Owen Davies
My Saturday started like any good Saturday should: hopelessly trying to get out of bed early enough to get into Sabrina's Café before the rush. Unfortunately, the last few days of the holiday lull meant that my girlfriend and I got accustomed to a certain level of having no plans and only getting out of bed to play Minecraft. Why would today be any different? I don't have much to complain about though, I got to lay in bed and watch TikToks instead of racing out of the house early.
We got to Sabrina's at about 11:30 and it was expectedly packed. Waiting groups commandeered the covered outdoor dining section to hide from the rain while waiting for a table; I knew things were not going to work out for us. The 30-45 minute wait in the rain calls for the Little Pete's Audible™. After all, if you're going to be overcharged for eggs, why not go somewhere with a waitress that calls you "hun". I got my usual 2 eggs over easy, side of sausage, homefries well-done, and buttered rye. Sara opted for the spinach benedict (admittedly the better pick, but I'll get to have a bunch of it anyways. Not to worry). While enjoying our brunch, Sara helped with my NFL pick 'ems for the week, and we planned out the rest of the day.
I have been putting off getting a new phone and now that my phone only charges at one extremely specific angle and the touchscreen stops working when it's too humid, I decided that today would be the day to try and get a new phone. We hit up the Apple store first to check what they would give me for trade-in, but they didn't really have any sexy holiday deals. On the way to the Verizon store we stopped at Paper Source, Faherty, and Mejuri for some fun browsing. I got to make a lot of mental notes for future gifts for Sara, but I suspect that was her plan all along. I pondered getting a cook book dedicated to chili oil, but ultimately decided I've bought enough cookbooks this year and moved on. We finally arrived at the Verizon store where I was offered an incredible once-in-a-lifetime deal: They would give me a free iPhone 16 if I paid them $250 today and increased my phone bill by 46$ a month for 2 years. I left the store with the same phone I entered with.
After a full day of shopping with $0 spent, we head to Sara's apartment before dinner. We watched the first 30 minutes of the 2005 animated masterpiece Robots before we had to get ready for dinner. I was really excited to debut the new wingtip boots I got in Dallas a few weeks prior paired with a new work-appropriate flannel from Uniqlo, and Sara went with a green top and black pants (I sincerely wish I could pain a more vivid picture of her outfit and since I don't have photo documentation, you'll just have to trust me when I say she looked drop-dead gorgeous).
Dinner was at Bastia, a Sardinian and Corsican restaurant in Fishtown. So broadly Italian, but much more coastal Mediterranean and seafoody. Their cocktail list is impressive. Lots of takes on classic cocktails bolstered with various Mediterranean liqueurs and wines. I started with the Winter in Sardinia which was a negroni but with pineau des charentes and madeira instead of vermouth and mirto and a house bitter blend instead of the Campari. As a negroni fan, it was astounding. Sara went with Hecate's Garden, a funky gin martini with vermouth, sherry, cap corse blanc, lemon, and mint. As a martini drinker, she gave it her seal of approval. For dinner we started with the salt-baked beets with chili oil, almonds, and ricotta; grilled sardines on focaccia with chili oil; and skate cheeks on polenta with brown butter, and fennel. I loved everything but the skate and polenta was so tender and creamy I would definitely get it again. For pasta we ordered fregola with mussels, persimmons, and saffron which ended up being the star of the whole dinner. For the main we got swordfish skewers with pesto, labneh, and black rice. I have such strong memories grilling swordfish with my dad in LBI every summer and I'm always chasing that when I order it at a restaurant, but it never delivers.
After a lovely dinner it was time to hit the burbs. My not-actually-related-sort-of-aunt-sort-of-older-sister was hosting a late Christmas party for our ragtag gang of misfits. Since the festivities started at 5 and we were at dinner until about 8, we arrived at 9 to a house of relatively intoxicated adults playing Yahtzee like their lives depended on it. And at the head of the Yahtzee operation was my own mother who tricked everyone into playing on the promise that she would keep track of everyone's scores (smart woman). After another few games of Yahtzee and a few hours or so of Poorly Explained Movies and other various table games, I discovered that an evil wizard had given me tiny hands. Not ideal.
I was luckily able to transmute the tiny hand spell and use it as a tiny christmas tree ornament to entertain my parents.
Technically my Saturday ends at midnight sitting around the table singing songs about blumpkins and sneaking more and more soju into my dad's highlife, but I suppose we could end it in my bed at my parents house at 2am regretting not going to bed earlier since I have to get up for an Eagles tailgate on the early side tomorrow.
By day Owen works as an engineer designing planetarium domes. By nights and weekends he's an amateur cook, ultimate frisbee enthusiast, and lover of trivia and quizzo activities alike. He also is close personal friends with the man who invented the phrase "winner winner chicken dinner".
