Celebrated my first anniversary tonight with my lovely wife, Catherine, by going downtown to see “Big Fish: The Musical”. We hadn’t had any specific plans for dinner, so I decided to continue one of her longstanding traditions and visit Ronny’s Steakhouse in Chicago before the show. She gave me fair warning about what to expect, in terms of the food, and I wouldn’t at all say she was inaccurate. The 10-ounce steak offered maybe 5 ounces of edible meat. The roasted corn, while tasty, was cold. The baked potato drowned in the generic cheese sauce. Honestly, the food was cheap and tasted like it. However, it reminded me of a very important truth about dining experiences.

You see, sometimes, we all go back to a place for something other than the quality of the food. The pickiest of my friends have visited numerous average local establishments frequently, purely for the nostalgia factor. Because, when a place means something to its patrons, it has the potential to transcend its own mediocrity. Enjoy!