1 - I've never eaten at a Cheesecake Factory

The original plan for Day One was to meet up with a friend from Cincinnati and attend beginner ballroom dance lessons (I've taken latin, ballet, and modern in the past but never ballroom). But, something came up and she wasn't able to do it.

Shift to Plan B.

And I didn't have a Plan B.

Readers of my blog, to the rescue. One person suggested eating at a restaurant that I had never been to before but always wanted to try. And as it just so happened, a Cheesecake Factory had opened near my apartment late last year. It seemed like everyone I knew and everyone that they knew, in some sick cheesecake spiral of addiction, had eaten there at least four thousand times. A week.

I had some serious catching up to do.

A call to another friend to find a dining partner ended with an answering machine message, so I was going to have to eat solo - or was I?

Enter Kim W. (who directed me in Barefoot in the Park and The Eight), who coincidentally called while I was on my way to the ol' CF. And she just so happened to be free for dinner.

Long story short - I got my CF on. The menu has ads in it. Ads. And it weighs a quarter-ton.

What to drink ... hmm ...
A Platinum Mojito? With rum and more rum? Oh, sure.

Rum will henceforth be known as happy juice.
We ordered. Kim got a salad and cold tuna thing. And garlic noodles and stuff for me (yes, I'm a vegetarian who sometimes eats seafood).

And for pre-dessert? Tres Leches Cheesecake.

I say pre-dessert because the real treat was waiting outside when we left.

Opinion of Cheesecake Factory? One enthusiastic thumbs up and one successful new experience. Thanks to Kim W. for accompanying me.