The Perfect Meal

Don't you love when the Perfect Meal presents itself without any planning, no poring over the posts on chowhound, no searching the pages of menupages, no flipping through zagats, no finding old "top restaurant lists" in magazines...you get the idea.

For me the Perfect Meal moment is never just about the food, it usually is some combination of the company, the setting, the mood, the day that happened before or that is yet to happen, etc. It doesn't happen often and most times, it is when you least expect it.

So here was mine last night: a burger and a beer at Shake Shack in Madison Square Park.

I'll set the scene. I got invited to a private concert of this band the Old Crow Medicine Show. This is one of the few perks of my job. I l-o-v-e-d this band. Check out their myspace page and listen to Wagon Wheel. If you aren't a fan after that, we might not be able to be friends anymore.

So, seeing live music is always great and when I see people who are doing what they love to do and doing it well, it sort of gives me chills. I feel really glad about living in a city where I have this opportunity often, and I do stupid things like write notes that say, "Don't forget how much you liked this night." And I make promises to see live music once a week, and never to leave the city, again...you get the idea. This is the feeling that I left the concert with.

We didn't eat before the show so when we left we were definitely on the search for dinner. Walking through Madison Square Park to get home we noticed that the Shake Shack didn't have a ridiculously long line that it usually does. In fact, there was no line. We ordered two Shake Shack Burgers, a Chicago Dog, and two beers.

We sat outside in the middle of the city that I am currently having a love affair with, the temperature was perfect, the burgers juicy, and the beer cold. Add in the natural high of just having seeing something real and you have the Perfect Meal.