Olivia finds an advertisement for a restaurant covered in Halloween decorations, and that is really all it takes to convince us to go.
It is only September 14th, but the place has fully surrendered to Halloween. Orange lights, purple lighting, fake cobwebs, and decorations everywhere. The atmosphere is fantastic, which is fortunate because the air conditioning is broken and it is somewhere in the 80s inside.
There is something deeply unreasonable about eating over pots of hot melted food in an already overheated building, but we decide to stay. We are together, the decorations are fun, and I have never tried fondue before.
In my mind, fondue seems foolproof. Melted cheese and melted chocolate both sound amazing. I expect this to be less of a meal and more of a celebration of dipping things into better things.
Then I try the cheese.
I do not know beforehand that the fondue contains alcohol, so I spend the first few bites trying to understand why it tastes so strange to me. Eventually I realize that this is not bad cheese. It is just cheese made in a way that my mouth absolutely rejects.
Plenty of people love fondue. I am apparently not one of them.
It is also much more expensive than I expect, which probably does not help. Call me trashy, but I have difficulty making peace with the price of melted cheese, especially when the melted cheese and I are already having creative differences.
Thankfully, dessert understands me.
We get a peanut butter chocolate fondue, and it is phenomenal. Rich, sweet, and exactly what I had imagined when I first heard the word fondue. The dessert nearly redeems the entire concept.
Nearly.
Even with the broken air conditioning and my failed relationship with beer cheese, I am glad we go. The decorations are wonderful, Olivia is there with us, and the three of us get an evening together doing something new.
Sometimes trying something new means discovering a future favorite.
Sometimes it means discovering that cheese should remain sober.
