We Reconciled Our Marriage at Johnny B. Good

When Zach and I got married in NY in 2012, we thought it was going to last forever. Then the stress that came with moving abroad to Argentina practically tore us apart. We were separated and our 12-year relationship, of which we had spent a year and a half married, had come to an end.

During our 8-month separation, we realized that we still loved each other and needed one another to get through the challenges we faced since we moved here. So we are officially back together!

To celebrate, we went to a restaurant that I’ve been dying to go to since we moved here two years ago. It’s called Johnny B. Good and it's located in the heart of Nueva Cordoba.

The restaurant offers a variety of Americanized dishes. The first thing we noticed as we came in is how much it reminded us of Uno’s Chicago Grill or Chili’s, two of our favorite restaurants back in the States.

We got there at noon, but were afraid that they weren’t serving yet. We’ve had some previous experiences with other restaurants in Cordoba where they won’t serve you unless it’s 1 p.m. I’m not talking about the fast food restaurants of course but the fancier restaurants. So it was very nice of Johnny B. Good to open their doors at 12. 

The menu had an assortment of appetizers, main courses, and my favorite, desserts. Zach and I started out with the potato skins. They’re not exactly like the ones they serve in the States, but it was close enough. The inside is stuffed with cheese and there’s no way you can avoid noticing how thick these puppies are. Potato Skins are usually thin and have cheddar and bacon bits sprinkled over them. These were gigantic but still delicious.

Then I went ahead and ordered the Philly cheesesteak, which I haven’t had in ages. They call it the Golden Baguette here and it only costs 83 Argentine pesos (9.86 USD as of the 9/8/14 exchange rate).

Zach had a burger with huge onion rings, not those scrawny shriveled up things they give you at BK. The bacon wasn’t really bacon because it’s hard to find in Argentina. They have something similar here, but the texture isn’t the same. It’s softer and feels raw in your mouth, but Zach loved the burger just the same. The cost was about the same as the Philly cheesesteak.

We were stuffed but decided to go ahead and push our stomachs beyond their limit and order some dessert.

Zach had something that looked like an Oreo ice cream cookie with vanilla sauce on the side. While I had a brownie cup, which was… well… it’s kind of difficult to explain. The first layer is whipped cream with a layer of fruit, followed by a layer of "Dulce de Leche" (A caramel-like spread that is very popular here) and a brownie crumbled at the bottom of the glass cup.

With drinks (non-alcoholic), the bill came up to 425 Argentine pesos (50 USD as of the 9/8/14 exchange rate).

All in all, it was money well spent to celebrate our reconciliation. Afterwards we went walking around the city and saw that the annual book fair was in full bloom in Plaza San Martin. I covered the last two fairs, but this year I felt that there wasn’t anything new or special to report.

Debating whether or not to go into the book fair

Zach and I went through the fair rather quickly. We were looking for novels in English, but since they don’t sell many of those here, the bookstores that take part in the fair didn’t bother to bring their small selection of English novels.

The fair did serve one purpose and that was to kill time until our movie started. In case I haven’t mentioned it before, we have a history of going to the movies over the last 12 years. Our ticket stub collection is almost as big as the thousands of DVDs we own. We watched the comedy “Sex Tape” with Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz. We were the only people who laughed at the jokes because we were used to that type of humor but the film wasn’t that good.

On a different note, Zach recently became the proud uncle of a beautiful baby girl (I guess that by marriage that makes me an uncle too) and we'd like to take the time to congratulate his brother and his wife for their new addition. Whether we get the chance to meet our niece remains  to be seen.

I would also like to congratulate my very dear friend Amber and her husband Chris on the birth of baby Nathan.

We love and miss our friends and family back in the States, but are grateful for the wonderful friends we've made during our stay in Argentina.