Dave, Norman, and I were invited to our friend Jim's wedding at the Shadowbrook restaurant in Capitola, CA; and since the restaurant was reserved for the wedding the next morning, they also had the rehearsal dinner there the night before.

Now this is not the type of restaurant that we normally find ourselves in (Dave and I did freqent a fairly nice Sicilian restaurant called Nicolino's Garden Cafe when we both worked for a company in Sunnyvale, CA which will bring up some other stories, but I digress).

Back to the dinner. There were at least 18 of us at the restaurant that night, including the parents of the bride & groom. We were at three tables with the parents, bride, groom and a couple others at one table; Dave, Norman, myself and five others sitting at another table for eight (I am pretty sure that Jim's little brother was at the table as well as two girls (sitting next to Norman), but the other faces around the table have faded with time), and one smaller group at a third side table. We were not in the top-most level of the restaurant, but we were on the floor just below. (The restaurant is tiered down the side of the hill.)

Once we had our seating arrangements all figured out the pre-dinner conversation started up. Sometime during the ordering of the meal and trying to get our waiter to relax a bit, someone at the table brought up the idea of getting Norman to do his Salacious Crumb laugh to loosen things up a bit. Now Norman is not normally shy about bringing out the many voices and characters inside his head, but since he was trying not to embarrass himself in front of the girls, he was being uncharacteristically shy and no amount of coaxing was going to get him to do the laugh so we finally let the subject drop.

(If you are not familiar with the Salacious Crumb character, I found this web-site that had some Sci-Fic .wav files.)

Back to the ordering of the meal. Jim's father was paying for dinner, but we were responsible for paying for our own drinks. Most of us declined the kind offer stuck with water, but Norman still trying to impress the girls decided to split a bottle of wine with them.

Now Dave and I are not what would be called the most refined sort of gentlemen, but we are usually "with clue" (even though we try not to let it show) when it comes to public manners. Norman as we found out this night was not "with clue".

When the waiter brought the wine up from the cellar he carried the bottle around to Norman's side of the table and held it out for Norman to approve. Norman is chatting away with the girls, completely oblivious to the presence of the waiter.

While the rest of us are snickering to ourselves, the waiter who was finally starting to get comfortable with us started to get a slight pleading look on his face so Dave and I both started "whispering" across the table (loud enough for everyone at the table and the waiter to hear), "Norman. The wine Norman.", over and over. After a bit of this, Norman finally looks at us, looks at the bottle of wine, and turns back to girls and continues whatever story he is telling, completely oblivious to the rest of the table and the waiter.

Now the waiter is really getting a pained look on his face. So Dave and I start our "whispering" again, "Norman. You have to approve the bottle, Norman. The waiter can not serve the wine until you approve the bottle." We finally get some attention and a "What?" from Norman and one of us says, "Just look at the bottle and tell the waiter that it is okay."

Norman looks a bit confused at this point, but turns to the waiter, looks at the bottle and just says, "okay", and turns back to the girls and starts talking again. Some smiling and giggling around the table ensues.

At this point we start telling the waiter to not worry about it, just open the bottle and pour the wine. And he is willing to take the "okay" from Norman enough to open the bottle, but he feels that he still has to go through the rest of the presentation so he removes the cork and holds it out to Norman. More smiles and giggles around the table.

This brings us more quickly to the next round of our "whispering", several times, "Norman. The cork Norman." Which finally causes Norman to look over at us again, then to the waiter holding the cork. Norman grabs the cork out of the waiter's hand, looks at it and then places it on his napkin on the table and goes back to talking with the girls. This actually got a laugh from someone at the table.

Again we turn back to the waiter and try our "just poor the wine" line, but he quietly shakes his head. So it is back to, "Norman. Inspect the cork Norman. You have to inspect the cork. The waiter can not poor the wine if you do not inspect the cork." He looks over at us a bit confused. Looks down at the cork, picks it up, looks at it and does his "okay" line again, sets the cork back down and turns back to the girls. (By now the girls and the rest of our table are all trying not to laugh out loud but the giggles are starting to turn to snorts every now and then.)

Dave and I turn back to the waiter and try once more, "Just poor the wine, he said 'okay', just poor the wine." The waiter cracks a bit and gives us a bit of a sigh, picks up Norman's glass and pours out a bit of wine and sets the glass down in front of Norman and starts patiently waiting again.

This time we do not even bother waiting for the waiter to start his pleading looks. Dave and I start right in with, "Norman. The wine Norman. You have to approve the wine, Norman." When we finally get his attention from the girls we get another confused look from him and say, "Just look at the wine, take a sip, and tell the waiter that it is okay."

Finally, Norman picks up his glass and then proceeds to toss back all of the wine that is in it. This causes several of us at the table to actually laugh a bit out loud, but he did finally set down the glass and say, "tastes good". At which point the waiter finally started pouring the wine into Norman's and the girls glasses.

. . . the evening progresses . . .

The dinner was finally served and was going along uneventfully with conversations going around the table until it finally happens. The voices in Norman's head take over and the loudest, and longest, Salacious Crumb laugh I ever remember hearing comes from across the table.

Everything in the restaurant stops. When the laugh is finished there is not a sound in the place. When the shock finally wears off, everyone at our table starts laughing so hard it hurts. (It still hurts and I still laugh every time I tell this story.)

A little while later our waiter, who by now had gotten completely relaxed with us, came by the table and mentionsthat he had been down in the wine cellar when he heard this noise. He was not sure what it was but he was sure about which table it came from.

. . . That is pretty much all I can recall about the entertaining events of evening . . .

I know that reading this cause Dave to start laughing until he hurts and I hope that you other readers at least get a bit of a giggle and will share some of your restaurant memories.

By the way, this is a really nice restaurant. (At least it was 20 years ago.) The half duck with hoi-sin sauce that I had was wonderfully prepared. Looking over the menu on their web-site, I see that they now only serve a duck breast with pomegrante sauce. I guess the Chinese hoi-sin sauce is too ordinary now and the Persian sauce is more exotic.