cafe sevilla

 greg and i had dinner at a spanish restaurant in the neighborhood last night--one i've been wanting to go to for years (i'm posting this in the morning, though dating it at night . . running out now to the keep families together demonstration . . so will write more later).

so . . we had dinner at around 6:30 on friday night. i had gone in earlier to make a reservation for that time and to request a booth by the window. however, it's good we were early as i'm not sure they would have kept a booth for us if it was busy.

as we were looking out the window, we noticed four or five young men dressed as mariachi musicians. hmm, we said, are they coming here or is there a party somewhere? well, they did come into the restaurant! it was fun and wonderful to listen to.

they passed a hat around afterwards. it was funny, because first i thought the restaurant had hired them, but they must go around to all the mexican and spanish restaurants in the neighborhood. it was nice.

i had mariscada in green sauce . . 

and greg had paella a la valenciana. we always have this at a spanish restaurant. we would order the same when el charro's was open on charles street.

flan and coffee and espresso with a small twist of lemon peel.

they still have an old pay phone on the wall. we wondered if it would ring while we there, but it didn't. we didn't see anyone use it either.

i asked the server to take a pic of us. the servers were all older than us and must have been working there for years and years. that felt so nice. lately, places in the city don't last very long. the rents go up too high and businesses can't afford it. it's so sad and . . stressful!