Thursday, May. 14 2009 @ 1:50PM
Stefani Pollack is the author of the food blogs Cupcake Project and Food Interviews. She is also a member of the St. Louis Dinner Club. She blogs about her large-group dining experiences twice a month for Gut Check.Vito's3515 Lindell Boulevard314-534-8486
We could tell from Vito's packed outdoor patio that this wasn't going to be our typical Monday-night dining experience. As we entered the restaurant, we saw a full dining room as well as a full bar. No worries (or so we thought): We had a reservation and had even called to confirm. But on such a busy night, a reservation doesn't guarantee you a table the moment you show up. We ended up having to wait thirty minutes for ours.
We scanned the room, trying to determine why Vito's, unlike all the other Dinner Club restaurants, had such a Monday rush. Our first thought? There must be a show at the Fabulous Fox. On the other hand -- not that we Dinner Clubbers are prone to stereotyping or amything -- it sure seemed like a SLU crowd.
(I wondered if SLU students are drawn to the $5 Monday-night pizza specials the same way this underemployed freelance writer is.)
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| Nick Lucchesi |
Midway through our meal, around 8:30, we looked around and realized that we were the only people left in the restaurant. It was eerie. (Or perhaps we are easily spooked.) We asked the server what had happened to the throng.
It turns out that the crowd
was due to the Fox.
The Killers were in town. They are a post-punk band from Vegas. In their song, "Human," they ask an important (yet grammatically incorrect) question: "Are we human, or are we dancer?" I don't profess to understand the lyric. Yet despite my age (well over that of a SLU student), I'm a fan of the song, and I fully understood the need of the crowd to dance out of the restaurant and over to the Fox.
Moral: If you're bringing a group to Vito's and want to avoid a crowd, check
the Fox schedule first.