Dinner and a movie....a DRIVE-IN movie!

Jim's sister, Chrissy, came over to spend the night so Jim could have a date night. We were excited about that as we love to go to our favorite restaurant, the Beef and Barrel in Olean, NY.

As I have mentioned in former posts, Marcia (my sister) and her husband, Sean were up from Philly. They too love the Beef and Barrel....but then who wouldn't!?!?....so they decided to join us. We had a lovely evening catching up. It is so seldom we get to just sit down and and talk like that. Jim loves telling how much he is enjoying retirement and poking fun at his favorite librarian....well, I think I am his favorite one at least! They finished their meal with one a piece of the delicious apple pie...which comes with a little vile of sauce....apple drippings with cinnamon and sugar....to pour over it. I opted for a grasshopper, an after dinner drink with creme de menthe and creme de cocoa serve with whipped cream on top. Yummy! It was the prettiest shade of green. I should have taken a picture of that. (Sorry Randi.) I have had one of those in probably 20 years. It was hard to pick between that an coconut cream pie, but I saw one go by on a tray and couldn't resist.

They cut the beef any way you would like from rare (my choice) to well done. Trust me, it is all good no matter how you like it. I get mine medium rare...Jim prefers medium.
The thing so many people go there to eat is what put them on the map, "the beef on wick". It is a beef sandwich to die for on a Kummelwick...or is it Kummelweck? ....bun. There is rock salt on the top of the bun and caraway seeds. Just the buns are yummy. We always put horseradish on in abundance. Now this is not horsey sauce...although a person can add mayo and make their own horsey sauce if they please, but some how that just doesn't seem right to us.
The Beef and Barrel was a tiny little "hole in the wall" when I was 10. (It was opened in '65.) It featured the Beef on Wick ....and their apple pie. When we would go shopping (usually at Bradners...long gone dept. store) it was not unusal for us to stand waiting in line for a table outside in the street. I remember thinking it was well worth the wait even at the ripe old age of 10. Sometimes we would go some place else because the crowd was just too much. Since then this place has expanded several times and it takes the spaces of what used to be three or four stores on the main drag in Olean. It has come along way from being a little sandwhich shop.
After our wonderful dinner.....I brought half of my sandwich home because I also had a spinach salad with mandarin oranges and a drizzle of a sweet and sour dressing with bacon drippings. There were hard boiled eggs on the salad and the oranges but the dressing was what made it so wonderful....I think there were sun flower seeds as well. Just sooooo good. I sure wish this was a chain so we could have one in Louisiana.

Afterwards we were off to the drive-in movie. We were each driving our Toyotas because we wanted "front row" seating. In this day of high dollar gas we were being decadent, but it is 25 miles from the house so it wasn't too bad...especially with four cylinders.
We went to see WALL-E which was about a lonely little robot left here on earth once it was devoid of all life...well, except one tiny plant and cockroach. It was a very cute movie, but I am wondering if there wasn't a bit of an agenda behind it. I love Pixar movies and think their writers, directors, and producers are some of the most inventive and creative people. They are amazing!



No longer do you get speakers off polls and rest them on your windows inside your car, but you tune in on the radio. Much improved sound!!!! I loved that part.

I really liked WALL-E. I am not sure Marcia, Sean and Jim were in agreement. Maybe if we all hadn't been so full and sleepy it would have been better. We got home about 11:30 PM. I was so sleepy I went right to bed. Sophie was sure glad her Mom and Dad were home. We put the window fan on...it was about 63 degrees outside and we all slept like babies until about 8 am when we got up to get ready for church.

Yes, I am still an Episcopalian....at least for a couple more weeks anyway. I have been enjoying the old familiar Book of Common Prayer. It really is an amazing work and I am always interested in learning where some of these prayers originated.

Marcia was right next door ....I think she was checking her phone for messages. In the old days when you were at the drive-in you were out of pocket, but there is no where to hide these days...not even the drive-in!!