Amore Infused (with curious comedy)

Brian and I were invited to join our friends Francis and Jamee for dinner and a comedy show this past Saturday. We met them at 6pm at Amore Infused, and were surprised to find we were the only people there. I guess 6 on a Saturday is a little early, but we were still the only 4 people in the restaurant when we moved to the next door theater an hour later. Our waiter, Billy, was wonderful with just the right mix of friendly and yet not in our face (which I commend given that he clearly didn’t have much else going on…).  Brian had the Duck Confit, and he cleaned his plate, so I took that as being good. Jamee had the NY steak and I immediately had entree envy when the plate came and wished I had gotten that instead of my veggie fettucine (menu said, “in sweet cream butter chablis with white truffle oil” which I thought would be a white/cream sauce but somehow it was a dark sauce??).  I don’t remember what Francis ordered, but he doesn’t eat cheese, which I think is a crime against nature, so I guess I blocked out whatever it was he had.  I had to say it was confusing as to why no one was there. I hear they recently relocated to this space and perhaps they need to do a little more marketing?

After dinner, we moved over to the theater for the Big City Comedy Club. I was intrigued by a drink I found on the website called the Vanilla Whiskey Press and thought that would be fun to have with the show. I found out this was only available in the bar (we were in the theater) and the theater just had wine, beer, and well drinks. Fortunately, the server was willing to go out to the bar to get it for me, but seeing as it’s all right there together, I’m not sure I understand why they would limit the drink selection.  This was the 7pm show (second show was at 9pm) and there were only 10-15 people there. The show started late and almost didn’t start at all due to low turn-out, but finally they decided to just roll with it. The show kicked off with short sets by Mairym Carlo and Solomon Georgio. I have to applaud these guys for getting up there and going for it even with the light crowd. We laughed out loud during both sets and I was surprised/impressed by how funny both acts were. The headline was a fellow named Orny Adams, who is evidently famous having been in Jerry Seinfeld’s movie, Comedian, but he was new to me. He seemed to have the most trouble with the “intimate” size of the audience. He was game enough as we get started and even had the audience members introduce themselves. Brian thought he was HILARIOUS and laughed hysterically/maniacally at all of his jokes. This of course caused Orny to banter with Brian a bit which Brian LOVED and laughed more and louder and it created a vicious cycle, but it’s tough not to laugh when Brian is laughing like that, so it was all good. But somewhere along the way Orny seemed to lose his groove a little. He got into it with a couple of guys who weren’t loving his bit about American truck commercials and kind of got in their faces about leaving. Maybe this goes over better with a packed house, but when it’s just the 2 guys sitting next to you, it gets kind of un-comfortable. Finally, Orney just threw in the towel and invited everyone to come to the 9pm show. Ironically, it was 9pm by this time, so I guess it all worked out. Overall, a great show, albeit a bit more “real” that perhaps your typical event.  And I was happy to see folks were lined up out the door of the theater for the 9pm show, so maybe Seattle just isn’t cut out for the early shows.

Now, I can’t finish this post without sharing the dessert we had. One of the chefs was sitting just behind us in the theater and while we were pondering what to order, he told us that we simply HAD to try the chocolate lava cake. It sounded a little rich/foo-foo to me, but he was such a huge fan that I figured we couldn’t pass it up. A small piece of cake is served with a little chocolate bowl on top filled with cherry liqueur which they then light on fire. The fire melts the bowl which then pours all over the cake. I gotta say the chef was right, this thing was RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE good. I feel like they need a better name for this, like Amore Jubilee or something, but man oh man, I would send someone to this place for this dish alone.