The Black Napkin

James and I went to a fancy steak house in Nashville for dinner tonight called Flemings. We wanted to go out for a stupid expensive meal one last time before he deploys to Afghanistan later this month.

Our previous fine dining experience at Morton's in St. Louis made us wary of strange questions that may be asked of us. I was ready to be asked what kind of water I wanted (our waiter assumed we wanted simple tap water this time). What I was not prepared for was the question the hostess asked us:

"Would you prefer a black napkin?"

I looked at my white napkin that was nicely folded on the table. Then I looked back at her blankly... then I declined, though I wasn't entirely sure why I declined. It just felt like it was the right choice for me.

 

I googled the black napkin option when I got home this evening and it turns out its offered to people who have dark pants on so the pesky white lint on an ordinary white napkin doesn't disburse all over their pants.

Anyhow, we were more educated in fine dining this time, so the napkin was the only curve ball. We had lovely steak dinners and red wine. Flemings comped James' meal since he's deploying (that was a free $50 steak!) and they gave us a free chocolate lava cake desert. How nice of Flemings!

Living in a military town makes you not very special, so when you venture out, and suddenly become special because of military service, sometimes you get free stuff. And you get thanked frequently.

Free steak is always welcome.

 

....I'm not fancy enough to need a black napkin.