As this weekend the mother-in-law came to visit, The Wife and I were given the rare opportunity to go out on a date. With each other, that is. We had narrowed it down to two places, neither of which had we ever been to, The Claddagh Irish Pub and MacNiven’s.

[Aside: AAGH! I just found out that the Claddagh Irish Pub is a chain based in "We're going bowlin', so don't leave me in" Solon, OH.]

Well, that changes everything. We get downtown and we see the kind of crowd congregating that one usually sees for Colts home games. Except no one was wearing a jersey. The crowd was also too big for a Pacers’ home game, so we assumed that something was happening in the RCA Dome – most likely a truck pull or a WWE event. That told is that the Claddagh would most likely be packed (and, given the above information, it was good that we didn’t go). So, we tootled up to the Mass Ave. district to find MacNiven’s.

It’s one of those places with an eatery on one side and a bar on the other. It was Saturday night crowded with people about 10-15 years younger. So, we put our name in at the restaurant, and went over to the crowded bar. About 5 minutes later we said, “Wait. How are they going to find us here?” So we asked one of the servers, and she told us that they put down some identifying features, and that they’re very good at finding people. I can only imagine what they put down for us, “Couple that’s way too old for this place. Looks like they last bought clothes in 1994.” I picked up a Guinness, and a Bass for the Wife.

We were seated promptly. We had Scotch eggs for an appetizer, which I had never had before, and I now could have at every meal. Dinner for me was Pigs in a blanket, and neaps and tatties for the Wife. All very nice. For afters, I had a Clynelish single malt, and the Wife tried a glass of Bell’s Third Coast Ale, which she wasn’t too thrilled about. I was quite pleased with the whisky. I think that the best thing was that I was able to keep my focus on the Wife, and not on the TV sets, which were just in eye-view – I hate that!

Afterwards, I took her up the street to a real throwback place, Luna Music. For those of you of a certain age, this is how you buy music, old-school-stylee. A store that’s deeper than it is wide, with rows and rows of CD’s, plus a basement where they sell used CD’s and records. I think the one in my home town was called Tracks. We picked up a TMBG greatest hits, sauntered back to the car, and drove home more content than I’ve been in a while. We should do this more often.