whilst in boston last week - a crew of us had a late night dinner in the north end at lucca. it had a hip, open decor - although it was a tad bit hard to read the menu because it was so dim. electronica pulsed in the background at a pleasant and nearly imperceptible level.

the wine list was expensive and daunting, the italian red prices climbed steadily toward the cost of my mortgage payments - and a bottle of ponzi noir (albeit a reserve) was well over $60. we chose beer.

the big guy ordered mussels sauteed in garlic, white wine, mustard and herbs. they dissapeared in a matter of seconds, as did the bread on the table as we sopped up every last drop of the sauce they were served in.

the dinners came not long after, and were incredible to say the least. i ordered the wild boar rigatoni. it was a study in contrast - the game flavor of the boar, combined with the sweet and sour of the ragu. the pasta was just a touch al dente, and the meat had been slow cooked and was soft and stringy. the others enjoyed their meals as much - each seemed as artfully done as the next.

but enough about the food - the hilarious thing was what was going on outside while we enjoyed this lovely and decadent meal... for about 45 minutes there was a silver saab parked in the middle of the street out in front of the restaurant. there were two young men - the one in the drivers seat had a stack of cash, and the passenger kept leaving and returning to the car with even more cash. occassionally someone would approach the driver and make an exchange.

we kept an eye on this activity for nearly an hour, at which point a police car drove up the street, went to considerable trouble to maneuver around this car - still parked in the middle of a very narrow lane - and they didn't even blink twice. they didn't stop or return later. finally the saab did a victory lap around the block and sped away. silly drug dealers.

we passed on the dessert opportunity because we were stuffed... and retreated to the safe, safe streets of the north end of boston.