Girl's Night Out Report

Last night, I met up with three girlfriends and two others who are friends of one of them for girl's night out.

We met at a place called District. They have a simple ambiance---not too many tables, unfinished wood on the walls, plexi light fixtures.

I took L's recommendation and ordered a Champagne SupernoVa. It is a delicious blend of Stoli vodka, champagne, and pureed strawberry. It comes with a whole strawberry garnished on the sugared rim. It has an average Pearl District price point of $8.

For dinner I had District's version of gnocchi. It consists of two little potato patties in a bed of mushrooms in a cream sauce. It is really good. Unfortunately, it too is $8 but the portion is very small. I could have eaten two. (Though, for reasons I will get to later, it's good I didn't.)

After dinner I ate a piece of their New York cheesecake. It was drizzled with a berry sauce and there were almonds sprinkled on the plate. We told the waitress that she should recommend they put more raspberries on the plate with it. The cake was also $8. (Notice the trend. Most of the menu is $8.)

When it was time to go we got our bill. It was pretty big between the six of us and the restaurant added a 20% gratuity. We all agreed that 20% is pretty steep. With most places adding 18% for parties of 8 or more, we felt it was excessive---especially since the service wasn't that spectacular.

We left District for an unknown destination. We walked around a few blocks and ended up almost back where we started, but this time at Henry's. We've all been there before but the additional girls were from San Fran so we thought we could take them there. When we walked in I immediately noticed the weird smell and within about ten minutes I was not feeling well. I silently excused myself from our table and went in the bathroom. I thought it would pass so I was just hanging out there for what I thought would be a few minutes. No. My nausea kept getting worse and worse so I finally ended up sitting on the bathroom floor against a wall practically praying that I wasn't gonna lose it. (Conveniently, I was able to prevent at least 5 different women from using a stall that had no supplies in it, so at least my illness let me be a Samaritan. L came in after a while to see what happened to me. I told her I couldn't leave the bathroom because truth be told, I wasn't sure I would make it outside before vomiting. I released her back to our friends and eventually my stomach settled enough to move so I took the opportunity and rushed through the bar and to our table. I notified the girls that I had to get outside so everyone moved their things.

While outside many things happened. Numerous members of the restaurant's wait staff and managers asked if I was okay or if they could get anything for me. Several customers asked what was the matter with me. At one point after the girls left L and me at the table to go get the cars, a large (tall and hefty) man waddled over to offer us his food. He told us we needed to eat. L said "we eat more than you do. We aren't anorexic." He wouldn't let up, however, so I mustered all my ability and opened my eyes and said "I'm really nauseated. Could you take your food away please?"

In the end, I felt better once I got in the car and it was moving toward home. Odd, I know. But I still wasn't well, and when I woke up at 3 am my stomach still hurt. But that was it. I was fine when I woke up for work and I will probably look back on this and wonder what the hell that was about.