ghetto-ass raw fish

and here i thought we were having a classy date night and shit…

…and we actually did. just the start seemed a bit “off”.

back when we got married we got a $100 gift card for sushi from my company. very nice, except i’d probably only eaten sushi three times in my life, none of which were “stellar”. tonight’s was. the presentation, the restaurant itself (sushi zushi, for all curious) and our waiter (kevin) were all top notch. great overall experience, save for my boss and his wife having to bail the evening due to concerns about their dogs and the heat (they have chihuahuas they are taking everywhere currently and it was 110 on the patio while we were there). but while the evening went awesome the start made me wonder about the place.

the domain is a newer upscale shopping and living spot in north austin. way north austin. but as austin has grown, to most of the newer folk in town, this area is more “north central” in their eyes. i can remember when all this shit was woods, so to me it’s “way north austin”. it’s very pretty and very pricey. it’s where austin’s only non “last call” nieman marcus is. it’s where higher end brands like diesel and louis vuitton and david yurman have stores. and while they’ve added some more normal places like pay less shoes and subway the overall air of the place stares people like us in the face and begs the question, “are you sure you can afford to be here?” and in many ways i always thought the answer was “no” but wandering around the place it’s really not that bad. and there’s tons of free parking…

…but some of that ain’t so good, we found out.

we were supposed to meet at 4:30 to do a happy hour thing there (the place has a really nice happy hour, with everything from booze to appetizers to full rolls at a really great price) and since i didn’t know the garage at dillard’s was free (it is) i parked in the lot. as i was getting out of my car and walking in (on the phone with the wonder wifey the whole time) i noticed a lexus suv with the back window “down”, which even in the triple digit heat i found odd…and i put “down” in quotes because i walked a bit closer and saw all the limo tinted glass laying next to the truck…that window wasn’t “down” it was “out”…”missing”…”NO LONGER THERE”.

somebody had busted out that shit.

now, we’ve all seen the jealous ex shit online to think maybe…just maybe…this was some ex boyfriend of girlfriend with a temper issue and a brick supply. but then the land rover in front of it had bits of plastic laying around the back door, and i looked up to see a lot of the plastic window trim broken off, where somebody had apparently tried to pull it with a screw driver and it didn’t go, and maybe they had been interrupted? either way i suddenly wasn’t too comfortable being parked on that row (although, as i later rationalized, that was probably the safest place to be since it had already been worked over). but when we went in so nikki could try on watches the counter girl told us that lot had some pretty “sketchy activity” from time to time and we were better off in the garage…so that’s where we moved and had a fabulous night. so hit the domain and wander about when the weather gets cooler…it’s really nice, the food is pretty awesome (this is only my second restaurant experience there but both have been down-right fabulous) and the staff all seem cool as shit – just don’t park in that end dillard’s lot or you might come back to extra ventilation in your vehicle.