Dinner with a side of trepidation

Jason and I like trying new restaurants - whether those eateries are new to our area or are just new-to-us. Groupon and Living Social help with this "hobby" of ours. A few months ago, a voucher popped up on Groupon for Deacon Tower Grille. We'd heard of this restaurant and wanted to try it, but we figured it would be top dollar and just never made the time to go (or sold the kidney for the funds). When Jason saw the deal on Groupon, he thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try this place.

For those of you who don't know, DTG is a restaurant located in a building called Bridger Field House, which is at the football field where the Wake Forest Demon Deacons play. To explain more - Wake Forest University is one of the reasons Winston-Salem is on the map. The school itself is very posh. There's a lot of Deacon Pride around this town.... I personally couldn't care less. 

Tonight was the night Jason and I decided to cash in on our Groupon. We got home from work and freshened up a bit before heading to our dinner date. 

Upon arriving at the building where the restaurant is held, we were a little bit intimidated. Obviously, since no game was being played the stadium itself was dark and everything was so quiet. We had gotten there about 25 minutes before our reservation time, so we were just wandering the area outside Bridger Field House, reading some of the plaques and what not. We then realized that we had no clue how to actually get into the building and to the restaurant. There were no obvious signs pointing us in the right direction. Even worse - another couple had arrived at the same time that we had gotten there. They went straight into the building as we were meandering. We were now kicking ourselves for not paying attention to whatever Sieg Heil motion they did to get the secret passage way to open. 

With about 20 minutes to go until our reservation time, we decided we needed to stop being tourists and actually start pushing different bricks to find the hidden lever. We eventually found 2 doors on either side of an atrium area. One door led to "The Gold Lobby" and the other door led to "The Black Lobby." I'll let you figure out Wake Forest's colors. Although, on a side note, when we were looking for the way in I originally saw the door to "The Black Lobby" and thought Holy shit. Wake Forest University still segregates people??? But then I saw the gold lobby (versus the white lobby) and realized my mistake. 

We took our chances with the door leading to the gold lobby... Mainly because there were actually lights on in that area and not so much on the black side. I was just saying out loud to Jason, "Ya think they'd have a blatant sign pointing the way to this damn restaurant," when BAM, there was a 6 foot tall poster thingy informing us that The Deacon Tower Grille is on the 4th Floor. And this sign was right at the elevators. Well, that's helpful. But sheesh, couldn't you have had signs OUTSIDE the building too? 

Anyhoo - we jump in the swanky elevator (complete with a soothing female voice informing us that we were going up and that we had reached the 4th floor). The doors opened onto the lobby of the Deacon Tower Grille. It's a small intimate restaurant. Quite a few of the tables were filled, but most still stood empty. The hostess graciously led us to our table, where we sat feeling like we were poor white trash among elite society. Jason and I are sooo not caviar  people (thank goodness nothing like that was actually on the menu). 

As we were sipping our water and chowing down on our appetizer (crab dip, if you wanted to know), I start to check out our surroundings. Wait a minute. What do I see here... Or better yet, what DON'T I see? Holy mother of cheese-its! I was the only ethnic person in the restaurant. I was surrounded by uppity white folk and their white bread ways. I looked at Jason in a panic and asked if he thought I was safe. He asked if I had my knife on me just in case (I did, thanks for asking). 

A little ways into our main course, I was scanning the room making sure that no one was coming at me screaming something about Charlie in the bush, when I realized another weird thing. Every couple in this joint, with the exception of Jason and me, was sitting catty-cornered to each other. Not one other couple was sitting across from each other. Like we were doing. The smallest tables inside the restaurant were 4-seater, square tables. So, obviously, parties of 2 would be sitting at those. Now Jason and I have a great relationship. We love to snuggle together and all that jazz, but when we're eating, we like our space. We think it's weird to go to a restaurant that has booths and see a couple sitting side-by-side. The exception to this is, of course, when we go out with other people. Then we'll sit on the same side (or catty corner at a square table). But if it's just the 2 of us, we like to sit across from each other. It's easier to talk that way, versus both of us having to keep our heads turned to one side for the entire meal. 

Thankfully, those were the only scary parts of the meal. Despite being the only person of (some) color and realizing how different Jason and I were with our not sitting on each other's laps, we still had a good time. The food was awesome. Especially dessert. I had a scoop of Screaming Deacon ice cream - which is just plain ol' cookies and cream (my favorite flavor), but the ice cream is dyed yellow to represent the WFU's colors.

So worth cheating on my diet. 

Now tomorrow, it's back to eating lots of green leafy vegetables and healthy stuff. In other words, get back on the diet wagon. That is until the next meal deal on Groupon/Living Social.