It’s fair to say that we don’t get out as much as we used to, what with kids and all. Sometimes a little creative scheduling can go a long way though. Take last Thursday for example: while Mrs. B talked the babysitter into staying half and hour later than usual, we ducked out of the office a few minutes early. Our rendez-vous point: Locanda Vini & Olii on Gates and Cambridge. This Italian restaurant–our favorite in the borough–has been a Clinton Hill staple since long before its brownstones cleared the $1 million mark. We started with a bottle of the house white, a crisp 2004 Plozner Tocai Friulano, while Mrs. B ordered up a green salad and her usual branzini baked in parchment paper with organic spinach while we went for the sardines to start followed by the papardelle with braised rabbit. While sharing a dessert of flourless chocolate cake, we struck up a conversation with the pair at the next table, an artist from Toronto and a real estate developer from Gowanus, before rushing off to relieve the babysitter. Locanda Vini & Olii is located at 129 Gates Avenue in Clinton Hill; 718-622-9202.