Seventeen Years Ago

Roughly seventeen years ago, I was treated to lunch at Oliveto in Oakland. I forget what I ate but I will always remember the feeling of being cared for and given a treat. I had recently moved away from New York where I had lived for 20 years, left a marriage that had become lifeless, and was looking for a job - always a hard thing to do. To be treated gently and listened to intently was an even bigger treat than the food and the ambiance.

We sat at the counter upstairs and talked and talked and talked. It was more or less My Beloved's and my first date. 

Last week, we returned. We had been to a doctor's appointment for him, a semi-annual checkup for prostate cancer. His seems to be a very mild form and his PSAs are stable, but it bears watching so he goes in faithfully each three months for a blood test and six months for a checkup. So far, so good. Still, it's not a fun thing to do, so we treat ourselves afterward to lunch out.

He ordered a lamb sausage plate and gave me a bite - wonderful!  I ordered the cheese plate and, although the photo doesn't do it justice, it was lovely.Three different cheeses arranged artfully on a gray glass plate. A blue which reminded me forcibly of the wonderful Roquefort dressings we used to eat on salads in the bad old days, creamy and tangy at the same time. A semi-aged cow cheese from Nicasio Valley called "Reserve." And a Sao Jorge Portuguese from Matos Cheese Company. A few pear slices, a little bread, a small cube of honey still in the comb, and the nicest little salad I've eaten in a long time completed my meal - and it was plenty to share.

The people watching in Oliveto's is fun, too - everyone from big guys in plaid flannel shirts to ladies who lunch to businessmen meeting over a plate of spaghetti.

And out onto College Avenue, bustling with BART riders and commerce. Rockridge is a lively section of Oakland, alive with shoppers and lookers, we walked hand in hand just like seventeen years ago.