The menu is clearly seafood, with a smattering of other types, as it has done for nearly 75 years. Choices for the evening (with a little borrowing from the online menu):

• Asian noodle & vegetable Bowl with grilled shrimp (Joyce)
• 7 ounce Canadian cold water lobster tails (Chay)
• baked Florida grouper fillet encrusted with our special mixture of herbs, spices, panko bread crumbs and parmesan cheese then topped with a light garlic cream sauce (Mark, Don)
• shore platter with a 5-piece shrimp cocktail to start and a heaping platter of deep fried Tiger Shrimp, Sea Scallops, Ipswich Clams, Maryland Oysters, and Haddock (Deb K)
• shrimp sampler platter with shrimp scampi, fried shrimp, and a 4 ounce stuffed colossal shrimp (Deb T)
• pork tenderloin (Ken)
• fried shrimp (Kriss)

            Most thought entrées were very good, modified with one off-note.

Entrées included a mashed potato (mixed reviews) and soggy, soft green beans (unanimous).

A greens salad was included with entrées – a six inch plate with a standard mix, and choices of several dressings. Most of us like an included salad although we have witnessed that nearly half of our restaurants have foregone it.

Appetizers: the Notars ordered a dozen raw oysters, deemed so-so.

Preceding all of this was the delivery of two tall buckets, with paper covering whatever was inside. We confirmed it was bread rolls, good ones, accompanied by two ramekins of individual plastic packets of butter spread. DP8 is a happier crowd with something, almost anything, to munch on between water glasses and salads, and these rolls were a good enough match.

Desserts: We passed! Not often seen with DP8, especially with Don and Kriss eyeing the dessert menu.

Drink order:

• Red’s keeps a wide list of libations, including a few inexpensive house orders. A bottle of Salmon Run chardonnay and a bottle of Prosecco fit that category. Otherwise, glasses of wine, a beer, a soda or two, a Sangria, and water filled the round. And coffee for you know who!

The evening’s bill, per couple, before tip, centered around $75, give or take $5, except for the $110ish bill.

Service by Rachel was excellent for our setting. She appeared to be handling a few more customers than average and she seemed to be in quiet control, with only a couple of semi-noticeable pauses. Efficient, calm, personable, confident – a worthy representative for Red’s

Ambiance was a big change of pace for most of us. Red’s is known for its wood paneling in the dining area, booths, seafood motif, with an air that resonates of the 1950s, which is not far off from their beginning.

            However, we were escorted through the entryway, through the hallway that normally leads back to the bathrooms, and were shown the back door. Awaiting us, under a short overhead covering, was their new covered deck, a 30x30 metal-roof covered space, with the detachable side plastic walls. With a capacity of about sixty, their new space (covid only?) would be handy for private events which, as it turned out, is what they advertise.

            Even with the forecast rain about to settle in, and with a stiff breeze from the south buffered by the main restaurant’s walls, and with temps near 70 degrees, it was a comfortable and new setting for us, especially for those of us still queasy about indoor seating. Lighting was comfortably dim which makes menu reading a challenge but was pleasant the rest of the time.

            The noise level was softened by the open walls and taller ceiling but there was not much competition from the other customers this evening. Departure was through the open wall without entering the restaurant.

Tables, types of chairs, settings, glassware, etc., were fine but seemed less significant than usual, thus avoiding the usual notice.

So, off to the western end of the world we drove, into the approaching storm, with splatters just as we drove into Freehold, with an earlier burst near Earlton.

A monthly meeting allows for a catch-up on news and goings-on: the Notars’ wine tastings in CA, Covid among friends, one retiree busily enjoying a few hours at closings, better wireless on Weed Rd, the early snowbirds getting the Freehold house in order, backyard pools closing up, a Teator trip to MA & VT, a Notar trip to Italy, lawns that continue to need cutting, the spate of sizable rain events this summer, mah-jongg, someone stepping on a rake, hair coloring, past experiences at Red’s, good September weather (generally), winter plans in Florida, the doings of our children, early morning walks, care of our surviving parents (two?), gardening, day trips, almost no national news, (change of) health insurances effectiveness and costs, our own aches and pains (less than usual), bicycling, the whereabouts of our other DP8 friends, and the usual snippets that fill a couple hours or three.