Dave and I had a special date and a fantastic dinner last night, and three things made this possible.. (1) my MIL/FIL visited earlier this week and offered to take Lawson back home with them so Dave could get some work additional work done on the play area (to be completed this weekend!) while I worked from home - (thank you, Mel & Ellen!), (2) I'm in between projects right now, so I was home last night to make it happen, and (3) for all the nights I'm not at home each quarter, I get a gift card from my company as a little thank you which we used last night...
So onto our dinner! We made reservations at Chef Frank Stitt's Highlands Bar and Grill which was nominated for the past two years as one of the top five restaurants in the entire nation by the James Beard foundation. (Dave and I have learned from watching "Top Chef" (our favorite show) that a James Beard award is a big deal in the food world.) Anyway, this was our first time to visit and the food was AMAZING! We were in heaven! We even got to say hello to the Chef when he came by our table. Dave had beef carpaccio and then the guinea hen dish, and I had a cheese plate and then a chilled lump crap meat, avocado, and cilantro salad. Let me tell you, that "salad" (a whole avocado topped with crap meat with sprinkles of cilantro/baby tomaotes with four chilled crap claws) was bliss! The crab meat tasted like it was cured like a ceviche with lemon/limes (Lisa, I told Dave it reminded me of when you introduced me to ceviche at that restaurant near the Santa Monica pier!)
We also had a bottle of wine from the Chateau Montelena winery in Napa which is apparently a very famous winery that put "Napa" on the map. Dave and I didn't know anything about it, but by coincidence we watched a movie recently (called Bottle Shock) which tells the true story of this struggling winery who was chosen to be part of the 1976 blind taste test in Paris against French wines. As the story goes, the California Chardonnay was picked by Parisian judges as the best white wine at the event forever changing snobby attitudes about non-French wines. So anyway, when we saw the Montelena wine on the menu last night, we had to go for it! We opted for the Cabernet, and it was very good! Finally, we finished up our meal with chocolate mousse cake and creme brulee and cappuccino - yummy!
We had such a delightful time. I even wore my hair down! ; )
4 comments:
GREAT THAT YOU HAD SOME QUALITY TIME TOGETHER. WE HAD GREAT FUN PLAYING WITH LAWSON IN THE LAKE AND DOING ART PROJECTS. THE MOST SPECIAL AND REWARDING EXPERIENCE WAS HAVING HIM SHARE HIS DEEP INSIGHTS WITH US. HIS POWERS OF OBSERVATION JUST BLOW US AWAY. WE ARE AVAILABLE MOST ANYTIME TO SPEND TIME THIS WAY. MUCH LOVE TO YOU ALL, MOM -ELLEN-GRANDMOTHER
Reading this makes me hungry. Glad ya'll got to enjoy a night out.
Oh my goodness, that all sounds so heavenly! What a wonderful meal, and that you got to spend it together. I'm a Hell's Kitchen girl myself (we never used to get Bravo), but there are so many dishes I would love to try now.
Top Chef is one of my faves...always on the DVR. Loved your run down of the special date night meal, sounds delish! But my favorite, and I quote: "I even wore my hair down."
I totally get that. And it made me smile at the thought of your beautiful, thick locks not pulled back in a low pony with your big pearl earrings showing. :)
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