A class act.

As one of the trustees for the Mignon Sherwood Delano Foundation I get to give $$$ away to non-profits in and near Allegan county.  It is a position I am honored to hold.

I also get to dine in cool places and eat fantastic food.

This is the Park Club in downtown Kalamazoo.  That's Becky (another trustee) on the left.  She wouldn't move out of the shot.  I kept yelling, "Becky!  Move!"  She wouldn't.
 

As you can see, this is a very, very old building - with a lot of class.
 

 Wouldn't you like to have a window with your initials etched in the glass?

The Park Club is a private club.  Lucky for us that one of our trustees is a member, eh?

 Look closely and you'll see a private dining room on the right.  The biggest wooden pocket doors you've ever seen closes it off.  That's where we always sit.  Separates us from the riff-raff. hehe

 Now - on to the food.

                  The appetizers included a curry-ish shrimp.

 I didn't order these scrumptious goodies so I'm guessing here.  This one was very Asian.  I know there was soy sauce involved and it was tasty. 

                                      Coconut shrimp.

This was my dessert.  I remember picking up the spoon and then everything went black.  When I regained consciousness - this is what I saw.  It was Chocolate Lava cake with peppermint ice cream.

Notice anything?  Wondering what I had for an entree?  Again, I was sooooooooo into the dining experience that I totally forgot to capture my shrimp scampi.  Take my word for it - outSTANDing!

I have an interesting side story regarding the Park Club.  When women came to the club (mostly for men but women came, but I don't think very often) they had to enter through the back door.  That is until Phil and Ailene (I hope I spelled her name correctly)  Dietrich became members.  She refused that back door thing and proudly walked through the front door.  She was a lady to be reckoned with.  Her husband, Phil, was one of the founding members of the Delano Foundation and we miss him very much.

Lest you think that our happy little group dines like this all the time, let me set the record straight.  Once a year we have a lovely dinner with 3 grant recipients at the Delano Inn in Allegan.  Once a year we have a very nice dinner (most of the time at the Park Club but we've been elsewhere, too) with our banker dudes who manage the foundation's $$$.  The food at our other meetings is not near as fancy - pizza and sammies.

So there you have it.  I dined in quiet elegance for an evening and I only said "ass" once. Aren't you proud of me?