LA Trip #6: Lunch with Satch

I was lucky enough to get away from family business for a few hours to have lunch with my old friend Tom Satriano, aka Satch. I hadn't seen him since 1997 and he seemed to have gotten younger. He had just come from the funeral of his old USC baseball coach, and was famished. At his suggestion we met at The Cheesecake Factory inside the remains of the old Valley mall, the Galleria. The cheesecakes looked amazing, but I was more into having lunch. Thankfully so was Satch. He had some sort of salad. I heard the waitress say "Tataki" which is a Japanese ginger'd fish preparation, but I couldn't find it on the online menu. I had the Chicken Madeira, which the menu claims is its most popular chicken dish. I try and order the stuff the restaurant boasts most loudly about. This was very good. A lot of cheese. I love cheese as much as any galaxy of mice but this was even a lot of cheese by my standards. I took some home, along with the mountain of potatoes Satch insisted was worth preserving.
Satch said he was down to the same weight he had as a college baseball player about the time I was playing in Kester and Chandler. Maybe the next time I see him, he'll have devolved to his kindergarten weight. Careful with those salads, Satch.