Mrs. TBF and I went out to eat this past Friday night at Au Premier which is on the floor just above Zum Braunen Mutz at Barfüsserplatz in Basel. After having a quick drink with Jeanette and Simon, Mrs. TBF and I walked over to Yoshi Sushi with the intention of having a nice sushi dinner. When we arrived there, there was a sign on the door which said "Ausverkauft" which means that they were sold out. Can you believe it? It wasn't that late - probably 9:00 p.m. or so and they were sold out.
So, we kept walking. We came upon Zum Braunen Mutz which is a popular Basel beerhall. It's a great place to go if you want to eat sausage, drink beer, and fart non-stop for the twelve hours immediately following your dinner. Fortunately, the intense smell of cigarette smoke that permeates your clothes, skin, bone marrow, DNA, etc. will cover up any unpleasant smell of flatulence.
As we stood outside of ZBM, we noticed the menu for the upstairs restaurant (Au Premier). We had heard that there was another restaurant upstairs, but we had never been there before. We decided to give it a try. And? We're glad we did.
Au Premier is a nice, quiet, white tablecloth kind of restaurant with a good food and wine selection. We had a really nice dinner, and we really enjoyed the food (although Mrs. TBF thought it was too brightly lit). I had a sweetbread entreé (that's appetizer for everyone who's reading this in the U.S. I have no idea why Americans call the main course the entreé...it basically means the entrance to the meal...the starter, if you will.). Then I had the Palette de Poissons (kind of a fish sampler platter). I can't really remember what Mrs. TBF ate. Although, I do recall her eating fish. We washed this all down with a nice bottle of Sancerre (that's maybe why I can't remember what she ate), and then had a nice dessert.
On my way out of the restaurant, I picked up a card and I noticed that the slogan on the card read: "Die Brasserie mit Pfiff". I have seen this "mit Pfiff" before, and I could never really figure out what it meant. To me, it meant "with fife." So, feeling a bit buzzed, I charged back into the restaurant, found our waiter who spoke English, and asked him what "mit Pfiff" means. He said it means "with fife." "Yeah...but...what does that actually mean?" I asked him. He couldn't translate it to English, so we went to ask another person. She couldn't translate it either, so the three of us went to somebody who they said spoke the best English of anybody in the restaurant (he might have been the owner...I'm not sure.). They asked him in Swiss German what "mit Pfiff" is in English, he looked at me and said: "It means...with pep." Mystery solved!!!
Now, every time I do something, I tell Mrs. TBF that I'm doing it "mit Pfiff." This morning, I made coffee "mit Pfiff", fed King "mit Pfiff", emptied the dishwasher "mit Pfiff", etc. (mit Pfiff).
I think she's beginning to get annoyed...."mit Pfiff"!!!!
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