Happy Tambirthday!

     Yesterday was Tam's birthday.  As none of her young men had asked her out (well, it was a school night!), we headed off to Marco's when I got home from work.

     Marco's is a local institution, an updated but not trendy version of the kind of place my parent's generation went for "dinner out:" nice dining room, a nice big bar, a nice patio during patio season, with a pleasant, unpretentious atmosphere and friendly help.  The menu features steaks, prime rib and an array of Italian dishes.  Dinner entrees include warm bread, soup, salad and choice of potato (in a half-dozen different forms!) or rice.

     We settled in and I let myself get talked into trying Sun King's Sunlight cream ale.*  Oh, boy!  I'm not a beer drinker but years ago (when you could get the stuff), I liked Little Kings Cream Ale† with steaks and grilled burgers.  The Sun King cream ale is smooth and tasty, and went wonderfully with my little filet.

     Tam enjoyed her dinner -- a very rare steak with the usual sides -- and, at least for two old maids who aren't much fond of parties, it was a fine way to celebrate.

     She'd rather take pictures than be in them.
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* Sun King is the big local brewer, emerging from among talented competition with a consistently good range of products (including a dizzying array of seasonal/monthly ones), clever marketing and a positive attitude; I know I'm on schedule to work in the morning when I meet a Sun King van headed the other way, delivering fresh beer from their downtown brewery to Broad Ripple's restaurants, bars and nightclubs.  There are other local or regional brewers and while some of them are good-sized (Three Floyds in northern Indiana is justifiably famous), Sun King is a modern-day version of the pre-Prohibition big-city brewer.  I'm happy to see this sort of thing returning; Sun King is particularly outstanding.

† Little King's was and is a regional treat, brewed in Cincinnati or thereabouts; 35-some years ago, one its salient virtues was that it was about half the price of soda pop.  It's been around almost exactly as long as I have. While not an exotic or high-end beer in those long-ago, pre-microbrewery days, it was consistent and smooth.  I'm not a big fan of hops and it had only enough bitterness to work splendidly with red meat. Cincinnati's local breweries (Schoenling Brewing Company, who made Little Kings, and crosstown rival Hudepohl) changed hands, merged and went through multiple sales, with the facilities closing down and production being moved out of state until a recent sale returned at least some production to Cincinnati.  Though all that, Little Kings got very difficult to find around here, at least for awhile.  The funny little seven-ounce bottles are back, and one of these days I'll hunt up a local supply for hot summer weekends.