A Well-Traveled Suitcase

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This is our first real trip since Covid, yes, we had our Fall Foliage trip, but I couldn’t really see and was in pain most of the time; and then there was the trip to Block Island that wasn’t but ended up being 5 days in Portland, Maine (never really a bad thing. But this, this is our first trip on a plane since Covid. You would think that nothing ever happened, the plane was booked, O’Hare was crowded as ever. The only real difference was that everyone had a mask on.

This was also our first flight out of T.F. Green Airport in Providence (actually its in Warwick). It is literally the easiest airport to fly out of. No line to check out bag, TSA precheck, again no line. The normal security check didn’t even really have a line. It took us 20 minutes from our apartment to the gate at the airport.

United does not have a direct flight to Detroit, Delta does, but United we had to change in O’Hare (more on this later). I don’t like to fly Delta for two reasons, first I don’t get miles and second Delta actually stands for Doesn’t Ever Leave The Airport. Anyway, our flight was uneventful, the landing a bit bumpy and the snack box not very satisfying. We had a little over 2-hour layover in Chicago, so I unfortunately did some work. I have two laptops on this trip, my work laptop and our blogging laptop. I am not thrilled that I to work on a vacation, no matter how short, but that is the price you pay to be a Partner in a NYC CPA firm. I rather just celebrate Jerry’s birthday, which is the real reason for this trip, that and I check Michigan off my states I have visited.

This was basically just a travel day, no sights planned and only a nice dinner on the agenda. That brings me to the well-traveled suitcase. It was an easy travel day for us, but our main piece of luggage took a trip across America. At O’Hare, instead of making on our flight to Detroit, the suit case decided it needed to see Mount Rushmore and was off to Rapid City, SD. Next, it decided the Rockies were in order so off to Denver. As I type it is on its way to Detroit at last. If only we got miles on United for the suitcase’s journey. It is hopefully showing up at the hotel late tonight. It has everything we need in it, from tooth brushes to all clothing. Breaking News, the suitcase has landed in Detroit.

That brings us to the hotel. We are at a Doubletree downtown, not in the best part of downtown, and if I had known better would have booked us into an Intercontinental more centrally located, but here we are and it is clean and easy walking to transportation. We checked in and went to the room to drop off our carryon luggage. The room was hot as hell, they had not turned the AC on so it was a bit like a Sauna. Even after 4 hours the room only dropped from 76 to 72. Now, after dinner it has reached a much more comfortable temperature.

After check in we went to get a bite to eat. The Anchor Bar, just around the corner from our hotel. It is pretty much the only nearby place to get something to eat at 2 pm. When we walked in, we were the only customers in the place. The food was nothing to write home about. I had a Tuna Melt that had more mayonnaise than tuna. Jerry had some sliders and onion rings. The onion rings were frozen then deep fired, so not hand batter and pretty bland. They had 2 types of cheese, American and Provolone. There is no point to American cheese, highly processed and no flavor. The Tuna Melt was supposed to Cheddar, but they didn’t really have cheddar only American and Provolone, at least the server was honest about it.

After our so-so lunch, I spent about 3 hours working and Jerry was off to do a bit of exploring and get some wine for the room (of course our cork screw was in the sky or Denver or who knows where).

The Adventure of Dinner

Our bags had not yet arrived by the time to go to dinner, so we had to wear what we traveled in, not a pretty sight. The restaurant of choice for the evening was not within walking distance nor was it reasonable accessible via public transportation so we had to take a cab. The cab driver was friendly and gave us his card so we could get back to the hotel after dinner. The ride was about 20 minutes and though some “real” parts of Detroit. This is the Detroit that you read about, boarded up buildings, sketching neighborhoods (not to be walked at night.) You would never think that the restaurant like La Dolce Vita would even be located here. If you don’t know where it is, you will drive right by it, as the only indication for the main street is a LDV on the side of the building. The actual entrance is in the back.

It is a very quaint place, nice outside courtyard (not in the humidity or pending thunderstorm) and the inside is much larger than you would think when looking at the building from the outside. The staff was very friendly and worked well together. This is classic Italian food. Everything from lasagna (which Jerry had) to veal chops. Best part was they in no way rushed us and brought the food out at a perfect leisurely pace.

We started with our traditional bubbly, prosecco since we were in an Italian restaurant. It took us awhile to make any decisions as it all looked very good. We did manage to get an appetizer and salad order, but didn’t have an entrée picked out yet. So, what did manage to pick out the first two course.

The first appetizer was Gamberi LDV, or shrimp scampi, garlic, rosemary olive oil between puff pastry. It was very tasty, could have eaten at least two more. We then choose the Caesar salad (don’t we always). Normally they would make it table side, but with covid that has been suspended. It was a decent salad, but not in the top 10. While we were having our salad we decided upon a second appetizer, grilled artichokes with pesto (I forgot to write down the Italian name for the dish) It was good, but it really needed a bit of crispiness to it, perhaps fried.

The entrees, well you already know that Jerry had the Lasagna, which was good, just needed a bit more cheese. The sauce was classic red sauce, just the right mix of spices. I had the Vitello Saltimbocca, (veal for the non-Italian speakers). It was very good, prepared a bit more in the piccata style and could have used a bit or a lot more prosciutto. With dinner we had a very nice bottle of Amarone, went perfect with our entrees. Passed on dessert as it was late, thunder and lighting outside and we had to get the cab to go back to the hotel.

The night reminded us a lot of a very nice dinner in Budapest at the Transylvania Manor house, in a huge thunder and lighting storm. Here there were no Gypsy’s placing violin, but the lights flickered on and off all evening long.

The cab ride home was pretty easy, cash only, so we did have to find an ATM, unfortunately B of A apparently does not have a large presence here so had to use a different bank and pay the fee. We got home safely, I did some blogging had a night cap and fell quickly to sleep. An NO the luggage still had not arrived at the hotel. It made it to the Detroit Airport, but even though they said they would deliver it that night, that did not materialize.

So, it was a long travel day, and a bit bumpy, but we adapted and still had a good time. It is also comforting to know, that our new cat sitter is very good with Tarragon and sends us a daily video.

Last thing, the dish of the day was definitely the Gamberi LDV.

Tomorrow, is the Detroit Institute of Art and of course Jerry’s birthday. Hopefully our luggage arrives so we can change out of these travel clothes.

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Photos

Gamberi LDV
Dish of the Day