I don't eat out much, and when I do, it's not usually at a four/five-star restaurant. But since I wasn't paying today for my meal, I was at Vidalia in downtown DC.
The place serves upscale southern cuisine. I am supposed to say cuisine instead of food for such a place, right?
I was there for a lunch-time briefing. Nothing too formal, but just a group outlining their agenda and making business small talk for a couple of hours. I dressed up, which unlike most every other man in the place, I wasn't wearing a formal suit and tie. I did wear slacks, a nice shirt and a tie, but my tie was bolder than the others I saw in the place. I did concede the long coat, which was taken off for me by the greeter at the door, who also put it back on for me when I left.
I didn't get the prices of the place, because we were given a choice of 2 entrees, 2 main courses and 2 desserts, but I'm confident that it all falls into the "I wouldn't pay for this but I'll eat here on the company's dime category." The food I had was good, not overly portioned, and the service attentive considering the group of us in the back were listening to a briefing.
The main course I had was shrimp with grits. Now, not being a grits eater, and certainly not a corn-flavored grits eater, I didn't take to that part, but because anything with the word shrimp in it is going to get my attention, that's what I ate. It was otherwise flavored well, with a shellfish broth along with tomato and fresh thyme. Soup was good before it and so was the small portion of the breaded apple pie (which came with caramel sauce I didn't use).
Overall, not too bad. I was happy to get out for a few hours, even if it meant driving in traffic and searching half-an-hour for a parking spot in downtown DC. All the garages were full and the only thing I found was a metered spot about six blocks from where I was supposed to be. Fortunately they had only just started serving the soup/salad portion of the meal and hadn't started the presentation.
I hope the guy on the sidewalk with the paramedics surrounding him turned out alright. I had just crossed over onto the same sidewalk where that was, and I saw a group of preschoolers all on a string with a couple of chaperones in front and back cross the street to that sidewalk. Before the kids could really see what was going on a little further down, one of the chaperones saw what was going on and redirected the kids 90 degrees and walked that way.