Small-town charm

Last night David and I visited a pizza joint with the nicest, most friendly people we've ever met (at least since we've been together). We went to Nick's (Place? Pizza?) in Utica, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it town about 10 minutes from our house.

We have never eaten there before, but we've been meaning to get there since we moved to Mount Vernon two years ago (We had noticed that every time we drove by Nick's it was packed, so that piqued our curiosity). Last night became THE night because we were interviewing another potential babysitter replacement for Heidi in the area (result = passing on them).

So needing a little pick-me-up after our interview, we decided to treat ourselves to an inexpensive dinner.

We walked in the door and were seated immediately. We hadn't been there more than five minutes before both tables flanking our booth smiled brightly at us struck up a conversation. Everyone wanted to know more about Noah (one woman said he was gorgeous and guessed his age at 2!).

This went on for the next hour, people filling in and out, everyone stopping to say hello to our flirtatious one-year-old. As they left, people would say, "goodbye, Noah!" as if they'd known him for months.

We took the time to observe others too. It wasn't difficult to ascertain that everybody in that place knew everybody! Since it's one of only a handful of restaurants in town, I'm guessing many of the families in there were regulars and probably had watched their children grow up together.

It just made for a relaxed, enjoyable atmosphere. It's been a long time since we've witnessed such good-old-fashioned Midwest charm. It's also safe to say that we'll go back anytime we need a boost for our tummies and our mental state (oh, and the pizza was good too!).