Red or Green

Esteemed blogger Carol Anne of Five O'Clock Somewhere is running one of those group hug writing challenge thingies. She want us to write about food. Apparently she teaches English at a community college and is currently torturing delighting her students by offering them a series of essay titles on that topic. One of the more cryptic essay titles on Carol Anne's list of foodie topics is "Red or Green? Explain."

Huh? Can she read my mind? How could she possibly know that "Red or Green?" is the food related question that I most frequently have to address, at least during the sailing season. Every Tuesday night in the summer it is the question of the moment.

Let me explain. Last summer some of my most enjoyable and memorable sailing experiences were doing some informal racing with a group of like-minded friends in Bristol Harbor on Tuesday evenings. I wrote about some of those evenings in posts such as The Rabbit and the Old Dog and A Man with a Goat and a Stick and a Cessna.

As the sun sets and the wind dies we sail back to the beach, pack up our boats on to our trailers, change into our street clothes, and then ask the question, "Red or Green?" We have a decision to make. Where are we going for the most important part of the evening's fun, the après-sail?

Actually we don't pose the question in quite those terms, "Red or Green?" But that's what we mean. There are several excellent drinking and eating establishments within walking distance of the launch area but we only consider the best two...

Red? Red is Redlefsen's a small town European style restaurant which draws the best from several countries with German food being the primary focus...

... or Green? Green is of course the color of Ireland and represents Aidan's Pub, the quintessential Irish pub just down the street from Redlefsen's.

It's a tough choice.

Redlefsen's has an excellent selection of European, mainly German beers on tap. Such choices. Should I go for the Ayinger Celebrator or the Weihenstephan Hefeweissbier this week? Or the Warsteiner Dunkel? Mmmm. Often it's the Pilsner Urquell that is the choice of the majority of our crowd, You just can't go wrong with that.

On the other hand Aidan's has Guinness (of course) and a vast range of mainly American beers on draft. Vermont's Long Trail Ale tends to be my après-sail beer of choice here.

Red or green? The food is a factor too.

The main dinner entrees at Redlefsens tend to be a bit too large and fancy for an après-sail snack, though I have been known to go for the Grilled Wurst Platter. But most of the sailors are satisfied with a pasta or a hamburger. The Fettucine a la Bolognese is always a favorite with me.

Aidan's on the other hand has the traditional pub fare. When Tillerwoman and I go there, often in the winter, for lunch I will usually go for something hearty and filling such as bangers and mash, or fish and chips. Probably nostalgic for the food of my childhood. But on a warm summer's evening sitting on one of Aidan's outside decks, nothing seems more appropriate than a burger with melted blue cheese dripping down the sides. Yum.

Red or Green? The two establishments have very different ambiences. Somewhat formal European style restaurant with eclectic decorations. Or out and out Irish pub atmosphere.

Red or Green? I think we pay a bit more each for an evening in the Red than we do in the Green. The kids (i.e. under 40's) in our group tend to favor Aidan's, perhaps for that reason. On the other hand the elder statesman of our fleet and his wife (who does sterling service for us every week as our trolley dolly) do prefer Redlefsen's. I think they even have frequent flier cards for Redlefsen's.

And so that's how we decide between Red and Green. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, so much worth seeing after an evening of Laser sailing than your launching trolley neatly lined up with everyone else's at just the point on the beach that the tide has currently reached. Our trolley dolly is a gem. And if she prefers Red that's fine with us.

But on the nights she's not there we go Green.

Now how did Carol Anne know about Redlefsen's and Aidan's?