Cafe 909... The last days

I helped close down Cafe 909 last night. I won't tell you again how sad I am that such a delightful restaurant, with spectacular food had to close its doors. We managed to have a great time this past week and make the most of sending each other off to our new adventures. Because Chef is such a great guy (not a jerk, at all!) he sent the three cooks home with hundreds and hundreds, yes, hundreds of dollars worth of goods. I'm serious, I brought our big camping cooler and filled it completely full. Then I filled a milk crate with stuff too. I got tuna steaks, ribeyes, calamari, quail, spices (even saffron!), sauces, oils, orzo, polenta, wine, beer glasses, pounds of local cheddar and aged parmesan cheese, pistacio parfaits and the sauce goes with it, cheesecake, a spice cake and 1/2 gallon of spiced plums, and all the leftover ingredients from the line after service was over. We have so much food that I have decided to skip our traditional fancy dinner date for my birthday tomorrow and stay home and cook for us here. The food will be better than any restaurant in Austin and we have excellent wine, all here, all paid for. I will also use quite a big of the ingredients I brought home to cook for our Election Day Party on Tuesday. Chef is also going to send each of us all of his recipes, that's 25 years worth of culinary genius! and all his menus from the five years that 909 was open. I will keep those recipes for the rest of my life, they are priceless and Mark is very generous and kind to share them with us.

Here are a few photos from the the last night of service at Cafe 909.
My friend, Joe the Waiter

The view from where I stand before we opened for the last time
Shift Beer
Everybody, The End