Steamboat Friends at OTB

Is there a better place to meet friends than On the Border?

David and Christy emailed Rita -- we're coming out of the mountains to pick up some plants at... (pick one: Home Depot, Lowe's, O'Toole's). How about we meet for lunch (at OTB, Denver West)?

Of course, we answer YES! C & D are the best of friends from the days in which we, too, lived above 6700 ft.

Text message arrives on Rita's phone: we're at Home Depot-Golden, see you at OTB at 11:30.

(See subsequent post on Starbucks gratitude.)

We arrive at 11:25. And, there they are, right after us. Into the popular Brinker's outpost.

I can't remember when we last saw C & D (note that I don't right D & C -- it means Drilling and Completions in my company and something else somewhere else). The time before we were with them, they were with us in the hospital (while I was sleeping, so to speak -- so I'm told; I don't remember.)

As we get our act together, Rita and Christy agree with the cute server: we definitely need guac with the chips.

We catch up further -- where their son is with his Hollywood ambitions and where we are with, especially with the grandkids.

C & D & R each order Pick Two or Three (I can't remember which two/three each chose).

     (Christy, Rita, me, David)

 I order the grilled Mahi Mahi tacos. In answer to the question(?),  I reply "refried," not "black."

This is the second time the four of us had met at OTB. Clearly, C&D liked the last experience.

Aside:

OTB has both a tragic and intriguing history. It was a separate chain back in the early 90s. Then it was announced that the Brinker group liked what they saw in OTB and purchased the chain, to join Chili's, Macaroni Grill, and Maggiano's. Sadly, a private plane crash took the lives of the OTB chief exec and his son. About the same time Brinker founder, Norman Brinker, had suffered a serious injury while riding a horse in a polo match. (The chronology of OTB's aquisition by Brinker, the plane crash, and Brinker's accident are a bit unclear from Internet sources; this recent history occurred prior to the advent of pervasive web-documented news.) Brinker was associated as founder or executive of a number of familiar restaurant brands: Jack-in-the-Box, Steak and Ale, Bennigan's, and Burger King as well as the Brinker brands,  (Brinker passed away June 9, 2009.) More recently, OTB and Macaroni Grill have been taken over, apparently, by a San Francisco investment company. 

At one time David managed a restaurant location that was, subsequently and temporarily, part of the Brinker group.)

Stories and bad jokes followed. Rex: You heard about the really humble guy, didn't you? Christy: No. Rex" He was so humble they gave him a medal for humility. Christy: Really? Rex: But they had to take it away. Christy: No! (if she didn't say this, she should have). Rex: Yes, because he wore it.

It's good to have friends that put up with really, really lame jokes.