The Grotto and Spamalot

[bluedaisy]

nakor's parents gave him Spamalot tickets for Christmas, so on Thursday we went out to dinner and to the show.


I left work at like 3:45, which was mildly strange, so that we could make a 5 pm dinner reservation.
This turned out to be a little early to leave work, and *much* too early to arrive for dinner(we were the first people in the restaurant who didn't work there) but at least we weren't late to the (7:30) show. (Besides, sometimes it's nice to have two hours for dinner)

The restaurant was pretty good. It's just over the hill from the Boston Common, down past the State House into the government district. It would be just another old brick basement, but a combination of well-placed mirrors and paintings, blood red painted pipes, walls and occasional draperies, and subdued warm lighting made it seem inviting.

We shared a grilled calamari salad, which was probably the best calamari I'd ever had. It was over arugula with a really thick caesar dressing---I think I'd have liked the dressing better if it were spread over about four times as many greens, or if there were a quarter as much on what I had.

Then we got entrees. I had Crab ravioli, saffron, asparagus, and toasted pistachio nuts, and nakor had salmon with a side of lobster macaroni. Both were quite good, though I still want to see a restaurant do a totally-vegetarian dish with high protein.

We then had the ginger panna cotta for dessert. It was served with a lemon pizelle, and really really good raspberry sauce (I suspect very little added sugar---it was nicely tart and went well with the ginger panna cotta.) The sauce did tend to drown out the subtler ginger and lemon flavors---but when you got just a little of it, you could taste both, and they were quite good together.
We also got fresh, individual french-press coffees. I got a light Ethiopian one, and nakor got a kenyan dark roast. I, unsurprisingly, really liked mine, but not his.

---

The restaurant was just still not full as we were leaving---maybe five couples had arrived by then, in a room that probably holds eight and maybe four tables of 4-6.
We walked up the hill and across the common to the Colonial Theatre, where we were only 15 or so minutes early for seating (which, in case this wasn't clear, means 45 minutes before showtime).
The theatre, while beautifully gilded, was as cramped as I've come to expect from Boston theatres---I really wish I had shorter legs, or maybe just that they folded an extra time or two.
The show was worth both the wait and the tight space.

They included everything I would have wanted to see from the movie---even the Finns in the opening credits. They did a fantastic job of parodying all sorts of things, pulling in a lot of new material as well as "lovingly ripping off" The Holy Grail. (The program is worth looking at, even if you don't usually care for actor bios and cast lists.) Some of the visual jokes were great, and there was a lot of mocking Broadway conventions, which was also great.
Overall, it was "falling-out-of-your-tiny-seat" funny, though not quite "falling-out-of-the-balcony" funny.