Date Night

When you have two littles and a tight budget, date night, at least for us, usually consists of putting the girls to bed early and watching a Redbox while snuggling on the couch eating popcorn and/or ice cream. But in keeping with one of my New Year's resolutions, this past Friday I put on my pretty red shoes, we dropped the kids off with Marquis's parents, and out we went. And it was heaven!

The second official Marquis Will Eat That Award goes to The Garden Cafe at the Grand America Hotel. I sense a theme, it seems that the restaurants Marquis will return to are also the ones that we are going to wait and go to only after just receiving our tax refund. But wow, was it ever yummy!

We started out with the best thing I have ever eaten in my entire life, stone baked flatbread with duck confit, brie, caramelized figs and onions. 

When the waiter brought this to us the little old ladies and the next table started whispering to each other, but we could hear every word. 

"Is that pizza?" 

"I think the waiter said that was duck, is it duck pizza?"

"Why would you eat a duck pizza?"

And Marquis and I laughed to ourselves as we munched our delicious duck pizza. 

For the main course, I had the pan seared halibut with scallops, shrimp, fingerling potatoes and a tomato fennel consomme. 

It was so good that I didn't think of taking a picture until it was over half gone. Yum!

Marquis has a problem ordering steak in restaurants. We have been all kinds of places that people tell us has the best steak ever, and we have never found a place that can do it better than Marquis can on our own grill out home. He always comes away disappointed that he spent twice as much money on a meh steak. I watched as he took his first bite of this Cowboy Ribeye with Sherry glazed cipollini onions, totally expecting to see the disappointed face, but instead what I saw was surprise. And then he said more good words about this steak than I have ever heard him say about any other meal he has ever had. He gave me a taste, too, and I agree, wow! The cauliflower gratin it came with was delicious, too. 

We didn't get dessert in the restaurant and instead stepped right outside it to La Bonne Vie for a square of dark chocolate and some pomegranate gelato for me, and a little cake thingy for Marquis. 

Yum!!

The entire hotel is very old-school fancy with marble everywhere and swanky elevator music, and when we walked through the lobby there was a live band playing. I loved every fancy smancy minute of it and can't wait to go back!