Weekend in Pictures of Food, Fun and Fabulous Company

Well dates number 4 and 5 with bachelor #1 definitely did NOT disappoint!  Friday night we went to NoDa, an arty, gallery and restaurant filled neighborhood in Charlotte and enjoyed walking around, chatting with gallery owners and street vendors and just enjoying a wonder 80 degree evening in NC.  We then made our way to Amelie's bakery and it was just delicious!  We had a flourless chocolate cake that was kind of a cheesecake consistency and just rich enough to really savor each bite.  The bakery is filled with eclectic furnishings, fixtures and people and was a wonderful date night atmosphere!  Here's a picture of our dessert and a cool decoupage saying on the table.  I also enjoyed a fantastic chai latte! Yummo!

   

Saturday proved to be a dream date from start to finish!  We met at 3 in the afternoon and headed north to an even smaller town than I live in to visit a gallery, eat dinner at one restaurant and enjoy dessert at yet another location!  The Green Goat Gallery had wonderful architectural charm and a really cool variety of paintings, artwork, sculptures and jewelry.  The owner and her family were there and were super friendly and their son was too cute!  I would definitely like to check it out again and would be a great place to shop for an unusual gift or special art piece!

Next we went next door to the gallery to Pinocchio's Italian Restaurant.  It had an 'old world' charm to it that was so quaint and the waitstaff was super friendly!  We ordered minestrone, chicken cacciatore and pizza with Italian sausage and all it was yummy! Not sure if I'd make the trip if I was in the mood for Italian back to this restaurant, but if I was in the area, I'd go there again for sure!

   

  

 

We then drove not too far away to La Cava to have dessert, not sure if we could even be seated since it was Saturday night and we didn't have a reservation.  But they gladly let us come in for dessert and oh my goodness did we have dessert!  The restaurant is in a restored early age church and the stained glass window and decorations were just beautiful!

  

  

Our waitress came to the table with the dessert cart and told us about each one...each sounded absolutely divine!  Here's where any girl's dream date comes into play...our conversation:

Him: "what do think about the lemon?"

Me: "that sounds yummy, I love lemon."

Him: "really? I would have chosen any of them but lemon"

Me: "they all look good to me, so you pick"

Him (to the waitress): "we'll take a piece of each"

Me (to myself): "I'm sorry what did you say? One of each of EIGHT desserts? I must've heard you wrong!!!"

So we proceed to sample all eight desserts that were being offered that night.  Here's a picture of our table....I mean seriously? Who does this????? Oh man, I could so get used to this! Might not be able to button my pants, but gee whiz..a man who loves food this much!  WOW!

So here they are individually with their names...and each one was heavenly!

Torta della Nonna - lemon custardy dessert...omg good!

Frutta di Bosca - with raspberries, strawberries and currants on top

Profiterole - custard filled puff covere in chocolate icing

Chantilly Napoleon - flaky pastry and omg good light fluffy filling

Tartufata - my date's favorite, a light cake with creme and dark chocolate shavings

Tiramisu - not usually a favorite, but this one was very very good

Chocolate fondant cake - oh so rich and yummy



Profiterole again - chocolate filled this time with fluffy creme on outside

So as we are demolishing our favorites, saving a couple for me to bring home later...my date says...I think I want to order something else...I look at him like he's crazy and ask him where in the world he's going to put it...mind you we've already eaten supper and sampled EIGHT desserts!  So he has the waitress come back over and tell us about the appetizers.  He glances over at me when she mentions the escargot and the calamari...ewwww I mean really?  But I hesitantly agree to try them both, never having had escargot and not a fan of seafood in any fashion, I was extremely underwhelmed about trying them, but excited none the less because he really wanted me to try them in this restaurant...so I did...the escargot came in a piping hot dish and if I can compare the snail to something it would be a super well sauteed mushroom....they had so much garlic, melted butter and cheese around it that was all you could really taste.  It was served with bread to scoop out the snail, cheese, butter and garlic together and was actually quite tasty!


Escargot...you can see the little dish insets...each had a snail, butter, garlic and cheese in it

Then on to the calamari, which I'm pretty sure I've had before, but since I kind of have an aversion to sea food, not because of allergies or anything, just because I'm not a huge fan, but this was very tender and had a perfect amount of breading and the homemade marinara sauce it came with was awesome!!!!

Calamari

I can't think of a more perfect date than this one to date, with bachelor #1 or anyone else!  Just wonderful adventure from start to finish and the conversation was just as pleasing!  He's winning me over quickly with his love for life and especially for food, his conversation and wonderful listening skills (he actually pays attention to what I say AND remembers it!!).   It will be hard to top this date, but I'm anxious to see what our next adventure is...We have date #6 tonight, but it's my treat at our local Chinese restaurant SoHo and I can't wait to see him again!

Until next time, Blessings!
S