Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

Earl and I had dinner at Tabor Hill Winery and Restaurant last night; I would classify the place as white tablecloth, as opposed to bar food. One of us likes the tablecloth idea; the other prefers Buffalo wings with football and draft beer on Sunday afternoon at Pauley’s.

Setting personal opinion aside, the deciding factor in dining at Tabor Hill was a gift certificate for one hundred dollars. As we drove to the restaurant, which is nestled in a vineyard on an obscure road, we wondered if we would spend one hundred dollars for one meal for two people. I wagered it wouldn’t be hard to do, since everything was a la carte. Earl thought we’d have money left over. Maybe he thought Buffalo wings couldn’t possibly be that expensive.

But there wasn’t a single wing on the menu. There wasn’t a French fry either. Or a mozzarella cheese stick. Instead, there was lobster risotto, strawberry pecan encrusted chicken, beet salad, and parsnip puree. There was salmon wrapped in grape leaves and Japanese Mero Sea bass.

I think that’s what I mean by tablecloth dining; it’s not really about the price as much as it is about the items on the menu. We can get fried chicken or spaghetti almost anywhere, but I’ve seen pumpkin gnocchi only on the menu at Tabor Hill. Of course, I like these off-the-beaten path foods, while Earl is strictly meat-and-potatoes. He’s not a vegetable kind of guy, so the baby bok choy and the roasted leeks held no interest either.

I won’t say Earl not adventuresome. He just likes to recognize what he’s eating. In the end, he went for the spicy shrimp and sausage linguine, even after our server said ‘spicy’ was the operative word for the entrйe. I chose the lobster risotto; and – yes – we spent the entire one hundred dollars.