Up and down and all around Charlotte

Talk about a whirlwind weekend.

Thursday night I headed to NC for a wedding and got to spend a decent amount of time in Charlotte eating delicious foods, enjoying the beautiful weather, and condo-hunting my booty off (yes, I’m moving!).

Thursday night my flight got into CLT around 7pm, so pizza was the obligatory dinner of the evening.

Libretto’s Pizzeria

We ordered a 10 inch “personal size” spicy sausage pizza:

Some garlic knots:

And a side salad:

The pizza was FABULOUS.  Despite being described as “four small pieces” this 10 inch pizza was MORE than enough for two people.  Actually, I only ate one piece of the pizza (which honestly was like 2 normal size pieces).  Not “small” in any way…

The garlic knots were also awesome (and cheap) and it gave us the chance to try out Libretto’s pasta sauce for dipping.  The sauce was delish—I’ll definitely venture to their pasta dishes in the future.

Only downside—the salad was crazy expensive given it was merely lettuce, tomato, a bit of cheese and dressing.  $5.95???  Come on now.

So, back to the condo hunting—after driving around Charlotte for hours on end scoping out neighborhoods, I was able to eliminate about 90% of the pre-selected units I wanted to look at.  So much for being proactive.

Low and behold there was one FABULOUS oober CHIC condo in a great location (and in my price range)!  As soon as I walked in, I KNEW it was the one.  I could totally picture myself living there and the current owners were super nice.  I dare say they were great future landlords

Soooo… that evening the BF and I put the great condo search of 2011 out of our heads, and headed out to treat ourselves to a DELICOUS dinner.

Dolce

I’m not sure there is a better way to describe dinner at Dolce other than it truly was a pleasure to all of my senses.  I absolutely adore this place.  The food was outstanding, the ambiance was great, and the waiter was so friendly and accommodating.  I love the south.

You all know I’m a sucker for free (tasty) food—so the house beans and bread were right up my alley:

For our appetizer, we went with the Napoleone, which was layers of oven roasted tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, baked & served on crostini bread and then drizzled with balsamic reduction.

Come to mama:

Thing of beauty:

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Of course there was wine involved:

And for our entre, we split the Amtriciana:  Bucatini sautéed with shallots, pancetta, lightly spided tomato sauce and aged pecorino cheese plus we added grilled chicken:

If you’re in Charlotte, go to Dolce.  Eat this.  You will thank me 🙂

Cowfish

I’ve been dying to go to Cowfish since I purchased the Living Social deal MONTHS ago, and we finally went this weekend.

It was a beautiful 80 degree day in Charlotte (hello, it’s March!), so we went with a light refreshing app:

The diced chicken mu shu lettuce wraps!

Crisp chilled iceberg lettuce for wrapping around fresh diced chicken and sautéed vegetables, simmered in a tasty brown sauce… This was hands down FABULOUS.

Since we went light for the appetizer, we decided to go balls to the wall crazy for our main meals.  I ordered the Turkey Boursin Burger, which had a JUICY turkey burger topped with rich garlic & herb boursin cheese, sautéed mushrooms and grilled onions atop a brioche bun with lettuce and tomato.

Boom.

The BF got the Stringin’ the blues Chicken Sandwich, which had blackening seasoning, blue cheese crumbles, a pile of crispy onion strings and homemade gorgonzola sauce (!) on a brioche bun.

Without exaggeration in anyway, these may have been the most amazing burgers this mouth has ever tasted.  Holy wow is all I can say.

On a separate visit to Cowfish, I went with the Bento Box which gives you a little bit of everything including a mini burger and a sushi roll.  Great for the indecisive glutton (aka MOI!).

SOOOOO CONDO HUNT—the next morning I get a text from my adorable future-landlord asking if I can meet for a quick cup of coffee before I flew home to Ohio.  OF COURSE I can meet for coffee!  There is always time for coffee.

Much to my HORROR, over one particularly delicious cup of coffee, I was informed that the owners of my beloved condo had decided NOT to rent their unit.  Why go though all the trouble of scripting a picture perfect craigslist posting and meeting with possible tenants (not once but twice in the same day) if you aren’t a thousand percent sure you are ready to list your condo for rent?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Vivace

I REALLY tried to love Vivace.  Maybe it was that I was comparing it to the amazing dinner I had a Dolce, or maybe it was the amazing-condo-just-got-ripped-out-from-under-me blues… But Vivace just didn’t WOW me.

For our appetizer, we ordered the bruschetta with roasted mushrooms, robiola bosina (not even sure what that is), arugula, and truffle oil

This was tasty, just pretty mild – it was hurting for a drizzle of balsamic reduction in my opinion.

Then we went with the Smoked Chicken and spinach stuff agnolotti for our entre.  It was served with sun-dried tomatoes (the best part of the dish i.m.o), mushrooms, and roasted garlic crema:

I’m not a huge fan of cream-based pasta sauced, but I’ll admit this was yummy.  The BF really loved Vivace, and I’ll definitely give it another shot.

Icehouse

We also grabbed lunch at Icehouse one day, and I was not impressed.  So unimpressed actually that I didn’t take any pictures.  I went with the philly cheese steak sandwich and mac and cheese (meh and meh).

The BF got the Buffalo chicken wrap.  Ummmmm NOM NOM NOM.  (That’s me stealing bites of his food because his was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more tasty than mine).

I saw a few people order pizza while we were there, and that looked to be the star of the show.  Next time my friends, next time.

CONDO?  Wherefore art thou?  While waiting in the airport to come home, the BF informed me via excited text that he had found a condo in the same complex and the one that got away.  Same layout, same cost, etc. etc. etc.  I almost cried when he told me.  So he arranged to go view the condo with a realtor, took about 30 iPhone pics and forwarded them to me, then we proceeded to discuss the condo for about 45 minutes on the phone.

I was beyond ecstatic.

I faxed in my application first thing Monday morning.

2 hours later, I was informed someone else submitted their application before me.

What the crap.

Back to square one it is!