Tartfully prepared

I've smugly uttered the following phrase approximately 26 times: "Oh, well I never order the same thing twice." My, my. How cosmopolitan of you, dear. But alas, as I add years to my life I find some comfort in having my "usual." At my table. In my restaurant.

Enter Gilchrist--despite the menu, I always relish my toasted wheat pimento cheese, complete with a juicy southern tomato and leafy lettuce. I even forgive the plump sandwich's forlorn attempt to contain all of the cheese as it drips onto the styrofoam plate. Gilchrist's famed limeade adds to the panoply of flavor. Must admit that I've never tried anything else on the alphabet-sign menu.

Gilchrist is an Mountain Brook village mainstay, tucked into its old-school, drugstore location for decades. It's a pledge sister outing away from our glorious campus cafeteria. An after-school stop for my 9-year-old boyfriend and I before baseball practice. It's even calmed my nerves on a first date with an older boy. (Are we calling that a date? No? Okay.) Company regardless--I'll have the pimento cheese on toasted wheat with a limeade, please ma'am.