life's short...eat dessert first!

have you ever gone to a restaurant for dinner and ordered dessert first?

when mitch and i were engaged, we went to macaroni grill in provo (we eat there often because we have a sentimental connection with this restaurant; it was our first date). while we were waiting to order, we spotted the dessert tray near our table. this sparked an interesting conversation. we began complaining about how we never have room for dessert after our delicious dinner!

dessert is usually something that needs to be eaten as soon as it is placed in front of you because it is fresh out of the oven, or it has ice cream on top of it, or it will get soggy if left to sit too long. so, it's never really an option to take it home in a doggie bag. mitch and i also agree that italian food is always better the next day, after the flavors have had time to blend.

that is when mitch came up with this brilliant life-altering idea, "why don't we just order dessert first!" the practical, non-adventurous me spoke up first, "we can't do that! they'll think we're weird!" but the more i thought about it the more i thought, "why not!? that would be totally cool!"

so, that night, for the first time, but definitely not the last, at the beginning of our meal we told our waiter that we wanted to order dessert. he looked a little disappointed, probably because from an earnings standpoint he wouldn't make as much money. after we ordered our dessert we also ordered our dinner. he kind of looked at us with that confused sideways glance and asked, "so, you want dinner and then dessert, right?"

"no, we want dessert and then dinner!"

same confused look, "you want dessert first?"

"yup!"

confusion beginning to be replaced with awe, "and then dinner.....okay! that's pretty cool!"

several times throughout the night our waiter, who was probably young enough to be preparing for or just returning home from a mission, kept telling us how "cool" he thought we were. before the night was over he had convinced himself that he was going to have to try the "dessert first" thing next time he went out to dinner! that night we were celebrities!

so, last night mitch and i were going out to celebrate his successful completion of the gmat test! then janine called to invite us out on a "last minute" double date with her and eric! we were so excited! we already had babysitting arranged so all we had to do was decide on where to eat!

while we were waiting for them to arrive at macaroni grill we revisited the "eat dessert before dinner" conversation and asked our waitress if we could see the dessert tray. once they arrived we asked them if they had ever ordered dessert first at a restaurant. they hadn't, but they were more than happy to try it!

it was fun to find someone else willing to do things out of the ordinary. so, eric and janine started their dinner out with the lemon passion cake, pictured at the top (we asked if it was passion fruit and the waitress said, "no it's just like passion in your mouth!" that made us laugh). while mitch and i started with the snickers ravioli's, pictured on left. (we just enjoyed our leftover dinner for lunch!)

it was the perfect beginning to a very fun night!

if you haven't tried it, i highly recommend having dessert first, because life is short!!