Bleu Monkey Cheers

Another reason I'm glad I'm settling in to a smallish American town:

Been eating out a lot since I arrived. Checking out eateries. Getting the lay of the land. Getting my sense of the place. Speaking to people. Thinking about becoming a regular somewhere. 

Not that I need to be known, but it's fun, sometimes, to be known. Cheers and all of that.

So I was having dinner last night in a corporate eaterie, sitting at a bar with a beer and some Apricot Chicken, exchanging stories with the lifetime local two stools over, learning from him about how many Californians are moving here, how Southern folk talk slow and how that's an advantage sometimes, some places, because city slickers think if you talk slow you must be slow-witted and they misunderestimate you and you end up the winner, heh, how his son has an engineering degree but chooses to teach high school instead of being an engineer, both of us ignoring the football on television, choosing to talk instead, choosing some face-to-face, both of us watching the families entering and ordering and eating, both of us watching the waitstaff -- while having cordial bar-talk, me with my tall cold one, he with his Dr. Pepper.

Later  I texted an old friend, one with whom I'd worked in restaurants many decades ago:

Me: Not that it matters, but are all waiters gay?

He: No - straight boys got in the game when they learned to count in the 80s.

Me: Heh. Thanks for the clarification. 'Preciate it.

I'm thinking around here I may have already found a spot to be a regular, thinking I'll stick with the girls -- Laura, Jennifer and Misty -- at Bleu Monkey Grill across the highway and up the way. They know their business, know how to count and seem to be having some fun.

Laura spotted me the other evening taking a seat at her Bleu Monkey bar for a late-ish Friday night dinner 

She winked at me, leaned back, pointed and announced to all: "Aleksander Petrovsky's back!"

Not only do I know the bartendress's name after only two visits, but she knows mine, remembers my face and has given me a nickname and she's sticking with it.
Yeah, I'm easy, I'll be back. 

Liken this town.