December 1

A few Several weeks back Frank had a birthday. He wanted nothing more than to celebrate with a crab feast. We chose the Flame at El Cortez for Stone Crab. We had been a couple weeks beforehand and it was delicious. Not to mention very affordable ($28).

Our friend Michelle joined us for the celebration. We began the evening at Commonwealth the newest bar on Fremont East. It's a very swank place. Craft cocktails are their specialty, but they have a nice beer selection too. It's a bit on the pricey side, but trendy place generally are. We tried the Pissing Boy beer ($8). With a name like that who can resist? Surely, not us. It was crisp and had a slight lemon flavor. Very refreshing. We stayed for a few to kill time until our reservation at Flame.

The Flame wasn't nearly as busy as the Friday night a couple weeks prior. We were quickly led to our table. We ordered a bottle of wine to get us started and then the waiter came by to take our order. Three stone crab dinners, please. "Sorry, we're out." And so the shit show began. The lady at the table across from us had stone crab. Apparently, it was the last one. They sold too many on Friday, we were too late. We had this bottle of wine. So, we stayed to drink it and ordered an appetizer of calamari ($9). I knew Frank wanted crab. I was determined to make his birthday wish come true. I called around to a few place I knew were offering it, but none had it this night. Then, I remembered Joe's Stone Crab at Caesars. I called and was able to secure a reservation before the calamari arrived.

We drank our wine. Ate our calamari and when it came time to take care of the bill they wouldn't accept our ING debit card. The new cards don't have our names indented in the front of the card and this causes a ruckus at The Flame. We spoke to the manager and it changed nothing. It's their policy, yadda yadda yadda.

We left and drove right up to Joe's valet. It couldn't have been easier. We were promptly seated and the waiter came by in a hurry to answer any questions. We had only one very important one: do you have stone crab? Seemed like the world's dumbest question but we had to be sure. "Yes, we sure do!" Three please! Plus a salad. We devoured that crab in an instant. It was even better than El Cortez, sure a bit more pricey ($140), but it was worth every penny (and the took our ING debit card without issue). Our taste buds were doing cartwheels they were so thrilled. Joe's Stone Crab is a real winner. Who knew? Shit show averted. Birthday wishes do come true.