Restaurants – Page 10 – Fervent Foodie

Inside Great Harvest Bread Co.

April 3, 2012 8 Comments

One of my many food fantasies is that I’ll someday own a small cafe—just a breakfast and lunch joint where your coffee mug is topped off every three seconds and the food is unpretentious and comforting. At Mary’s Cafe we’ll do all the baking in house. There will be homemade bagels slathered in cream cheese, scratch english muffins topped with melting butter and blackberry jam, and piping hot paninis made from homemade focaccia. For dessert? Triple chocolate cake, and flourless chocolate cake, and molten chocolate cake topped with chocolate fudge and homemade ice cream… oh, and maybe a chocolate chip cookie or two.

Granted this fantasy hinges on my baking experience, which consists primarily of baking the cookie recipe on the back of the Nestle chocolate chips bag a thousand times or two. (I don’t care what people say—it’s ok to use the recipe on the back of the bag.)

Fresh-baked bread is one of the simple pleasures in life. I consider myself a free-basket-of-bread connoisseur, but I’ve never been behind the scenes at a cafe (or a bakery for that matter). That is until last month, when I got the opportunity to knead some dough at the Great Harvest Bread Co. in North Charlotte.

Giveaway, Restaurants

A Big Fatz Giveaway

February 27, 2012 18 Comments

I remember the first time I drove by a Fatz restaurant. I’d never heard of Fatz, given the chain is central to the south, with locations in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Admittedly, the thought of dining at a place with “fat” in the name didn’t sound too appetizing, and I’d written it off without so much as glancing at the menu. Who am I?!

Then I got an email from Fatz asking if I’d like to come in and try the new Fatz Lite Side menu. I was more than intrigued. A light menu? At Fatz? How could this be?! I hit the web for details and was completely caught off guard by the huge selection of food Fatz offered. The new light options menu was like the fat-free icing on the chocolate cake.

This weekend we finally got to check out Fatz firsthand.

Restaurants

E2 Emeril’s Eatery – Charlotte, NC {restaurant review}

January 25, 2012 7 Comments

Emeril Lagasse’s newest restaurant, E2, opens in Charlotte Thursday January 26th. Monday night, Vanessa, my favorite foodie friend, and I got the opportunity to check out the new restaurant space and sample the wares. For those who aren’t familiar with Emeril, he is a boisterous celebrity chef, author, and restauranteur and (most importantly) my grandma loves him. I first became acquainted with Emeril through his shows on the Food Network. I was instantly attracted to the peculiar pairing of his cheerful easygoing personality and his serious kitchen demeanor. He is, in my mind, an ultimate foodie, and I both admire and envy him for it.

I’ve always liked watching Emeril cook. He’s a burly man with a big personality who likes even BIGGER flavor. Arguably, Emeril is most known for adding spice to food. He lets you know things are about to get serious by exclaiming “let’s kick it up a notch!” or voicing a booming *BAM* at the addition of a spicy ingredient. Given this *BAM* factor and Emeril’s ties to New Orleans, I was ready for some serious flavors at E2.

Restaurants

Smalls Food & Spirits – Charlotte, NC {restaurant review}

January 15, 2012 2 Comments

This past week, I got the opportunity to check out Charlotte’s newest restaurant, Smalls Food & Spirits, at their pre-opening friends and family event. Smalls is situated on Elizabeth Avenue in a funky nook of the city just outside of uptown. The Elizabeth Avenue area has a ton of character and rich history, but has been underutilized in recent years.

Smalls, which offers chef-inspired food in an intimate loungey-chic environment, is a perfect fit for the avenue. From the outside, the restaurant is quite unassuming. We actually passed it twice before we noticed the red lettering on the front door. Once through the small entryway, the space opens up into an intimate dining and bar area that seats 80 people.

Restaurants

Girls’ Night at Nolen Kitchen

January 5, 2012 5 Comments

97% of my Friday nights are spent enjoying a fine meal and some fine wine at a local Charlotte restaurant. It’s the ultimate workweek climax. After five days spent on the daily grind, five days of hustle and bustle and busting my butt, Friday night is all about slowing things down, taking a load off, and truly savoring life (and its gluttonous gifts).

A couple of weeks back, my friend Vanessa and I met for dinner at Nolen Kitchen.

Neither of us had dined at Nolen before but their unique menu wooed us to their doors just as Vanessa wooed the mysterious parking lot attendant to let us park our cars in a no-parking zone in the horribly small and awkwardly shaped parking lot. So to recap, there was a whole lot of wooing going on, and we hadn’t even had our first glass of wine yet.

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