Rosie Visits the Lawn Club

May 18, 2012

Finally I could share in person what I have only shared in print. So many things to share and only eight days to do it. Four specialty restaurants in slightly more than a week which means that we wouldn’t have a choice but to be like the guests and gain weight in the final week of my contract. Where to start? Why not start at the top? And so we did, with Rosie’s trip to the Lawn Club Grill.

If you’ve forgotten or missed previous posts, the Lawn Club Grill is exactly what the name implies. Sitting on Deck 15 next to the first lawn at sea, it is a chance to have a high tone and fancy barbeque under the stars. And these stars are over the Mediterranean. To understand the complete charm of the LCG you must know its Maitre D’, Karol Swerdon. Karol is from Poland but now lives in South Africa. His combination of charm, leadership, and creativity make him the perfect manager for this restaurant. From the moment you meet him at the entrance and he escorts the lady or ladies to the table you know that you will get rapt attention from the host. Once seated, we were introduced to our waiter who also guaranteed the same level of attentive service. The meal begins by putting the guests to work, putting on an apron, and beginning by preparing the dough for the flatbread pizza starter.

Rosie is very good in the kitchen but she was going to face the challenge of learning how to toss pizza dough. After kneading the dough and stretching it thin, she was taught the cross hand toss, and gave it a go. The fact that it didn’t go high or very straight were incidental to the experience of learning a new skill, all with the color commentary of Karol on the microphone. Rosie may tell you that it was the movement of the ship or the wind that caused the off the mark tosses, but I know the truth, and it is reassuring to know there is one thing I can do better than her in the kitchen. Once the dough was prepared she needed to dress it with her choice of toppings, the only request I had is that she employ our crew’s secret recipe, replacing the marinara with barbeque sauce.

The meal continued with the requisite salad course, fresh out of the oven pizza, and the mixed grill that we had selected. The sides included the delectable lobster mac and cheese, and yes, you have a right to wonder how we could eat all the food. The reason was motivation. We needed to finish our dinner so we could have dessert. But before the dessert could be served we needed a slight logistical adjustment. The wind had come up that night and Karol saw that Rosie was getting a bit cold. The first solution, offered to all our guests was to bring them a blanket to wrap around their shoulders. But as the restaurant started to empty, Karol took advantage of that fact by repositioning us to a table nearer the grill, the better to keep warm by.

There are a number of fine desserts at the Lawn Club Grill, but the standard is set by the simplest. We completed the meal with a ‘deep dish’ warm chocolate chip cookie, freshly baked in the pizza oven. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, it was a veritable party in our mouths. Near the warm grill with the warm cookie in our bellies the cool night air wasn’t noticeable at all.

The night ended with Karol escorting us back to the entrance with our promise to return.

And the adventure continues . . .