My Kind of Restaurant Owner

People past 50 dislike dining in a din of laughter, screams and crashing china.  A meal out should be relaxing; time to grab a minute for reflection as the food is savored. 

Some restaurant movers and shakers think that the roar of the crowd is what people come for - a falsely-generated GLEE and GOOD TIMES!

The people behind The Tropicale, 330 E. Amado Road, Palm Springs,  thetropicale.com have managed to come up with a quiet restaurant!  Sure, they still have some hard surfaces on some of the walls, but they also have thick carpet, padded booths (as opposed to tables and chairs) and thick curtains hanging from the high ceilings to catch screams and shrieks that travel up.  The bar (usually the loudest part of any restaurant) was directly behind our booth and even it was muted despite being full of people. 

We opened with drinks (of course.)  Anne spotted what turned out to be a lovely pinot grigio named "Gnarly Head" and she and Frank opted for a glass each ($7.50) while I had a dirty gin martini and Richie a Stella Artois.  Service was smooth and friendly.

We enjoyed people watching as we sipped.  Apparently the place is a favorite with the terminally hip young'uns and in they poured with the women working 6 in. sandals, short skirts and many a giggle and hair toss.  The men wore chinos or khakis and shirts unbelted and outside the pants; not a real favorite male look of mine unless the man is a legitimate Wine Country worker of some sort. 

Our orders:
Frank - Striped Bass with saffron pilaf of sautéed Spanish sausage, green mussels, calamari, Castillo olives, raisins, almonds in a smoked pimento pan sauce.  ($30)
Anne and Richie - Crispy bacon wild Stone Crab cakes with an arugula and Belgian endive salad with an avocado cream and tomato vinaigrette ($16 each)
I went nuts and ordered the pupu platter  - two or three of each:  chicken skewers, beef skewers, coconut prawns, pork ribs and Vietnamese spring rolls ($26) thinking to share, but, focused on their own food, no one was interested.  I had a heavy doggie bag...