quivey's grove needs to invest in couches for its patrons

last monday during our firefly/perkins evening, jon and i discussed moving date night out of its original monday slot. why? well, at this point, both of us work sundays which makes mondays our new sundays. and i don't know about you, but sunday evenings are intended for mega relaxation and relatively early bedtimes. plus, when the daily page's monday offerings are the same every week (i don't mean to be a snob, but metromix doesn't highlight the same activities every monday night), i get frustrated with the city's lack of creativity and feel unsupported in my attempts to embrace madison.

and so, we moved date night to friday night so that we can enjoy a relaxing monday evening (i.e. right now) and experience more of what madison has to offer on a night when it actually has more to offer ...

voila. that's the quick update.

so friday afternoon, jon calls me up at work and asks me what time he can pick me up for our night out. i love being asked out. it's something that i really appreciate now that we've been for this long. he wanted to know what time i'd get off work so he could make reservations accordingly.

i love when guys make reservations. like i told jon's roommate the other day, a man with a plan is irresistable (in most cases). there's something particularly wooing about feeling like a guy has thought about you and paid some attention to the details of the evening before you've even gotten into his car. i love it.

anyway, jon made reservations at the stone house at quivey's grove. i'd been to the stable before, but the farmhouse was known only to me as the place my sister and her husband got engaged, so i was pretty excited. of course, i was overdressed (it was just nice black pants and heels, but the friday night crowd evidently rarely wears heels) but i'd rather be overdressed than underdressed. and while i'm sorry for jon that he was wearing clothes not purchased at REI, i can't help but enjoying dressing up every now and then.

it was a busy evening at quivey's grove what with two late-staying rehearsal dinner parties upstairs, so our server - a late 60s-ish woman who evoked images of mrs. claus - apologized for the bit of a delay in taking our order. but she was so charming that if i had at all felt perturbed with the wait, i can no longer remember because her service was that good. jon and i later wondered how quivey's grove managed to attract this sort of employee ... all the waitresses (i don't think i saw one waiter) oozed a warm homey charm. impressive.

because jon had been checking out the QG website earlier, he already knew about the $25 three course meal. the deal entitled you to one glass of riesling or capital brewery's oktoberfest, an appetizer, entree and dessert. that, my friends, is one heck of a sweet deal.

we both chose heavy german meals (warm potato salad, sausage and cheese sampler, pork schnitzel, apple streudel, and rasberry torte) and were immensely satisfied. i highly recommend it.

of course, my full belly put the cabash on the remainder of the evening's agenda. jon had hoped we'd visit the high noon saloon (where, sadly, i've not been yet) to check out madison's local music scene, but my full belly had pushed me closer to exhaustion. we instead spent what little was left of the evening with my roommate and her visiting sister.

the takeaway? an eventful evening requires small courses. and remember to treat quivey's grove like thanksgiving and find a couch soon afterwards for your post-meal nap.