Even though I’ve met a few friends for coffee or lunch over recent weeks, we’ve all been feeling desperate to go out for the evening. As Lina put it, “I didn’t move to Buenos Aires to stay home at night!”

Sasha is a young Peruvian friend who used to be Venetia’s room mate several years ago, but she is now part of our larger group of friends. Venetia and I went for a glass of wine at her place on Monday evening and then we all went out in search of a place for dinner. They live in Palermo, which is a very big barrio and I’m not intiminately familiar with it, so I left the choice of restaurant to them.

We ended up in a very nice place called Velvet. It has a kind of local feel to it, and the food was excellent. As is often the case, there was way too much food, and we all took half home for Tuesday’s dinner! It was peppery chicken with Spanish potatoes (kind of home made potato chips but a bit thicker, and quite delicious).

Before I went to meet the chicas, I had heard from my sister-in-law, Elise, that she has officially retired, so here we are drinking Malbec to toast her happy retirement! (Venetia is beside me and Sasha across the table.)

I hope this was the first of many more nights out as summer approaches in Argentina!