The Melting Pot

Last night Jay and Deb took Sarah and I to The Melting Pot.  It's good.  The first course was anchored by a heaping bowl of melted gruyere cheese.  I never knew that I liked bread or cheese so much.  But I was worried that the entree  would also be cheese-based and by the chocolate dessert I'd need a blood transfusion and a hit from a defibrillator.  You get one free with every meal. 

I was surprised to discover an entree of meats and vegetables to be boiled in something less than coagulant.   We  chose the  "Mojo" dipping broth.  If you've never been to a Melting Pot or were born after the great Fondue Renaissance of the sixties and seventies and thought that maybe all those funny little pots your parents had in the back of the pantry were somehow drug related, the idea is that people really like cooking things on sticks.   We also like campfires but not the smoke or the flame or the bugs, just the fact that campfires allow us to cook things on sticks.   Well now the Melting Pot has captured that magic on a hot plate in the middle of your booth's table.  It's pretty cool.  I'm used to unlocking my jaw and swallowing an entire value meal, thus ending the dinner date before my wife even sits down.  At the 'Pot you can't just shovel the food in your mouth.  You are forced to think of conversation while your filet mignon-on-a-stick boils for the recommended two to three minutes.   So I don't suggest you go with family or people you don't enjoy.  

I was a little leary of Meg, the waitress, who looked just like you'd imagine a 'Meg' would, nonchalantly telling approximate times to cook the raw chicken.  Three minutes in the Mojo is really all it takes.  It's nice to see hot plates have more of a purpose than culling the Ramen population. 

I'd highly recommend the Melting Pot experience.  It's a nice restaurant accessible enough to make anyone feel comfortable.  But set aside an entire evening.  I haven't sat in one place for three and a half hours since the last Lord of the Rings.  And I'd guess after sacrificing several piles of meat, fruit, veggies, bread, cheesecake (yah, dipped in chocolate,) a bottle of wine and several pints of beer that Jay and Deb had to part with a couple of Benjamins and maybe even a Grant.  So it's pricey.  Which is why I'd also suggest going with Jay and Deb.