Cha Cha Ciao

January 29, 2006

Last night was a big night, as evident by the throbbing head and overall feeling of ill that I was greeted with this morning. Will was out of town for a board meeting in Vancouver, so it was up to myself to entertain myself...which is usually not a good idea. (Seeing as how Will is usually the responsible individual who tells me that I should start drinking water at the appropriate time, though I don't always heed his advice). The general itinerary was to go for dinner with Coco and then head over to a Cole Valley for the "See You Later Sili" party at the infamous 855 frisbee house.

Coco and I headed down to Upper Haight, in search of some tasty sustenance. We checked out Citrus Club, and then quickly decided to risk the wait at Cha Cha Cha, as they have a bigger bar area and sangria! While waiting for two seats at the bar to eat, Coco and I enjoyed a large pitcher of sangria. And when we finally did get our seats, we enjoyed another pitcher, in addition to:

- Ceviche Del Dia (assorted seafood in a spicy lime vinaigrette over a bed of mixed greens)
- Chicken Paillard (grilled strips of chicken in dijon cream sauce)
- Fried New Potatoes (with chile pasilla aioli)
- Grilled Pork Loin (with Spanish Rice)
The Cha Cha Cha spread

Coco's buddy, Aaron, joined us at the bar at Cha Cha Cha and helped us with the second pitcher of sangria (thank goodness!). After we wrapped up dinner, we headed over to Hobson's Choice for some post-dinner pre-party frivolity. Hobson's Choice is a Victorian Punch House, and has fantastic rum drinks. My favorite is the mango rum-infused punch. Hobson's is also known for it's series of t-shirts that they sell that advertise their famous rum menu including:

- Mojito?
- Dark and stormy?
- Between the sheets?

The deadly mango rum punch
Dark and Stormy?

As we enjoyed our cocktails, the entertaining bar staff at Hobson's looped us into an impromptu game of "Name That Band" with a playlist on an iPod that dated back to the eighties...
The bartenders at Hobson's Choice trying to stump us at "name that band"

So, around 11:30 pm, I finally make my way to the party. Aaron came along for the ride but quickly realized that he was "out of his element" and returned to Hobson's Choice. Apparently my camera was in full-force throughout the evening, because I had 170 pictures on my flash card that documented the debauchery.

Here are just a small fraction of those snapshots:























Ahh...good times.

Safe travels to Sili, we'll miss you!

A hurtin' thanks to the 855 house for hosting a good ol' time, and to Frodo for being so nice to two beligerent drunks (Coco and I) and taking us home at 4 am...