In The Mood For Merlot

New Orleans is a city of seafood and spirits. The French Quarter is a famed destination for fun and food. It's also where a southern sweetheart named GiGi worked as a hostess in a new, upscale hotel restaurant called Angel Food Grill. She loved greeting and serving guests from all over the world as they came from near and far for a taste of New Orleans flavor. The restaurant served many unique dishes like red beans and rice, etouffee, and the world famous dish called gumbo. In celebration of Mardi Gras, Angel Food Grill decided to put a deal on a new discount website called PayLess. GiGi decided that it would be a great way to show the new guy in town, Rance, around The Big Easy. Rance, a jazz singer, just moved to New Orleans from New York and had been so busy adjusting that he had not taken time to sight see.

A few days before Mardi Gras, GiGi masked her attraction, got up her nerve and asked Rance to show him around The Crescent City. Sensing her admiration, Rance was flattered and took her up on her offer. They dressed to impress and set off to be a tourist in their own city. Mardi Gras traffic is very heavy so they took a ferry ride downtown and "let the good times roll." Together, they caught beads and trinkets at parades, listened to live jazz bands, saw beautiful art, went dancing on Bourbon Street and even traveled in a horse and buggy along The Mississippi River. As the pair’s craving for cuisine heightened, they arrived at Angel Food Grill ready to devour some savory seafood. The PayLess deal included a basket of dinner rolls, an appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 desserts and 2 cocktails. The rolls were warm and fluffy. Rance was surprised at how much he loved charbroiled oysters on the half-shell. After the hors d'oeuvre, they ordered two very different dishes. GiGi ordered a fancy fish dinner that many of her customers highly recommended. Rance ordered a simple red beans and rice dinner with fried catfish. GiGi's fish was not the tastiest. Infact, it was inedible along with the side of grossly made gumbo with collard greens in it. Rance nearly puked at the site of it and decided to get a doggy-bag to take his dinner to-go.

Because she wanted to impress Rance, GiGi was very embarrassed that the place in which she worked would serve something so disgusting and complained to the manager and insisted that collard greens were, indeed, not an ingredient of gumbo. As the chef was reprimanded, it turned out he prepared the meal under the influence of alcohol due to being intoxicated by tourists and parade goers treating him to Fat Tuesday cocktails. GiGi was offered a new entree and as a courtesy the chef offered them a free glass of their new merlot, Jetbird. Rance wasn't a wine drinker but did not turn it down. GiGi ordered crawfish pasta so they both decided to stay and enjoy their meal, and the remaining cocktail and dessert on PayLess deal. When finished they sat and talked by candle light over their complimentary glass of Jetbird. They discovered each other's similar sense of humor and common interest in performing arts. In her drunken banter she admitted to having a crush on Rance since she overheard him recording music in his garage. As Rance smiled, his eyes met hers in adoration. He leaned in for a candle lit kiss to her wine-smeared lips and GiGi happily obliged. A glass of merlot set the mood for a romantic first date finale.