My Bride came up with a unique way to celebrate my birthday this year.  She has been suggesting a Cuban restaurant for ages and she got her wish.  We went to Vicente’s Cuban Cuisine for lunch, and they are on Library Street.  I remember Library Street and the Library as it was on the back side of J.L. Hudson’s and I remember a liveried door man there and they still had hitching posts, though very elaborate, and my mother always parked in a structure just on the other side of the library.  Of course, I do ramble.  We went with her sister and her husband, who also recently had a birthday.  My Bride had the Camarones Criollos a dish of jumbo shrimp sautéed in olive oil, garlic, white wine, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, asparagus tips and parsley; served with white rice and sweet plantains.  I had the Zarzuela de Mariscos with shrimp, scallops, calamari and mussels sautéed with onions, peppers and mushrooms, then flambéed with Brandy and simmered in a tomato broth; served with white rice and sweet plantains.     

We went with a bottle of Martin Codax Albarino Rias Baixas 2020.  Martin Codax is a co-operative of growers in the Rias Baixas.  It was formed in 1986 and is named for a famous troubadour from the 13^th Century of old romantic Spain.  The winemaker and one of the original founders of Martin Codax is Luciano Amoedo, who was also one of the most vocal in getting Denominacion de Origen (DO) appellation for Rias Baixas in 1988 and the main varietal for the co-operative is Albarino, which accounts for ninety percent of their production.  This wine was light and crisp and had a nice flinty terroir in the finish and I was totally happy with the wine for lunch.

 The reason we all got together in Downtown Detroit, is because we ended up with four complimentary tickets for Immersive Klimt.  What happened was that it seems like decades ago, we had ordered four tickets to see Immersive van Gogh, back in the early days of 2020 and most of us, would like to forget what occurred that year.  The venue changed and then it like almost everything in the state ceased to exist, to please our harridan governor.  The promoters of Immersive van Gogh promised that anyone that had outstanding tickets, that you could either get a refund or as a bonus, you could get bonus tickets for the next Immersive show that hadn’t been announced.  Everything was rather hazy and it felt like it was run by a group of charlatans, but we decided to keep the original tickets and go with the bonus.  My Bride liked the Immersive van Gogh and I told her that she would enjoy the Immersive Klimt, and I had told her that she had seen his works, she just didn’t recognize the name.  Afterwards, she told me, that she enjoyed the show, more than she had anticipated.