So yesterday was our one year anniversary. Huzzah!!!
We had planned to have dinner at Henninger's (site of our first date), followed by a movie (I was hoping for Pineapple Express) and then drinks at Woody's Rum Bar (with an awesome view of the Harbor)
It didn't quite work out that way.
First, Henniger's is closed on Mondays. I kinda forgot about that. So we decided to go to Mezze instead.
Mezze is a tapas restaurant we've been to once before. I am a huge fan of tapas and the tapas "experience". I've said before that my favorite ever girls' night out was the night a whole slew (slew is a technical term roughly meaning "huge gaggle of girls")of us went to Tapatinis in DC for Terri's birthday. Martinis, endless small plates of food, girl talk, what could be better?
But I digress.
But first, before tapas, Jack needed to get a haircut. And he wanted to walk down to his restaurant and check on the new guy, make sure he was doing okay. I told him I couldn't walk as far as the restaurant. This new medicine is really kicking my ass and I tire way too easily these days. I said, "Why don't we walk to the barber and then come back and get the car and we can drive to [restaurant]?"
He agreed so we headed out. I wore a very lightweight short sleeved sweater because I didn't want to show up at Mezze all skanky janky looking. Wearing a sweater in 90 million degree heat was probably not the wisest idea I've ever had
So we head to the barber shop which turns out to be closed for the holiday. Then, instead of turning back home, Jack heads toward Broadway, saying he wants to show me something. We end up at Woody's (where I've never been) so I could take in the view. "Very nice," I said.....if only it were air conditioned. I mean, open air is very nice and all but nothing beats AC.
From there, we walk down to the water to look at the apartments and condos where we hope to eventually live. The heat is really getting to me, I'm parched, sweat is running down my back AND front, and I realize that we're not heading back to the house.
"You TRICKED me!!" I said. Because we were already more than halfway to his restaurant. Jack so loves to walk everywhere.
But anyway, we get there, the new guy wasn't working after all so all that walking for nothing, we walk all the way back and finally get to Mezze.
Where I sit in air conditioned splendor and wonder how declasse it would be for me to mop my glistening brow with my decoratively folded napkin.
Anyway, let's talk about the food because it was mostly all good. We started off with their tapenade which is really the best tapenade I've ever had. Imagine the taste of a perfect olive magnified by 100. THAT'S their tapenade.
After that came....oh I think they call it horta, but it was basically a salad of dandelion greens. Jack thought it looked intersting. I didn't care for it much because it was bitter but that is in the nature of dandelion greens so I can't really fault them for that.
Next were the spinach fritters with a garlic aioli. There were perfectly light and crispy (as opposed to dense and oily which they so easily could have been)
Following that came the tuna carpaccio which Jack ordered primarily to see how they plated it (because he is considering adding it to the menu at his place). The tuna was topped with greens, capers, shaved parm and a tangy dressing. He was busy still with the dandelion greens when it arrived and after I took a few bites of the tuna I had to ask him, in all seriousness, "Did you just want to look at this or do you want to eat it?" Because I would have happily finished it all.
Finally came the duck confit. Jack loves duck. LOVES. He could eat duck every night of the week. So the confit was mostly for him. I had a few bites and it was very very good, but I left most of it for him.
After we'd gone through all five plates that we ordered I decided I wanted the roasted red peppers stuffed with goat cheese. I mean, I had wanted them from the time we sat down and should have just ordered them with everything else. No idea why I didn't.
So we placed an order for just the peppers and they came and I ate them and they were as good as I remember, although I don't remember them being quite as oily. Oh well
Sadly, we did not get the brave potatos.
So we finished up our meal and it was about 7:30. And the movie didn't start until 9:40. And I knew once we went home we wouldn't feel like going out again. And I didn't feel like killing two hours in a bar.
So we walked around Fells Point a little more (it had cooled off considerably by then) and then went home and watched 21 on On Demand and that was our anniversary, hooray!!
(Okay, so there was a lot of billing and cooing and mushy mushy lovestuff but y'all don't want to hear about that. Suffice to say it was a good day)