Death By Meat

Rewind 10 years....

This is the welcoming committee when my brother Tyson and I arrived in Brazil a decade ago.  We flew down to see my parents, who presided over the Brasilia LDS mission.  Note the missionary standing behind me, Nick Clayton (who happens to be one of John and my favorites)...

And now we're back to the future-- here Nick is again this past Sunday, in our church branch building of all places!  This picture was taken right after we picked our jaws off the floor at seeing each other. 

It turns out, Nick was here opening a new Brazilian restaurant in downtown Milwaukee-- Rodizio Grille.  He is one of the upper-ups at that company, and they have 11 restaurants around the country with 10 additional ones opening in 2013.  His job is to train the new staff.

He hooked us up with two spots for VIP Night, which was the evening before the grand opening.  

Nope, that wasn't a typo-- VIP Night.  We've never been VIPs before except to our moms!  We tried our best to look and act important, as we were surrounded with local politicians, newscasters, journalists, CEOs, and some big people in the restaurant industry.

The gaucho waiters came by carrying spits of meat, and sliced off whatever pieces we wanted.  John kept murmuring under his breath, "I'm about to cry, this tastes so good."  It was the best Brazilian food either of us have had since living in Brazil.

Nick had practiced with the waiters how to sing Happy Birthday in Portuguese (with a Rodizio Grille twist to the song), and he asked one of us to fake a birthday so the waiters could rehearse the song.  So we were serenaded.  They did great!

We somehow managed to save room for dessert, which was absolutely worth it.

Our evening pretending we were rich and famous was over too soon!  We are glad Nick is coming back for additional training meetings in a few months.  (And we'll probably have eaten at Rodizio Grille several times before then.)