Optional Wiscon Post

vgqn and I were walking around the capitol square, examining restaurant menus posted on the walls, searching for dinner. L'Etoile had a sandwich board (yes, and a somewhat inappropriate name that is) stating that they were taking walk-ins. We had Already Decided Before Coming that we weren't going to worry about making three-month-out reservations for any sort of jacked-up extra-fancy-schmancy Michelin eight-star restaurants on this Wiscon journey. No, not for us, and not the usual places, either. All new different never-before and the like. Hmm, each of us said, looking at the menu of L'Etoile; sure, and I could probably find something there I could eat. What then can Man (or Woman, either) do in such a circumstance but walk in?

I wish I could report that the meal was as good as my memory tells me was our previous dinner at this famous noshing shop for Wisconsin's political hacks, but I cannot; for this meal was much, much better; and the wine went wonderfully with it, and we even had a cheese plate for dessert. And Wisconsin politics, hackery be damned, unrolled itself like some giant unrolling thing and ran out the door, leaving us to enjoy our dinner courses in peace, and scheme to search out more of the cheese the following day.

Regarding the cheese: So Wisconsin has cheese, and the best of the blues we found were not like the Roqueforts we buy at the Cheese Board or the Milk Pail here in the Bay Area. (I'm just talking French, if you'll pardon my language; not even talking about Cowgirl Creamery.) But the Pleasant Ridge Reserve (and not, as I had at first recalled, The Delight of Plainfield) from the Uplands Cheese Company in Dodgeville, WI, celebrated our miniature tasting party of Iowa and Wisconsin wines on Saturday night, and sustained us on our plane trip home on Monday. Their website tells us, "Pleasant Ridge Reserve has received numerous prestigious awards." I am awe that they wrote that without trying to rhyme "awards prestigious" with "Pleasant Ridgeous" -- but perhaps if I knew more about the dairy's company song I would not be so sanguine. Nevertheless, a company with a cheese like that could be forgiven many gross mishaps of language, such as I have just outlined above.

I wonder if they would send me a sampler if I sent them a Fight song for the marketing wars? What rhymes with Wisconsin...?