Greetings from Carrboro,
The old guy rolled up the sleeves on the blue jacket and had me try it on. The clip-on tie was red and not too oversized. But the jacket went nearly to my knees. He left the coat room and came back with three, large safety pins with light blue, plastic caps to remedy the problem. Before I was allowed to walk out and join everyone at the dinner table, he looked me in the eye. “Don’t get anything on that jacket, kid.”
The fancy restaurants in South Florida had lobsters swimming in large tanks, waiters in tuxedos, and serious rules. Coat and tie was obviously one of those rules. Even for a 9-year-old. They’d often bring the thick, Miami phone book for me to sit on to disguise my youth. My favorite had a separate room with funhouse mirrors and a koi pond. It was meant as a distraction for kids while parental-types enjoyed their cocktail(s) hour. My mother would come and get me when it was time to order.
Cocktails are certainly back in style. And then some. The talent of the bar team at Acme is truly outstanding. But the interesting thing is that honest-to-god cocktails don’t really pair well with food; they pair with snacks. You don’t really want a Manhattan with a nuanced scallop dish, but it would go nicely with some pimento cheese. And to go along with our Shooting Point oysters and peel-&-eat Carolina shrimp, the kitchen has created several snacks that we think go brilliantly with cocktails. We’ve even labeled them as such on our menu, “Cocktail Hour.”
Because in this multi-tasking, unrelenting universe, there never seems to be enough time. Plainly. You’re sending work emails from your kid’s soccer game. You talk to your sister while you walk the dog. So many things messily overlap – like that Manhattan with the scallop dish. Well, we want to offer a respite, if only for an evening. Have that delectable cocktail and some French onion dip and chill. It will make the dinner afterwards that much better. Really. You’ll thank me. And while we don’t require a tie for service or have any funhouse mirrors, we do have three rather large goldfish in a fountain that could constitute a koi pond. Sort of. If you squint.
Well, that’s all the news from Carrboro. The staff at Acme look forward to serving you soon.
Cheers,
The Staff at Acme
