How the Other Half Dines

For years we’ve been dangling a carrot in front of the kids.  For years we’ve told them that when their manners at the dinner table get good enough, we would take them for brunch at The Circular Dining Room in The Hotel Hershey.

For years we did not go.

And although I think Jack still has a way to go, and Ben still needs to remember to not discuss bodily functions at the table, we decided it was time.  The whole week before our reservation, we talked manners.  We talked napkins in our laps, remembering to use please and thank you, appropriate conversations and voice volume, and, for Jack, that sitting on one’s bottom and not head is not just a suggestion, but a must.

We wore our Sunday best and elegantly strolled/tripped into this gorgeous place:

We were seated and Maddie suggested a toast.

Ben ordered hot chocolate at the waitress’s suggestion and deemed it the best hot chocolate ever.  In fact everything was deemed the best ever.  The bacon tasted like real bacon (like the bacon I serve them is fake?), the sausage was juicy and the best ever, the blintzes were amazing, the fruit was the most flavorful, fruity tasting fruit they had ever had.

Their manners were impeccable, and I am not kidding you.  The water server even commented on their manners when each of them gave him a “thank you” after receiving water.

And did I mention the chocolate fountain?

They had large bowls of strawberries, marshmallows, pound cake cubes, and pretzel rods, and although all three kids tried it out, Jack went back three times and even wanted to fill a mug with the chocolate and just drink it (we said no to that one).

                                                                                                         The very picture of elegance, my friends.

Ben’s favorite was the chocolate cream pie…

But Maddie and I love the “Autumn Spice Panna Cotta” the best.  I’d never had panna cotta, but I think it may have kicked aside crème brulee as my favorite dessert!

I took this picture of Dave so you could see the painted ceiling and the gorgeous stained glass windows behind him. 

We had a fabulous meal a a fabulous time together.

I think Jack definitely felt at home here.

Will they have good manners forever now?  Ha!  Don’t make me laugh.  But it’s good to know they can do it when they have to.