October 5, 2007. Capuvino, Denver, Colorado.
At Capuvino we literally tasted our first homegrown generosity on the road. In between songs, we asked the audience if they knew where we could go buy some lettuce. People commiserated with our desire for fresh greens while travelling and we were told several places to go. While several hands were hovering in the air, pointing us in various different directions, a voice halted everybody's advice.
"Do you like Swiss Chard?" a woman asked, cutting off the competing compass points. We nodded emphatically that we did, and the speaker, Holly, informed us that she would just go pick us some of the garden greens that very moment. She had finished her wine and her hubby was slurping up the last of his delectable milkshake, and off they went.
By and by, when Ji had done with tapping on light fixtures and using the blinds as percussive elements to my spontaneously mutating songs, our last set came to a close. As we stood chatting over wine with the two lovely hostesses of the evening, Kristen and Sara, the door opened. True to her word, in walked Holly with a bag chock full of greens. Not only was there a great quantity of chard, but fresh cabbage, yellow tomatoes and lettuce. "Wash these really well," she warned, "they were just picked and they're organic." This, as you can guess, sent us over the edge with gratitude. We were so excited and honored by this nurturing gift! Thank you Holly!
To hear Kristen and Sara tell it, this was not an unusual occurrence for those parts of Denver. We had won these two over earlier with "Cynthia", a song dedicated to all waitresses, bussers, and baristas alike. The lyric "I wish more waitresses were like Cynthia, she won't put up with your shit, she's a horse out of the stable. And she won't clean it up if you manage to puke on the table, table 23," held particular humor and significance to these two sassy girls.
We were now in the throws of their own personal tales of college escapades and travels to other countries. Sara ribbed Kristen like a sibling, and Kristen shot back with her own retorts like an old hand at the game. The pair seemed like they'd known each other forever, so easy was the flip between moments of mock outrage and symbiotic laughter. So it came as a shock to learn that it was their first time working together, ever.
Closing time came on, and the verbal boxing, boasting, best friend-duet that was our bad-gal barista-ship for the night cried out loudly that the crepe batter would just be thrown away, and didn't we want something to eat? Being as the time between meals was not going on ten hours or better, and with wine sloshing about in our empty bellies, we quickly seized upon the menu in Sara's outstretched hand.
Dude. Two lovely, warm, perfect portobello mushroom savory crepes with roasted red peppers and brie. Yes, yes, yes. Thanks to Kristen's circular smearing of the crepe batter and her deft handling of the ingredients, we came home that night to a feast! Also, Sara demanded that we sample four of the miniature gourmet cupcakes that she had helped her friend make, each complete with it's own individual liquor frosting. Chocolate with Creme de Menthe, angel food cake with Amaretto, cirtus cake with Grand Marnier, and the last one must have been so good, that it was wiped clean from my memory. Either that or the liquor to sugar ratio was higher than we suspected and had taken full effect. In any case, we slept soundly that night!
At Capuvino we literally tasted our first homegrown generosity on the road. In between songs, we asked the audience if they knew where we could go buy some lettuce. People commiserated with our desire for fresh greens while travelling and we were told several places to go. While several hands were hovering in the air, pointing us in various different directions, a voice halted everybody's advice.
"Do you like Swiss Chard?" a woman asked, cutting off the competing compass points. We nodded emphatically that we did, and the speaker, Holly, informed us that she would just go pick us some of the garden greens that very moment. She had finished her wine and her hubby was slurping up the last of his delectable milkshake, and off they went.
By and by, when Ji had done with tapping on light fixtures and using the blinds as percussive elements to my spontaneously mutating songs, our last set came to a close. As we stood chatting over wine with the two lovely hostesses of the evening, Kristen and Sara, the door opened. True to her word, in walked Holly with a bag chock full of greens. Not only was there a great quantity of chard, but fresh cabbage, yellow tomatoes and lettuce. "Wash these really well," she warned, "they were just picked and they're organic." This, as you can guess, sent us over the edge with gratitude. We were so excited and honored by this nurturing gift! Thank you Holly!
To hear Kristen and Sara tell it, this was not an unusual occurrence for those parts of Denver. We had won these two over earlier with "Cynthia", a song dedicated to all waitresses, bussers, and baristas alike. The lyric "I wish more waitresses were like Cynthia, she won't put up with your shit, she's a horse out of the stable. And she won't clean it up if you manage to puke on the table, table 23," held particular humor and significance to these two sassy girls.
We were now in the throws of their own personal tales of college escapades and travels to other countries. Sara ribbed Kristen like a sibling, and Kristen shot back with her own retorts like an old hand at the game. The pair seemed like they'd known each other forever, so easy was the flip between moments of mock outrage and symbiotic laughter. So it came as a shock to learn that it was their first time working together, ever.
Closing time came on, and the verbal boxing, boasting, best friend-duet that was our bad-gal barista-ship for the night cried out loudly that the crepe batter would just be thrown away, and didn't we want something to eat? Being as the time between meals was not going on ten hours or better, and with wine sloshing about in our empty bellies, we quickly seized upon the menu in Sara's outstretched hand.
Dude. Two lovely, warm, perfect portobello mushroom savory crepes with roasted red peppers and brie. Yes, yes, yes. Thanks to Kristen's circular smearing of the crepe batter and her deft handling of the ingredients, we came home that night to a feast! Also, Sara demanded that we sample four of the miniature gourmet cupcakes that she had helped her friend make, each complete with it's own individual liquor frosting. Chocolate with Creme de Menthe, angel food cake with Amaretto, cirtus cake with Grand Marnier, and the last one must have been so good, that it was wiped clean from my memory. Either that or the liquor to sugar ratio was higher than we suspected and had taken full effect. In any case, we slept soundly that night!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home