"2008-03-09T00:00:00"^^ . "2"^^ . "Hey, hey Chandler, what the F? Why didn't someone inform the rest of us that you had a cool little thing going on? \n\nAs per usual in cases like these, we were bat-signaled to the nethers of the East-Valley to meet up with my gf's family for a night out on the town. I was expecting Applebee's-east, set in a beautifully stucco'd historical building circa last century Lowe's vintage 1999. Glad I was wrong. Oh. So. Wrong.\n\nInstead, we ambled over to 98 South (set in a historical 1912 bldg) after learning of El Zocalo's hour-and-a-half wait. No worries. This joint had pretty much everything we needed (except one, more on that later).\n\nSo the six of us sat down immediately and were presented with a pretty nice wine list. Nothing extraordinary (kind of surprising), but they did have a Spanish Crianza, which I found pretty nice. This was a default choice, however, after they (gasp!) ran out of Oak Creek Pale Ale. This should be an immediate soap-in-the-sock-flogging-penalty for any 98 South waiter of choice for cock-teasing patrons after said keg has floated. Again, no worries, the Crianza was good enough to have ordered a second glass, and who am I to deny myself quaffable libations?\n\nI ordered the Pinwheel, which despite its goofy name, is a serious meal! Its 4 rounds of skirt steak (seasoning made classified for patrons, obvs) on a pillow of garlic mashed and sauteed spinach. Fucking num num! \n\nThe others around the table appeared to enjoy their meals as well, evidenced my several \"Mmm\"s and a couple \"you've gotta try this\"es -- and you know how hard it can be to please the home-cooking-for-life-crew in which older-generation family members have lifetime memberships. My gf had the salmon and after my requisite 'boyfriend' sample, i was highly impressed.\n\nThe ambiance was pretty cool -- lounge-y and comfortable. They had a lounge singer doing some raucous covers of Van Morrison and even Coldplay. Slightly weird, especially the dudes attempt at a Chris Martin falsetto, but I appreciated the effort and all-in-all he didn't take himself too seriously. This made it actually pretty fun to listen to. \n\nOverall, pretty freakin cool experience, especially with deflated expectations of our long-lost-cousin, Chandler. But boy can he throw one hell of a dinner party!"^^ . "2"^^ . . . "4"^^ . "2"^^ . .