| rev:text
| - We were downtown and looking for an uncommon dining experience, and on the car ride we were taking about crab, beef, wedge salads so Durant's seemed like a natural and obvious choice. My friend had never been, and its probably been five years since my last visit. It was destiny.
As I pulled into the packed parking lot (at 5:54 p.m.) on a Saturday night, the lot was filled and I giggled. Durant's has that natural 'it' factor that is such a nice pull and draw. I looked at my friend and said "Uh, we're probably eating in the bar, this parking lot is filled and all these folks are inside that little restaurant." I was right.
So, I led her through the door that naturally guides you through the kitchen and then the dining room before you visit the dining room captain. Its a great part of the experience. The pristine kitchen full of hustle and bustle, and kitchen employees that speak perfectly good English and greet you upon entering and leaving the restaurant. I love this aspect of the restaurant; it feels really good to me. It smells of dripping hospitality to me and not in a syrupy way, but more of a "yeah, we're proud of what we do, and we've done it longer than any other Mastro's-style-hip-newster in town, and we're still kick ass!"
So, anyway, I speak briefly to the dining room captain, did I mention that they wear tuxedos in the dining room. Ah! Love it! So old school and its just fine with me. I look at the reservation system that he has on his desk and I laugh, because, our visit isn't planned and he has names collected and color-coded all over the screen. We're having a spontaneous dinner, I don't think spontaneity and a full service-dining-room-table-type-of-meal-at-Durant's goes hand in hand. So, I ask if we could have the full menu in the bar and they're thrilled. "Sure, ladies, come on in!"
We belly up to the bar (which I love anyway), and I "sample" two different sips of wine before I settle on the wine I want with dinner and my friend has a Martini that is classically perfect while we wait for our dinner to arrive. Our bartender was incredibly busy, but remained proficient, aware, thorough and we loved her! For me this was the classic Chicago-Gibson's-style steak dinner event that we were hoping to find. We weren't disappointed.
The bill came. I thought my friend was going to fall out of her chair - its not cheap and on the way home, we had a conversation about value. She'd give them maybe 3.5 stars on value orientation. I'm not wavering from my five stars and here's why:
I don't eat like this everyday and I have enough left over steak to feed my steak and eggs this morning, my lunch and dinner for the day, and probably tomorrow as well. It was a huge, juicy, piece of cow and it was perfectly prepared and yeah, I won't need to spend $62/person for another several years.
We departed through the kitchen and this time my friend stops and blows the entire kitchen staff a kiss goodbye and I am pretty sure they fell over themselves admiring her, well, naturally, God-given beauty and two of them rushed to open the back door for her. That was the kicker, she'll pay for this type of attention again.
Classic...
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