells me.  So how can you not believe in what your mom tells you.

So being fellow foodies themselves, Barb, Rowell, Gabe, and I decided to meetup at Prep Kitchen in Little Italy.  Prep Kitchen is an amazing place that brings the food from farm to table.  What a great concept, like Miho Gastrotruck, they get their food ingredients from local resources.  Love the concept and hope it continues.

Prep Kitchen has such a cool vibe.  I said it looked a pinterest board come alive.  The board would be a restoration warehouse inspired style board.  The ceiling of the place that we sat in had a recycled wood boarding that was made into a rib-like structure.  And one of the walls was made up of recycle stair railing supports.  Great vide and design.

Other than great design the food was awesome!  It definately was stuff that I didn’t have before.  I started out with a Chilled gazpahco of Watermelon and Tomato with some mint.  Talk about a nice and refreshing for the summer.  Definitely a must try if they have it on their menu.  Between the four of us we shared a cutting board of olives, cured meats, cheeses and nuts.  For my main course I had Prep Kitchen’s WNL Burger which had Gruyere, Cured Bacon, Caramelized Onion & Farm Egg.  With a side of fries. OMG talk about delicious!!!  I had the burger cooked on medium.  All of the ingredients blended very well.  The farm egg was perfectly cooked and the yolk had a delicious cheesy flavor that added so much more to the food.  The bacon was just off the hook.  Egg and Bacon is one of my favorite food combos ever!  The onion and gruyere add that extra kick in the mouth that made the burger just out of this world.  The fries where also well seasoned with I believed was some truffle oil and some good salt.  To go along with my dinner I had a cocktail called the somersault.  Watermelon with some pepper, oh man was it good!  I would highly recommend Prep Kitchen for a good evening out to dinner.  After dinner we grab some gelato at Cafe Zuchero.

The evening couldn’t have gone any better.  It was filled with good food, good friends, and good conversation.  What else could you ask for on a Friday evening.  And to end the evening I did a act of random kindness.  When I got to the parking lot where I parked my car I noticed that a couple had just arrived and haven’t bought their parking ticket yet.  Knowing that it cost $12 to park there, when I arrived at my car, I asked if they just arrived and if they bought their ticket yet.  They said no.  So I just told them, let me give you mind.  So I did.  I just save someone $12 and I knew that my ticket wouldn’t go to waste.  Spreading a good is a nice thing.  So when the opportunity presents itself I do it without thinking about it.  So the Friday evening was a great success.  Hopefully soon I will be able to do one again soon.  🙂