Last night Bill and I went to a restaurant called "The Closed Door." The business card for this establishment is very minimal. The name of the restaurant on one side, and two lines on the other side. Address and phone number. Reservations only.
When we arrived at the address, we were greeted by a wooden wall with a "peep hole." A knock sent a host to see if we knew the magic words ("Six o'clock reservation for Bill.") Once, our identity was verified, the door was open.
It opened to a small, but comfortable Italian restaurant, with tasty food, and a great Australian red wine. We started with the wine, and a shrimp salad, then moved on to the mushroom risotto. We finished with a chocolate banana tart, and coffee.
After drinking half of our bottle of wine, we decided we were done, and offered it to the couple at the table next to us. (I should have mentioned that prior to this restaurant, we had stopped at another, a French cafe, for a drink and a cheese plate, as we were early for our reservation.)
It turned out that the couple was celebrating her birthday, and we all started chatting. (The tables were actually a little too close together, so I was closer to my neighbor, than I was to Bill. It almost seemed like I had to get to know her, since we were sharing the same air, and unfortunately, my cold germs. I had to know who I was infecting. She was nice, I hope she gets better soon.)
We soon learned that they were teachers at the other campus of our children's school, and she was really good friends with Ethan's councilor, who had just dropped them off at the restaurant. As large as Shanghai is, and as many westerners as there are here, you still get that "small world" feeling with the expat community. We left feeling like we had made new friends, and feeling like maybe we like Australian wine a little too much!
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