pullman | anna cotta

When you really love a restaurant it’s kind of just as inexplicable as really loving a person. They’re nice, they’re witty, they love you… no one single big ol’ reason; you just love them. Black Cypress; love. Levys, Larkins, and Lopez; love. We can’t really sort out exactly why we like Black Cypress so much, why it’s more than worth the 15 minute drive across the state line, it just is. The food is good, and not like good for small town good, really dang good. And the space is intimate and just dark enough, there’s cool decor but not too much cool decor, the waitstaff is cool enough that you admire them but no so much that you fear them. They use amazing bacon from our friends’ pigs, they make dinner rolls that are better than you’d believe existed. I had braised pig trotters there last time; so good I almost cried. Ok, so, maybe I do know why I love Black Cypress. It is good. Good with no caveats, no sometimes. The same way that I love these people.

I’m sure there are a thousand Cougar Countries, by different names, across the country. Old burger joints that have clung on into the millennium with their bygone charm and particular fry sauce. We frequented Cougar Country scarily often in high school, with our teenage boredom and metabolisms- Lauren would always get a burger, me chicken strips (mostly because they come with thick, white, greasy toast.) We got back to our roots with a Cougar Country visit and a varsity basketball game, sucking on blackberry milkshakes in the bright gym.

I never noticed the Clam Basket before… kinda scary.Hot Ham n’ Cheese sounds pretty good though, in a terrible American cheese and griddle grease way.

In our many C.C. visits, Laur and I developed ketchup/fry sauce systems. Gotta have both, Lauren mixes them in one cup, I just double dip.

Over-exposed basketball. New camera! Exciting and happy times, a little Canon that lets you pretend you’re using your old-fashioned Nikon and set the aperture and shutter speed yourself! Way more fun and interesting and better than my old point and shoot.