Saturday night at restaurant paul k in Hayes Valley, a leisurely dinner and great conversation.
I ordered a Zelda cocktail: Knob Creek (that's whiskey, not whisky), peach bitters, muddled mint, splash water. It was enough to last me the whole evening.
The arugula salad was paltry, especially after I asked them to take out the prosciutto bacon, but the Greek fries (oregano, manouri cheese, harissa ketchup) were a salty miracle. I wrapped things up with the bittersweet chocolate fudge cake with cardamom creme anglaise, which was yum, of course, but too rich to finish.
The service was friendly if a bit slow, and the food was tasty if a bit overpriced. Not a bad place to go in the neighborhood, but I'd sooner recommend (and return to) Bar Jules.
Speaking of forks on plates, when I was at Cafe Was last weekend, the friendly mustachioed waiter behind the bar swooped in to take away the salad he'd just served me, the one I'd barely made a dent in.
"Wait, I'm not finished - "
"Oh, your fork was placed at three o'clock, so I assumed you were."
Three o'clock? Fork signals! I had no idea. Have you ever heard of positioning your fork strategically to send secret messages to the waiter? What else can my cutlery communicate on my behalf?