Restaurant-Hopping At 8 PM When There's Music

All we wanted was dinner, but it was hard to get at 8 pm, in restaurants also featuring music.

We found this to be the case last night, when we hit Culture Shock for dinner at 8, but the place was too chaotic, with a band coming in, and also a little crowded, with more of a drinking and listening crowd than a dining one, it seemed.

As we wished to be with our own (hungry) kind, we tried Delilah's across the street.

But it was the same there. With an 8 p.m. show,  there were guys combining mike stands, and saying "check," but to the sound guy, not a waiter.

All this is fine and we love music and love work for musicians. But we were zeroed in on the meal-up.

So we strolled to Aurora Street, which was busy with people enjoying Dining Al Fresco. We happily joined them.

Our stringent dietary choices include eating outside on nice nights like last night. So we sat down at Sahara's, a newish Mediterranean place, where Micawber's bar used to be.

We don't intend to do a full restaurant review, just to say that the felafel is very fine at Sahara's, and so is the fatoush salad, and the latter is served in fattish portion. We by no means finished the whole thing, not even half.

In the interest of blunt honesty, not to mention our credibility, we will say that the coffee was weak. But we're not really fussy, and had a great time.

The moral of the story, we think, is to finish, not start, eating by 8 pm at a joint that will have music. And  support your local restaurants, and bands.

Steve Burke
for Ithaca NY Blog