I was so pleased when chef Danny Cárdenes sent me a message inviting me to the opening party – or reopening party – following the expansion of his lovely Lima Street Food. This is a little sister to Danny’s fabulous Raices, but now she is not so little. Over the summer they expanded into a next door location and have now tripled the indoor seating (previously just 15) with another dining room that opens onto a side street.

Anyhow, got there early to discover that the many of the usual suspects (local “influencers”) were already there having beers out on the patio. So we got a couple of beers and waited to be invited inside for the actual party. About an hour later we were still waiting, which wasn’t a problem, these things sometimes take awhile to get going. The problem (for me) was that during that hour the number of guests had more than doubled and there was no way I was going to go inside with such a large group of people, unmasked because eating and drinking, and so we headed home, stopping off for a couple of tapitas at a place I hadn’t been to for a few years, La Monumental. It still ended up quite a nice evening, just not the one I’d been expecting. Also, got 8500 steps in (!!) and was in bed by midnight.