Dinner on Tuesday

When wandering around in Wuppertal on Tuesday, I found an Italian restaurant I wanted to return to in the evening when it opened. Turned out to be a cozy little corner place with a genuine Sissilian owner. It  quickly became apparent that we didn't have any language in common, but I wasn't too worried; I've never left a restaurant hungry.

The owner immediately pointed out another customer with who spoke English.

Walter was a gentleman in his 70s sitting with a grad student from the local university.

He asked how I happend on this place because it was the best in town. The owner was a sweet old guy who, if you shared a common tongue, would tell you all about his mafiosi connections. The story went that there had been a fire in the restaurant's recent past and he wasn't happy with the insurance payout. After describing what his friends could or would do, the payout was improved. True or not, a good story.

Walter, came from Mississippi to Munich and then Wuppertal by way of Berkeley 35 or so years ago. As a toxicologist and chemist, he worked for the university up until mandatory retirement at 65, a few years ago. Chlorine based pesticides, his specialty. The mandatory retirement was a sore subject, but his boss, being a professor and department head, had brought him back to consult even after retirement.

I asked Walter to please ask the owner to bring me whatever the owner liked, and ein beer bitte, and ein gross salade.

As I started my dinner, Walter said goodnight but not without warning me that the owner offered some customers a glass of grappa at the end of dinner and one needed to plan accordingly. The veal scalopene was quite good.

When the bill and grappa was presented, I asked the owner to please add a bottle of wine for Walter from me, for the next time he came in. The message received loud and clear and appreciated.

Who knows how I picked that restaurant, but it happens sometimes.

A particularly nice and unexpected evening.

The kicker is... Walter told me that if I came a day earlier I would not have seen the monorail working. It had been down for an extended period of maintenance. Both he and the hostel folks were amazed at my timing. Dumb luck.