Happy (Birthday) Hour!

[sunbaked_baker]

She had only requested the tea, but a chocolate cupcake and a napkin had accompanied the fragrantly steaming cup of lemongrass and ginger. Upon reading the napkin, Sunshine grinned brightly.

"Oh, thank you! I hadn't realized it was today. It's still late May, back home," she smiled, patting the bar before picking up the cupcake and heading towards the kitchen. "You don't worry about a thing. I'll take care of it."

It was a couple of hours later that Sunshine re-emerges from the kitchens, the scents of good food following her out into the bar room, and steps behind the bar. She'll need an extra chalkboard today.

Summer Solstice Happy Hour!
Drinks Specials
-Iced teas
-Iced coffees
-Mojitos
-Champagne

(Vegetarian) Dinner Specials
-Butterleaf and sorrel salad with strawberries, candied pecans, avocado, feta cheese, and blueberry-poppy seed vinaigrette
-Summertime lemon-vegetable risotto with basmati rice, sugar snap peas, asparagus, crook-necked squash
-Roasted zucchini stuffed with quinoa, bell peppers, arugula, grape tomatoes, and pistachios
-Spinach and egg yolk ravioli with oyster mushrooms in a truffle butter sauce(limited supply)

Dessert Specials
Cinnamon Rolls As Big As Your Head
Bitter Chocolate Death
Meringuamania
Hell's Angelfood
Death of Marat (limited supply)


"Happy Solstice, Milliways!" announces the birthday girl and current bartender with a grin. "Happy Hour is a go!"

Comments

[sunbaked_baker]

"I like to experiment to see what works before I offer it as a finished recipe," she replies, grinning again at the compliment. "Think there's a sign-up sheet in the coffeehouse back home, for when I'm trying out a new idea and need test-subjects."

These served here, however, are not new. These are some that have passed with flying colors.

[cook_the_rude]

"Feel free to ruthlessly experiment on me if you feel like it," Hannibal says, smiling.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Mwah-ha-ha-ha," she grins, completely unconvincingly. "You've fallen into my very clever trap."

Yeah, no. Sunshine couldn't be evil if she tried.

[cook_the_rude]

"It is a trap I quite enjoy being in," he says, playfully.

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae smiles. "That's what makes it so clever."

Good food is comfort, a happiness, something to savor. Rae likes seeing the enjoyment on her customers' faces when they take their first bites, to know that she can have a positive impact on their day. It reminds her why she does everything else. Reminds her that she can make good things with her hands. Her hands which are not tainted. She needs to be able to do this, so she can stand to do the other. Her customers come back again and again because she is a comfort to them; she continues baking because the happiness of her customers is a comfort to her.

And everyone deserves good food, in Sunshine's mind. From New York firemen who wouldn't know a truffle if it bit them, Japanese florists who fight to save the world, to remarkably self-possessed psychiatrists who know how to make paisley look damn good.