So, last night my Wife and I took Dirge and Shar out for a Happy Conbirgrathtudaladaytions Dinner (a combination of Happy Birthday and Congratulations on the new job) last night. There’d been some discussion on heading to Sichuan West, but that didn’t exactly thrill. So we decided to check out an odd little place across town called the Zal Gaz Grotto Club.
Mostly this was because my Wife, my sis & I had driven past it last weekend when we were heading up to the in-laws’ place for dinner. And I got to wondering what the heck was up with it? I mean, I’ve seen it there for ages with no clues as to what it’s all about. It sounds like some sort of tiki-bar or something. A place where you can get a drink with fruit and an umbrella served in a plastic mug that looks like the grinning head of some primitive island godling.
Of course, you can get USB Hard drives in the same style, but we wanted food, not storage…
So last night, with that place as a destination, we piled into our cars and zoomed across town. Somehow my Wife & I got there first and discovered that when they said “Club” they didn’t mean it in the sort of “Nightclub-bar where anyone can stop in and have a drink and possibly a meal most likely involving fried or starchy foods which slow the effects of intoxication so that you can buy more drinks.”
They meant “Club” as in “Members Only Beyond This Point.”
So we waited in the parking lot for Dirge and Shar to arrive. When they did, we started making plans for an alternative location to dine. And then the bouncer came out to see what these punks were doing cluttering up his parking lot. According to the embroidery on his shirt, his name was Pat. Before he could hurl us off the premises (or injure himself attempting to hurl Dirge) I mollified him by explaining that, since this wasn’t, in fact, a restruant, we just needed a minute or two to decide where we were going instead and that we would then depart.
Which we did, heading off to the Chinese buffet in the Westgate shopping center where we stuffed our faces with tasty morsels and sat around talking for a couple of hours…
So today I decided to see what I could find out about the mysterious Grotto Club from whose tender embrace we had been expelled, and this is what came up after consulting the All Seeing, All Knowing Mr. Google:
The Zal Gaz Grotto Club was founded in 1911 and is part of the “The Grottoes of North America”. It serves as a Freemason social club and a club which raises money for cerebral palsy and dental care for children with special needs. The Grotto is not part of the Masonic ritual but you must be a Master Mason in good standing to belong.