Cars and Dinner

A few weekends ago the town of Praia had a car show.  Well, Ryan and I forgot all about it, but as we were trying to park for dinner one night, we remembered as we attempted to park in town.  The roads were closed off.  Even though we were starving, we checked out the event before dinner.

First we checked out the little race track with little go-carts for racing.

 

Then we headed to the main pavilion.  There was a section for old cars and then a section with new cars for sale.  For an island with a population of 50-55 thousand people, you would be surprised at how many old cars are around.  When I say old, I mean classic cars, well kept, not beat up pieces of junk.

 

I have no clue what this is, but it looked really cool.

The locals do not mess around when it comes to coffee.  There is an espresso bar in the car pavilion.

Even stranger, one of our favorite restaurants moved their ENTIRE interior to the pavilion for food service.  I am not kidding, they recreated the exact interior inside the pavilion.  I have never seen a restaurant move tables, chairs, and decor to another location, for just a week. 

As cool as that seemed, we already planned to go to O Pescador (the fisherman) for dinner.  Well, turns out there was a meeting at the restaurant, and the staff was very busy as it was important people there for dinner in the back room.  Long story short, it took us 45 minutes to have our order taken.  At least we spend the 45 minutes at a table waiting, not standing up, but still.  They were just that preoccupied, and while it seemed like forever, we understood.  In the US that is grounds for a free meal, but around here, that is not something they would even think to do for customer service.  In the end, we just sat, talked and enjoyed the company because there was not much we could do and it was already late.

We did get some bread, cheese and wine during that time.

Ryan had a steak.

I had the Almoco Jack (a fish, and I have no idea what kind other than the name they called it) with passion fruit vinaigrette with mashed sweet potato.  I love that they call mashed potatoes, punched potatoes.

In the end, the meal was wonderful, and once we ordered the food came quickly.  It was a nice Friday night out.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever been to a car show?  What is the longest wait you have had at a restaurant?