On the road again: Austin, day 3

I wish I could discuss more than meals on these business trips, because the meetings are more often than not extremely interesting, but I can't; client confidentiality is paramount in our business.

Lunch today was a lovely spicy pork bento box at Beluga, a local Japanese restaurant.  I don't know why I like bento boxes so much, but I do.  Charming and gleaming and full of tasty treats, they're a great way to order a (frequently rather large) lunch.

Dinner took us to Olive & June, an Italian restaurant, for a meal that was full of unintentional comedy. First, the servers brought the appetizers for three people on one plate, placed the plate in front of one person, and said the food was his. By the time we all figured out what they'd done, the person had, quite reasonably, eaten all the food.  The servers apologized and brought the appetizers of the others.

Next, the server failed to mention that a gnocchi dish that the menu described with no mention of meat in fact contained meat.  The omission would not have been a problem had the vegetarian in our group not ordered the dish and eaten a bit of meat, which looked just like the large mushrooms mixed with the pasta.  The staff and the manager apologized profusely, brought a new dish, comped that person's food, comped all our desserts, and gave the person a gift card, so they certainly did all they could to atone for the error.  Despite these mistakes, we all had a generally good time, with lively conversation and otherwise tasty food.  I'm not sure I would seek out the restaurant again, because the food wasn't good enough to make me want to return, but I must give all credit to the staff for handling the issues as best they could.

Tomorrow, more work, more business meals, more meetings!