We try to see Tom, our severely autistic younger son, nearly every week. Usually we do this on Sunday. However, last weekend was too cold to take him out, and we are going to be very busy this coming weekend. So we took him out to dinner tonight.

mia_mcdavid picked me up outside my office in downtown Minneapolis at 4 PM, and we drove from there to Tom’s group home, which is on the west side of the city, close to the Edina border. We picked up Tom there, and, after discussing some routine business with the staff, drove about a mile to the Edina Grill. Mia had done careful research to find a restaurant that met our requirements:

1. We can get the basic meat and french fries meal that Tom likes.
2. The staff is intelligent and responsive enough to deal with Tom’s dietary requirements: Gluten Free (no wheat, barley, oats, etc.) and Casein Free (no milk protein).
3. The menu has some interesting items for us.
4. Good beer.
5. Preferably not a national chain, although Chili’s has served us well for many years.

This worked out very well. Tom, despite his disability, understands well enough how restaurants work, enjoys it, and behaves quite well. His chicken had a plum sauce which he loved. He picked out the little plum bits from his plate to eat them by themselves. Messy, but enthusiastic. The staff was perfectly courteous and very helpful. We enjoyed our food and beer. The latter was brewed in Brooklyn Center–Think globally, drink locally ;-)>

We dropped him off at his home about 6PM and headed back to Roseville. I remembered just in time that my car was still at the Rosedale parking lot, where I had left it to catch the bus in the morning. So we stopped there to retrieve it, and got home a little before 7.

So it was not only a successful outing in and of itself, it gives us another option for seeing him. Next weekend will not be the only one where we are completely tied up, so it is good to have an alternative plan.