Eddie Merlot's

 My husband has been wanting to go to Fort Wayne to eat at a classy restaurant as he put it. We had lunch at Eddie Merlot's today.

 I did end up with COVID rebound like him. I still have a cough and since mid-day yesterday (Wednesday) a swollen gland below the jawline of the left side of my face. Apparently, a painful swollen salivary gland is a possible side effect of having COVID according to the internet. I can swallow today with just a little pain. Yesterday, swallowing on my left side set off a spasm of pain so bad I had to avoid doing that. Anyway, we are no longer contagious and felt well enough to eat out.

Eddie Merlot's has a prix fixe menu for lunch. Since we were splurging to celebrate Christmas and "surviving COVID", we chose that option. I would say the other 3 couples in the dining room also went that direction. There were large steaks and burgers and sandwiches listed on the other side of the menu. Most of the burgers ran between $17 and $19. The steaks more than $50. 

 Eddie Merlot's is known for having quality steak; I chose the NY strip and my husband had Steak Diane. My steak was melt-in-your- mouth perfection. 

One of the classy touches was a steak knife with an etched monogram.

The salad was good and plentiful, nothing outstanding. It came with the salad dressing in a serving boat.

My husband said the bisque was good, but it was in a tiny cup. We were brought bread and butter before the first course arrived.

I found the creamed spinach too salty and did not finish it.

When we had finished our meal, I visited the ladies' room. When I returned, a little silver plate with dark chocolate rounds with an E stamped on them awaited me. Before I left the table my husband had commented it would be nice to have a mint or candy. We were too full for dessert. His wish came true.

Afterwards, we stopped in nearby Trader Joe's so my husband could buy some cereal he likes there. Then, off to Costco. The parking lot was packed! I returned my recalled Quaker Oats granola. I didn't have a receipt, but the clerk easily called up the sale using my membership card. I had received a call from Costco about the salmonella risk, and later saw the news on the internet. I had put one of the two-pack in Tupperware. The lady reimbursed me for both packs. She emphasized not to eat the cereal in the Tupperware. I did have some diarrhea (one bout fairly severe) the day I had eaten the cereal. I thought the milk caused the problem. I really liked that granola, but now I am not sure about buying cereal from Quaker Oats. I was glad to know and remove the cause of my digestive problem, however. 

I bought a Costco chicken, some breakfast frittatas, some mini naan, some Dove soap on sale, and unplanned a tuxedo cake. We had eaten this rich cake before; today it was on sale for $5 off. I will probably freeze most of it. It might be my husband's birthday cake on the 31st. He added a pair of pants and hearing aid batteries. The checkout lines looked long, but actually all of the registers were open and things moved quickly. Everybody was in good spirits with lots of "Merry Christmas" expressed to the customers. 

I dozed off in the car and took a nap in my recliner once home. This weekend we will try to do a little bit of house cleaning. I had told my house cleaner not to come this week (she also missed the 6th when we first had symptoms but hadn't tested yet) as I didn't want her getting COVID from us right before Christmas. She will delay until the 28th when hopefully we can get back on a normal schedule.