| Lunch with Howie Cafe Med - Sunset Blvd. - West Hollywood, CA June 17, 2005 Composed by Angela and Debi on the drive home from LA |
| I first heard about Caf� Med when Ryan Seacrest mentioned it on the radio a few years ago as his favorite place for pizza. Since then we�ve learned that it is somewhat of a celebrity hot spot; Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson ate there on Newlyweds, and recently we�ve seen paparazzi pictures of Nick, Kevin, and Howie eating there as well. Debi and I have driven past the place many times during our LA adventures and have always said that we wanted to go there ourselves, so this weekend we finally made it happen and had surprisingly good results. :-) We arrived at Caf� Med around 12:30 pm, were seated outside on the patio, and ordered our lunch. Just after we got our food, Howie walked in! Of course we nearly choked because we were *hoping* something like this would happen, but we never expected it actually would. Howie was wearing a bright orange t-shirt, jeans, and sunglasses, and although he was by himself, he asked for a larger table because people were going to be joining him. We could only hope that it would be Nick and/or any of the other Boys, a thought that made us even more nervous and excited. Howie was seated outside on the patio a few tables away from us but with his back to us. He was sitting by himself reading a menu and waiting for his guests to arrive, so we decided that it wouldn�t be too intrusive to talk to him. We mustered up our courage, approached his table, and told him that we were at The Tonight Show taping the day before and that we were happy to see BSB back together. Howie shook our hands and said thank you several times. Then I told him to enjoy his lunch and we went back to our own table. Around 1:30 Howie�s guests arrived, two female friends in their 30�s. Unfortunately no Nick or any other Backstreet Boys. :-( Oh well, one out of five isn't bad! lol We tried to eat very slowly so we could watch Howie and his friends. From where we were seated we saw that he ordered ice tea, soup, and some kind of spaghetti with red sauce. Yes, we WERE paying that much attention! At one point Howie must have dripped some sauce on his t-shirt because he asked several waiters for something to clean the spot, and then we saw him dip his napkin into his glass of water and clean it. lol Thank God his back was to us so he didn�t see us watching his every move! We tried to drag out our lunch as much as possible, but after 2 pm we decided to pay our bill and wait to catch Howie in the parking lot as he left. From where we were situated in the parking lot, we could still keep an eye on his table. Finally around 3 pm (yes, we waited a long time lol) Howie and his friends got up to leave the restaurant. As they approached the parking lot I asked, �Howie, do you mind stopping for a picture?� Of course he was super sweet and agreed. As we were taking our individual pictures with him he kept asking us questions, like where we were from, if we enjoyed The Tonight Show performance, and if we stayed up to watch it on tv. When we told him that we managed to stay awake even though we were tired from camping out all night, he said, �I�m sorry.� lol We laughed and I told him that it wasn�t his fault and that it was worth it, and Debi said, �We were looking forward to it!� Howie asked us our names and introduced us to his friends, who were very nice. He also asked us if we were going to see BSB on tour and of course we said yes! He said the tour was going to be fun and I responded, �Well all the other ones were, so we wouldn�t expect anything less.� We thanked him and he said, �It was nice meeting you,� before we parted ways to walk to our cars. It turns out that he was parked right in front of us! As we drove away, Howie was still at his car talking to his friends. Now we know why they call him Sweet D � because he was as sweet as can be! BTW, the food at Caf� Med was really good, so I highly recommend it to anyone who is planning on being in the LA area. Plus you might even see a Backstreet Boy while you�re there! |
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