Readers remember Garibaldi’s in Five Points
‘An epic first date’
My wife Angela and I had our first date there on the day after Valentine's Day (1987). I met her the night before at Group Therapy, of all places, standing in the corner holding a rose that someone else had given her. We talked, we flirted. There was definitely chemistry in play.
I made some calls the next day and finally found her number, she wasn't home, so I left her a message with her roommate that I would pick her up at 7 p.m. for dinner at Garibaldi’s. Right after I hung up, Angela called me (she had tracked me down too) to see what I was up to. I told her we already had dinner plans, and she just needed to check with her roommate for the details. (I know it sounds a bit over-confident. I promise I never tried anything like that before, but it felt like the right thing to do at the time.)
I was late picking her up. I got lost trying to find her apartment (this was before cell phones), and we took our time getting to Five Points. It was a slow night and Garibaldi’s was actually closing, but the wait staff seated us anyway and told us what was still available on the menu. Soon, we had the entire restaurant to ourselves, so I reached for Angela’s hand and we slow-danced in the aisle to the MUZAK. The waitress stepped out of the kitchen to check on us, stopped dead in her tracks, smiled and quietly withdrew. A few moments later, someone turned down the lights for us. It was an epic first date.
We were married later that year and we’re still married. We went back for a couple of anniversaries over the years. On one of those nights, I casually mentioned that I couldn’t believe I had picked such a great restaurant for our first date. I had actually never been there before, but a friend told me it was a great place to take a date. Angela was totally surprised. She had always assumed that I had been on other dates there and that everybody knew me, and that's why we got such special treatment!
“No,” I replied, “This has always been OUR place.”
Cal Harrison
This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Readers remember Garibaldi’s in Five Points."