Carmine's The Beginning

About 6 years ago my husband Steve and I just moved into our first house. Since we moved about 20 minutes away we needed to find new places to eat in our 3 mile radius. (I'm convinced we all have a 3 mile radius in which we invariably do all of our shopping, errands and eating and we stray from the radius only unoccassionally.) We stumbled upon Carmine's Little Italy. It was the first day they were open and they hadn't had the official opening yet. We had a few beers and I had the chicken cordon bleu sandwich. I didn't have any more beers there for a while because the next week I found out I was prengant with my daughter Amanda. But we did eat there a lot. Last Friday when Steve, Amanda and I went there for dinner and they told us they were closing on Sunday I could barely hold back the tears.

Carmine's was more than a place we went to eat. After the first time we went we told my mom and dad about it. They agreed to go and my dad actually liked it. A small miracle considering how fastiduous he was about where he would eat and how clean the place had to be. It joined the list of the 5 or 6 other restaurants in town he would go. It's where we took our friends and family who came to visit from out of town. Of all the people we took there not one of them ever had a single complaint. When my dad's partner Chuck and his wife Alice came out for a visit my parents took them there the first night they were in town and they insisted on going there every night until they left. When my home town bff Sheila came to town it was a favorite because she's a vegetarian and she could choose from virtually the entire menu and wasn't delegated to the veggie burger or fried mozzarella appetizer like everywhere else we went. When my cousin Phil came to town it was a regular spot, for food and video poker. When my dad's friend Dave came to town he had to have the spaghetti and meatballs at least once, but usually twice. When my sister Lynn, her husband Fred, and their kids, Holly, Sammy and Joey came we never missed a visit there.

Carmine's was the place we went to every Mother's Day and every Father's Day with our parents. We knew the food would be good, the prices wouldn't be jacked up and we wouldn't have to wait in line. Every Sunday when I was pregnant with my daughter my dad would pick up pizzas from Carmine's and I would go to my parents house for dinner. When my ob/gyn told me I'd have to have a C-section the second thing I asked (of course the first was can I still have an epidural) was can I have lunch before I go to the hospital? When he said yes we raced to Carmine's so I could have the Eggplant Rolatini. After I had Amanda my parents would babysit every Sunday night and Steve and I would often go to Carmine's, sit at the bar, order food and play some video poker. I particularly remember one night when Steve drove by and noted they had a special scallop dinner. When my dad stopped in to pick up the pizza for him and my mom and Amanda, he was delighted when I called him over to show him the royal I just won.

Carmine's was the place I went with my girlfriends after work to bitch about work. And the place I went with Steve to bitch about work. And the place I went with Ma to bitch about...well everything else. It was the place that was our safety net. At least every couple of weeks we'd spend 20 minutes debating where we were going to go and we'd inevitably say "Let's just go to Carmine's".

In 6 years I had one meal there I found only mediocre. It was pasta bolognese and it was a little dry. When they saw I hadn't eaten most of it they brought me more sauce and comped the meal. They had a great menu with a lot of things I loved but I almost always got the pizza, usually in some wild flavor like cheese and a Greek salad.

Last Friday I called my Las Vegas bff, Nicole, and told her the sad news. She knew why I was so devestated and shared my pain. She called her mom and told her we were all going to gather for a last supper on Saturday. I didn't have to call my mom because she came to play poker while we were there having dinner. We all met for our final very sad supper at Carmine's. I thought, half tongue in cheek, maybe if I had blogged about it they wouldn't have gone out of business.

I know there will never be another Carmine's but I vow to find a place we call all once again gather. Or at least get a decent meal. My regular blogs won't be this long or this sentimental. I'm not a food critic and I don't go for those fancy-shmancy fu-fu places. I'm more of a diners, drive-ins and dives type of girl. But I'm going to try some new places and revisit the old and let you know what I think. In the meantime we've got to figure out where the hell we're going to go for Father's Day.

Farewell Carmine's and thanks for the memories.