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Ah, I’m back, and so quickly! Ha. Now, dinner with Rudy & Ana and Stu & Debbie at The Sample Room this past Monday night. What a BLAST! I’d not been to The Sample Room before, it’s absolutely worth a trip over to NE. Great place for a group, casual, funky, with a very friendly and knowledgeable staff. They’re having fun and it’s apparent. The “sample” concept makes up half the menu – a tapas-style, small-plate listing of various meat, fish, cheese, and vegetable dishes. The options for putting together large platters for a group or small platters for individual meals are very clever. I opted for the small platter option – choose any four tapas. Fried walleye, broiled shrimp, steamed green beans with spicy almond butter, and baked camembert cheese. Yum! We shared a couple of roasted vegetable salads for the table. And could have ordered entrees off the other half of the menu – but the sampling concept was too tempting. We also sampled plenty of fabulous wine, thanks to Stu and Rudy, oh my. Did I write any of it down? Hell no, I was too busy talking and eating, as usual! The six of us are heading to Napa Valley together soon so we had plenty of chatting to do about the various sights and tastes we’re planning to experience. Suffice it to say, it’s going to be a beautiful, unforgettable trip; I can’t wait. I’m having a bit of an affair with California this spring, eh? It’s been heavenly, I love Cali and so far it loves me right back. Rarrr…