But first more sad news. Yet another friend has passed. We knew him through Peter and listened to him play at the Galleon on many occasions. Ben Miele was not in great shape. He needed regular dialysis treatments. But he was never without a cocktail and a smile. His hearty laughter filled the air whenever he was around people. He died on Tuesday and we just heard about it Friday. We will miss “Big Ben”.

On a happier note, the art show at the atrium in Gallows Bay was a big hit. Bonnie Luria’s paintings of island people are so stirring. You can really feel the energy of her subjects. Way to go, Bonnie!

This painting is entitled “Crucian July” and I love how you can see the juices dripping all over from the ripe mango. Mango season is very messy!
Too bad we are clean out of wall space…. .

Some of Don Scafidi’s, Ross Meuer’s and Madeleine Meehan’s works were displayed as well. The place was packed. I liked the idea of having it in the atrium, but couldn’t figure out where they’d put the paintings. They had them on portable wall systems with special directional lighting. It was a nice thought, but there wasn’t really enough room to back up and see the paintings from the proper distance. And there were always people in the way because of the narrow passages. Despite these minor deficiencies, it went well from what I saw.

After schmoozing with Lorine and Michael and Deb and Asha and a dozen other friends, we headed out, in Jenna’s car to Savant for dinner with her and Tori, who has been visiting for the first time.
Michael and I were there a couple of weeks ago and have not had a chance to blog about it. So here goes….It was great! Both times!

We could hardly wait to dig in!

The funny thing is, the bartender came over to talk to us remembering that we’d been there recently, and for some reason, thinking that we’d had a bad time. We told him that we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves the other week and knew we’d have a great time again. We always start off with the grilled baby calamari. Both times it was cooked just right and even though the pieces were large, they were not too rubbery. Last time we had a lobster dinner with ginger mango sauce and a cumin encrusted mahi. Both were fabulous. This time we chose the mahi stuffed with shrimp mousse and wrapped in a chinese cabbage leaf over soba noodles and the mahi ceviche.

The stuffed fish was excellent, but I was not thrilled with the ceviche. Michael enjoyed both, though and ate all of the ceviche and half of the mahi. Jenna opted for lambchops and Tori had the stuffed mahi, too. We quickly went through a bottle of Bodega Dolium Petit Malbec, so Michael and I each had an other glass to get us through to dessert.

There were nine dessert items to chose from. Three frozen pies, three cakes and three other things (I forget, now, duh….). Michael wanted the hazelnut mousse pie and Jenna wanted the chocolate coconut rum cake. Tori and I wanted forks and decaf. It all was delicious and we were stuffed!