700 Sundays

December 7, 2005

It's another Wednesday night out on the town...what's up with Wednesday...could it be the new Thursday which was the new Saturday?!?

Tonight, Will and I went on a hot date.

It all started last week when I read a review in SFGate (website for the San Francisco Chronicle) about Billy Crystal's one-man show that won a 2005 Tony Award called "700 Sundays". It all sounded very entertaining, and 10 minutes later, I was clicking on the buy button for two tickets.

As a prelude to hot date going to a Billy Crystal show, Will and I went for an early hot date dinner at Roy's Restaurant. Will had recently gotten a little "reward" for his commendable work at Nuance (or for being a stud?) and it was a a $50 voucher for Roy's. I had always heard good things about Roy's, particularly their molten chocolate cake, but was weary of going to a really expensive chain restaurant. They have locations scattered around the country.

That said, the food was phenomenal. We started with the hamachi tartare as appetizer, and I had the Shellfish combo (tiger prawns, scallops and caviar, pineapple rice), while Will had the mahi-mahi. Yowza. And we had a little bit of room for their famous molten chocolate cake. Kenny, we have a new winner. Chow has nothing on Roy's chocolate cake.

We wrapped up dinner and headed over to the Golden Gate Theatre for "700 Sundays". The GG Theatre is located in the sketchy Tenderloin district and it's so painful to try to find parking. This specific area is tricky because of how all the streets are angled and intersect with eachother and Market street, but particularly because you want to find parking, but not get mauled by homeless people or crack-addicted hookers on your way to the theatre. We found a spot after 10 minutes of "circling", and only had to walk 1.5 blocks! Score!

700 Sundays Playbill

The show was really good. Billy Crystal is one funny man. I've always loved him since seeing him in one of my favorite movies "When Harry Met Sally". "700 Sundays" was a homage or tribute to his family, particularly his father and growing up. Their family has a very interesting history and I had no idea they had such involvement in the bluegrass jazz movement in the '50's. It was also very sad and touching at times, as he discussed the passing of his father at age 15 and the following years.

More than anything, I was really impressed with his stamina. It was a 3 hour show! There was a 15 minute intermission, but damn, he's amazing!



After the show, we headed back to Lavonda the Honda, and discovered that sometime during the show, someone had decided to have a rest on the hood of my car and left their "print". Ah well, what do you expect from parking in the Tenderloin...