Le Chef on Jobs Lane in Southampton has been one of our favorite restaurants for years.  I remember going there to celebrate birthdays and other special occasions growing up.  And now it has become a special place for Sean and me.  We love to go have dinner at the bar and chat with the bartender and whoever else is there.  
               Three years ago on the anniversary of our first date Sean and I went to Race Lane in East Hampton, where we had had our first date six years earlier.  He had planned to talk to my dad earlier in the week to ask for my hand in marriage, but unfortunately my dad was stuck in Washington D.C. and wasn’t getting home until later that night. We had a lovely meal at Race Lane, sitting at the bar watching a Yankee game.  I vividly remember thinking to myself that this was all I needed in life. Little did I know that things were about to get even better.   After dinner we headed back to Southampton, and Sean made up an a reasonable excuse to stop at my parents house.   My dad finally arrived home and Sean was able to sneak a few minutes with both my parents to ask their permission.  We still had another stop to make though, coincidentally my cousin had also gotten engaged that same week and they were celebrating at my aunt's house.  This is when I started to notice Sean’s odd behavior, he never took off his jacket, and he was in a rush to leave the minute we got there.  This was very unlike him, he is typically very social and usually I’m the one that wants to leave a party first.  After leaving my aunt’s house Sean suggested we continue our anniversary celebration with dessert at Le Chef, I wasn’t terribly hungry but I can never refuse their delicious homemade gluten free cheesecake and Sean knew that.  At this point Sean was speeding to get there, I remember telling him  to slow down but he said he was just worried they were gonna close.  So the drive that would normally take us two minutes took us about a minute and a half. We parked out front and began walking toward the front door, suddenly Sean stopped and got down on one knee.  I was in complete shock, but I was also happier than I had ever been.  It was an absolute perfect moment.  After I recovered my shock we went into Le Chef where everyone at the bar had been watching us through the window. Our little Le Chef family were the first to congratulate us, popping open a bottle of champagne almost instantly.  We were already regulars at the restaurant, but now that it was also our engagement spot it became even more special to us.  

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I really can not recommend this restaurant enough and I look forward to celebrating special occasions there for many years to come.  

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A few things have happened over the last two weeks that have contributed to my lack of posting.
This blog has done exactly what I would hoped it would do, it has absolutely reignited my fiction writing. Pages have poured out of me the last couple of weeks and I feel like I’m making tremendous progress on my novel.
My internet went down. I spent a half hour on the phone with an optimum robot (I’m not being fresh, I literally was not talking to a human being.) trouble shooting my connection only to be taken back to the beginning when nothing they suggested worked.
I got the flu!!!!!

Finally feeling better this weekend I was desperate to get out of the house, although I was feeling my usual winter blues and was yearning for warm weather. Sean asked me last night what I wanted to do for dinner and my response was:
“I want to go somewhere warm on the beach and watch the sunset.”
Being that we are not yet billionaires and had to work today, we couldn’t exactly fly to a warm climate for dinner. But Sean had a great idea and we went to Rumba in Hampton Bays for dinner. For those of you that don’t live around here or are not familiar with Rumba it’s a great little waterfront restaurant that has a Caribbean island theme. We walked in and we were able to pretend we were on vacation for a couple of hours.
The decor is exactly what you would expect from this type of restaurant. They have a long board as a table, the lights hanging from the bar look like giant conch shells, and there is a long plantation fan that stretches from one end of the dining room to the other. There is even a TV on the wall that plays a loop of an island beach scene, which sounds cheesy but it was actually perfect!

We decided to sit at the bar, being that both of us are pretty outgoing we always love the opportunity to chat with the bartender and get to know the place a little. We especially love to do this when we are on vacation, but we often do this here at home also. And last night we were glad we made this choice because Kelly the bartender gave us great menu recommendations and was super attentive to my gluten allergy.
The food and drinks also kept with the island theme, I’m not a drinker but Sean got some sort of very summery looking cocktail and was very pleased with the selection. My favorite thing about the menu is they have either a little G or GF next to the menu items that would be available to me. Over the years more and more restaurants are labeling their menu items in this way, but this was the first time I saw two different icons on the same menu. I read the little key at the bottom and I was really pleased by their explanation. The G represented any menu item that could be altered to be gluten free, while the GF represented any menu item that was already gluten free. This made ordering so much easier.
We decided on the double dip (guacamole and pimento cheese dip with corn chips) as an appetizer, and Sean got an order of the ribs. The ribs were labeled as G but I didn’t ask them do anything different because I wasn’t planning on having any. For dinner I was tempted to get the Ahi Tuna Salad that was labeled GF, but after being sick I wasn’t really ready for raw fish yet. So instead I ordered the Island Burger with no bun, as did sean, and it was delicious. It is a burger with a slice of grilled pineapple and a gf island glaze topped with pineapple aioli sauce. You can have any of their delicious sides many of which are GF but naturally I chose french fries.

Although we had a great experience and I was pleased at my menu options, there were a couple things I would change. They have tacos on the menu, tacos I loved before I found out I couldn't eat gluten. But they use corn tortillas that have flour in them which I thought was kind of weird. Kelly did explain that the owners met some woman on a trip to California who makes her own tortillas and loved her so they've been buying from her ever since. Now as charming as a story as it was I still thought “what's the point of corn tortillas if they’re not gluten free.” However, I can't really complain because like I said there really were a lot of options for me.
So it wasn't the warm beach that I was dreaming of, however it was a great alternative, and we really enjoyed our little staycation! Can't wait for our next night on the island!

        Our food came out rather quickly which was nice because I was starving, but I was disappointed that although I had made clear my need for a gluten free meal there was a large piece of crusty bread laid over my dish.  I swiftly removed it and placed it on Sean’s plate.  Although I am very sensitive to gluten I have rarely had a noticeable reaction due to cross contamination,  So although I was annoyed I chose to just move on and enjoy my meal.  And boy was it delicious.  The tomato compote brought a sweetness to the dish that paired really well with the rest of the plate.  I was shocked at the amount of grits I was given, there was no way I’d ever be able to eat that much but they were really tasty so I gave it a good try.  Sean really enjoyed his omelet too and it came with a really fresh mixed green salad.  
      All in all we both really enjoyed celebrating our first meal of 2017 and despite the bread incident they did seem to be very accommodating in terms of gluten free options , as there were several menu items I could have chosen from.  

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