Dinner and A Movie

The Wife arranged for babysitting last night, so it was time for a wild and crazy night on the town! OK, maybe going out for dinner and a movie isn't wild and crazy for you, but as parents of two children, one of whom is 3-months old, staying out past midnight without the kids is about as wild as it gets.

The restaurant of choice was 'Good Life', on Milwaukee's Water Street. Except it's not on that part of Water street, its on the part north of the viaduct, just before it turns into Kane. I didn't even realize that Water turned into Kane, and I was completely unaware of the burgeoning development in the area. There are a slough(sp?) of new apartment buildings or condos, a bunch of restaurants, and loads more. It's amazing what you'll find you've missed when you move away from an area for a decade!

Anyway, dinner was nice. Good Life is a little Carribean place that opened in September, I think. The food was very good, the decor was comfortable and attractive, the music was loud enough to hear without being overwhelming, and service was attentive. The menu is small, but inexpensive, and they manage to squeeze in a handful of vegetarian options. Appetizer (Veggie Cakes) Meals (Drunken Shrimp and Jerk Tofu) and Drinks (White Sangria and Red Stripe) brought us to $40, plus tip. My only complaint would be that the roller windows that let in the summer breezes when opened are now letting in frigid Milwaukee winter temps when closed. It seems like something they'll just have to live with. But you want to avoid tables along those windows (they stand out, as they look like garage doors).



After that, we headed to South Shore for a movie. The cinema delight of choice? Stranger than Fiction, with Will Ferrell... and Maggie Ghyllenhaal, and Queen Latifah, and Dustin Hoffman, and Emma Thompson, and a few other names you'llknow in bit parts. It's a great cast, and they worked well together. You've certainly see the commercials by now, so I won't bore you with the premise. But I will tell you that I'm amazed at how well it worked! The chemistry was good, the plot flowed nicely along, and it was a fun, uplifting movie (with a good dollop of moral thrown in). Walking out, there was an extra bounce in my step. I remember feeling the same way walking out of Groundhog Day, so use that as your guide. (Oh, and for some reason, they aren't using Maggie Ghyllenhaal in any of the advert material. I had to search high and low to find this still from the film. What a cutie!)