Burlesque

I'm having a rose "scarletini", martini with rose water and fresh crushed strawberries, at the Scarlet Tea Room. I'm here for a Father's Day special burlesque dinner. The desert, a special and the most expensive item on the dessert menu, is a 10" round solid dark chocolate disc infused with rose tea and covered with dried rose petals. It is served with two glasses of port wine and a few fresh rose pedals sprinkled on top matching the restaurant's red decor and the hot red outfits the sexy burlesque dancers are wearing. Red feathery garlands wrapped around the waiters' neck also lace the crystal chandeliers to put the guests in the right mood for the occasion, not to mention that every dish and cocktail served is also adorned with red rose pedals.

The waiter offers three choices of flavors for the special chocolate dessert - rose tea, red raspberries and pink peppercorns - as I watch him describe it with great enthusiasm. He has no idea that I'm intimately familiar with what he attempts to describe with such effort nor can he guess how many hours of labor, patience, frustrations and excitement has gone into making the 30 solid chocolate discs that the restaurant has ordered for their Father's Day special weekend dinners. I'm here to witness our chocolate creation come out of the restaurant's kitchen served on a lace doily as if created by a celebrity chef, and be cracked with a knife into little pieces, then watch the guests' faces as they reach impatiently for a piece glad there's plenty left on the doily. My heart melts with that piece of chocolate as I savor this pride moment.

-Elizabeth