NOTES FROM THE DESK

Author: ELSPETH PIERSON

I was reminded on Friday evening over a delicious meal at Dolci just how easy it is to forget about all the amazing student-run activities available to us at the College.

A few friends of mine had braved the Dolci ticket line Thursday night in McCullough and succeeded in securing eight tickets to the "restaurant." We showed up in all our finery at 5:30 p.m. sharp - ok, not so sharp, but showered - to redeem our reservation.

After a short wait we were seated in a romantic corner of Proctor around a linen-clothed table complete with flatware for a five-course meal. The mood soon went from romantic to rowdy as the eight of us laughed over our country-girl clumsiness with fancy silverware and took to the toasted salmon-spinach baguette hor d'oeurves with our hands.

The second course brought French onion soup and a baked goat-cheese salad - with much less room for debate over etiquette - and by the time the steak came out an hour later and we had eased into the atmosphere and collected our manners, we were practically ready for dinner in the royal court. The steak was cooked flawlessly in a rosemary marinade, and combined with the asparagus and roasted red potatoes, it left us perfectly satiated. Well, almost perfectly satiated.

We managed to make room for dessert - apple tart with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce or coffee ice cream profiteroles drizzled with chocolate sauce - before finishing off the evening by sipping tea and coffee with perfect grace. All in all, though it had taken us some time to find our inner poise, the meal was an excellent reminder of the sophistication and elegance of our peer-produced restaurant, a standard that seems to hold for student-run activities all over campus. Well done Midd-kids!