Travel – Page 5 – Fervent Foodie

Up and down and all around Charlotte

March 22, 2011 6 Comments

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 Winking smile

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.

Sad smile

What the crap.

Back to square one it is!

Restaurants, Travel

Making my Charlotte foodie rounds

January 24, 2011 5 Comments

This past weekend I jetsetted down to Charlotte to spend the weekend with my wildly-attractive recently-relocated boyfriend.

The plan was to go straight from the airport to dinner (no need to beat around the bush, right?), so I changed into my dinner clothes before catching my flight and was being SUPER careful to not wrinkle or otherwise launder my shirt before dinner. I was pretty impressed with myself because my shirt managed to make it through the flight unscathed. Once I landed, I headed to the bathroom to straighten up and when I lifted my arm to fix my hair I was greeted by a very unpleasant I-just-ran-a-marathon scent wafting up to my nose. I smelled horrible. So horrible in fact, that I’d like to apologize to the lovely old man who sat next to me in seat 8B. That must have been a rough flight for you…

Lucky for me, the BF finds humor in almost all random situations, especially those that involve me fumbling out of my intended picture of perfection. So, we rerouted to Target where the BF spent a few minutes sniffing out the best lady’s deodorant while I changed into a clean shirt in the bathroom. Just the thought of him standing in the deodorant aisle comparing Suave Sweet Pea to Secret Va-Va-Vanilla makes me chuckle. Lovely start to the weekend 🙂

After the stink debauchle we finally headed to dinner, which was courtesy of a Living Social deal I had purchased a couple months back.

I love coupons.

Intermezzo Pizzeria

First off, the atmosphere at Intermezzo was AWESOME. There wasn’t a ton of seating inside, but that was just fine by us. The whole interior of the building is brick and looks very old and is full of character. It reminded me of what I picture an old Italian cellar to look like. I loved the low lighting and of course the staff was very friendly.

Appetizers were half off (SCORE!), so we decided to order up the two that sounded most tasty. First was the bruschetta with tomatoes, scallions, house made mozzarella on top of house made bread:

Second was the garlic braided twists with garlic, herbs, and artisan olive oil:

Both of the apps were pretty good – but I preferred the garlic twists, even though they were over cooked. The bruschetta was bland and needed some balsamic glaze drizzled on top. Though, once I dunked it in the awesome tomato sauce that came with the garlic twists though it was quite tasty.

I ordered up the Intermezzo side salad so that I could squeeze in some veggies between the bread and cheese, but wasn’t a fan of the dressing so not much of it got eaten. Jarrod didn’t like the dressing either. That’s four thumbs down. Darnit… What a waste of veggies.

I was a little worried going into the dinner ordering because the apps were so-so and salad really was meh. After we eyeballed the menu one last time, we ended up ordering the Milanese pizza which came with mozzarella and romano cheese, red onions, and sausage (which we swapped in place of the grilled chicken):

The pizza was FABULOUS. Seriously delicious. Thank god because the atmosphere at Intermezzo was so awesome I definitely want to go back… though I’ll be skipping over the appetizers.

Harper’s

For lunch the next day, we headed to Pineville to grab some grub Harper’s courtesy of a Groupon purchase:

Walking into Harper’s I really wasn’t expecting anything interesting given that it’s attached to a mall. Surprisingly, the décor and atmosphere was unexpectedly cool and unique! I love when that happens!

The bar alone was HUGE and overall it seemed like a fun place to chill.

The BF went with the Chicken Caesar roasted wrap… *cough* BORING *cough*

I, on the other hand, ordered up the pimento mac and cheese:

Holy canoli. After a couple bites, I added a few dashes of hot sauce and I swear to you it was mac and cheese perfection.

For the main event, I went with the pulled chicken streetside tacos which were served with fresh corn tortillas, avocado salsa, red onions, cheesy goodness, cole slaw mix, chipotle cream sauce, and cilantro.

After one bite, all I could say was WOW. Actually it was “Woooowwwwwww you have GOTTTTT to try these!!”

Jarrod agreed the tacos were fab. Two thumbs up Harpers!

Black Finn

MUCH later that night we headed to dinner at Blackfinn. Our original intentions was to go to Libretto’s for some pasta, but we couldn’t even walk into the place since the Bobcats game had just let out. So we went with the backup plan of Blackfinn.

I was being a grumpy pants when we first arrived to Blackfinn, so thankfully the BF took charge and ordered us some delicious grub. Why was I being a grumpy pants? Good question. I’ve been wondering the same thing myself.

We started off with some side salads with balsamic vinaigrette — and they were just delicious. Blackfinn’s salad really made up for the crappy salad I had at Intermezzo, and THANKFULLY started to pull me out of my illusive bad mood.

For the entre, we split the blackened chicken alfredo with fettuccine. The pasta had a really creamy alfredo sauce and diced tomatoes, red onion, parmesan cheese, and the piece de resistance–GARLIC BREADDDDD.

Note that no pictures were taken of this meal because of the aforementioned grumpfest, though somewhere between the salad and pasta I was back to my normal self.

Sunset Grille

Sunday Sunday Sunday… my last day in Charlotte (for this trip at least), so we headed to Sunset Grille for some Sunday Brunch, courtesy of a Groupon deal.

As soon as we walked in to Sunset Grille I was in love with the place. I was completely caught off guard by the decor and ambiance (in a very good way). I think the best way to describe it would be Southern Swank — horse hair covered stools, rugged high top tables with sleek white leather chairs, and white bull skulls on the wall. All of the staff seemed to have the slow southern draw down pat as well, which I adore about North Carolina.

My newfound love was only strengthened when they brought us a **FREE** welcome basket of fresh doughnut fritters:

Yes, please!

We decided to go with our breakfast standby–something sweet and something savory split in twos between us. For the savory, we had the three egg omelet with baby spinach, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, and provolone cheese plus we added in some of Neese’s homemade sausage and a side of scattered hashbrowns:

For our sweet dish, we ordered the buttermilk pancakes with chocolate chips

These pancakes were melt in your mouth delicious. I love this place and can’t wait to go back and try out their lunch and dinner dishes!

All in all a wonderful weekend in Charlotte! Can’t wait for my next trip 😀

Restaurants, Travel

Charlotte Foodie Scrap Book

January 4, 2011 7 Comments

A whole week in Charlotte and what to do… what to do?

How bout trying as many restaurants as humanly possible? Don’t mind if I do!

Ain’t that the truth?

Ramblings, Travel

Things I’ve learned over a week in Charlotte

January 3, 2011 4 Comments

The people in Charlotte are nice. Like SUPER nice. Like almost weirdly nice. I love them.
Carwashes in Charlotte are a whole heck of a lot cheaper than in Ohio… 30% cheaper, to be exact. Though, they will look at you funny when you ask to stay in the car as you go through the carwash. Apparently, that’s not how they do it here in Charlotte.
Everyone is really nicely dressed. Not in a I’m-better-than-thou sort of way, but in a I’m-putting-my-best-foot-forward-today (and every day for that matter) sort of way. I’m a fan.
Chicken paws are not the same thing as chicken breasts!
Speaking of chicken, why is the chicken breast at the butcher counter at Harris Teeter only $1.99 a pound??? That’s cheaper than the stuff they have on the shelves. Mystery.
Either u-turns are legal here or we’ve broken the law 7 times in the past week. I’m hoping for the former.
North Carolina is part of the South. People actually have accents here.
A Charlotte native can spot an Ohio accent a mile away… I didn’t think there was such a thing as an Ohio accent. I was wrong.
Public transportation is awesome.
People are young here. Like a city chock full of Doogie Howsers.
I’m pretty sure it’s possible to eat at a different delicious Charlotte restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for a whole year without having any repeats. I may have to try that sometime. Charlotte knows a thang or two about food. (Stay tuned for more on that topic!)

Restaurants, Travel

Bye bye New Orleans (part 4 of 4)

October 19, 2010 7 Comments

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!

Started with breakfast at a New Orleans staple:

Mother’s!

The line outside of Mothers was a little intimidating, and we contemplated seeking nourishment elsewhere. Much to our surprise, the line moved pretty fast… and even though there was an ADDITIONAL waiting line inside the restaurant we had food in front of us within 20 minutes of our arrival at the restaurant.

Unsuspecting diners waiting patiently for some grub:

Even though Mother’s is known for their ham, I have to say the BEST part of this breakfast were the homemade preserves that come with the biscuit.

I also ordered the Jerry’s omelet (egg whites, bell pepper, red onion, mushrooms, and turkey), which came with a giant blob of grits. Bleh I hate grits.

The omelet was quite tasty as was the giant belgum waffle that Jarrod ordered:

After breakfast, we headed to the Corner Oyster Bar for some football!

Luckily, they had the Sunday ticket so we were able to watch the Saints game while simultaneously watching the Browns lose to the Steelers. Awesome! :-/ Go brownies.

Showing some team spirit on the ceiling:

While watching the first half of the game, we ordered up some Down South Eggrolls:

They were delicious!

Here we go Brownies, here we go!

On the tour yesterday, the guide told us we had to try a gyro from Ali Baba because they are “just outta sight man!” So at half time, we wandered over to try things out first hand.

The goods:

Jarrod likes to pretend he’s a pirate anytime he eats a gyro. Haha 😀

So, this gyro was definitely tasty (but sorry NOLA, Nate’s Deli in Cleveland still has the vote for best gyro this mouth has ever tasted).

After the gyro, we headed back towards our hotel.

On the road again….

Then decided to stop at the Checkered Parrot for the last quarter of the games.

Jarrod posing as a Saints fan in his newly acquired Saints T shirt:

One thing that I never got used to in New Orleans was being able to take our drinks to-go! No open container law still boggles my mind. But, it did make for some fun city strolling 🙂

Sometime after leaving the Checkered Parrot I fell into a food coma and forgot to take pictures the rest of the day. I’m sure this coma was driven solely by excessive food consumption and had nothing to do with the cocktails I enjoyed during the game 😉

After the game, we headed back to the hotel for a 2 hour siesta, then we decided to grab some bruschetta at Primos (again)… we are such suckers for bruschetta! Afterward, we started a trek to an Italian restaurant I had found online, got tired halfway there, and decided to eat dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe instead. Lazy bums 🙂

We went with the twisted mac and cheese and hot fudge brownie bowl. I’d say we made a very wise decision indeed!

Before heading home Monday morning, we had time for one last meal in the Big Easy. We passed Daisy Dukes Express several times every day that we’d been in town, and given its close proximity to our hotel we decided to give it a try for breakfast.

The restaurant looked like a real hole in the wall from the outside, so we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the inside of the restaurant was!

Very clean and slightly swanky! Love it!

Jarrod went with the Cajun Omelet:

Luckily I was able to steal a few bites of this beauty because it was fanfriggintastic!

I went with the standard 2 eggs over medium with hash browns and sausage:

HANDS DOWN best breakfast we had in New Orleans!

Overall, and AWESOME few days away with the Man Candy. I’d love to go back to New Orleans sometime so that I can check out the districts outside of the French quarter. First stop though has to be Cafe Du Monde for a beignet!

For those who were wondering, we stayed in the Holiday Inn Express on Carondelet (technically in the Business district). We got an AWESOME deal on this hotel (only $60 per night–BALLER!). The hotel included free wi-fi (obvious necessity), free continental breakfast, and it was only 1 block to Bourbon Street. Everything in the French Quarter was in walking distance, and we did not rent a car. Taxi to and from the hotel was $33 (for two people) each way. Overall, I was really happy with the hotel. Anytime you are looking for a good bargain, you have to be willing to make sacrifices. The Holiday Inn express was clean, but I did notice a lot of the repair work on the building was not so great. Give me a clean room, comfy bed, and good location, and I can overlook crooked electrical outlets and slow draining showers.

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