Firebird's "Firebar Menu" Totally Underwhelmed Me

OK, I was sooo disappointed with my experience here it has taken me almost a week to even write about it, I have been so traumatized. (Not really but I almost felt it was not worth my time to write about it & I like the drama aspect here)

Good news first . . . enjoyed my company (Miss Miss!) and Miss Miss liked the queso. I was underwhelmed. I always do my "pre" research and picked my 4 items before even getting there. I was under the impression half price apps/starters Monday thru Friday 3-7. I was wrong. I had chosen the Lobster Spinach Queso $10 (would have been $5) Coconut Shrimp (Also would have been $5) Seared Ahi Tuna (Would have been $6.50) and Crab Cakes (Also $6.50) NONE of which were on the "Firebar" menu. What WAS on the "Firebar" menu, to quote my previous blog, "Standard, traditional, greasy bar food" Apparently they have a separate "Firebar" appetizer menu than their regular "Starters" menu! The only items on it, and once again I quote, "standard, traditional, greasy bar food": chicken wings, sliders, bbq sliders, ranch ringers & the queso. Miss Miss had the queso and sliders, which honestly, if I wanted queso I would have gone to On the Border and had their queso, free chips/salsa & $3 margaritas. I was pumped for my 4 choices only to find out, not one of them was on the "Firebar" menu. I ended up getting their Firebirds BLT salad (trying not to eat greasy) which is always excellent but totally misses the point of the good food at a cheap price. So, short story short, if you want standard, traditional, greasy bar food at the Northlake Mall, go to Firebird's. If not, go to Bravo!

Now I feel like I have to go back to one of my faves to instill my confidence again. 131 Main, here I come!

Bar Bites at Mimosa were anything but standard greasy bar food fare

When searching the internet I came across a mention of a bar bites menu at Mimosa Grill in Uptown Charlotte, all items $5 Monday thru Friday 4-7pm in the bar and on the patio. If you are familiar with Mimosa it is in the square where Alive After 5 used to be before the grandiose EpiCentre came to be. Mimosa is a popular lunch and after work drinks spot. Good food, a little pricey for my range. (Hey! I'm all about a $5 lunch which are super hard to find these days. $10 is stretching it and with tax & tip you won't be spending $10 here)

When I went onto their website and clicked on menu, there is a tab for "Bites" but "page is not found" when you click on it. So I called just to make sure the Bar Bites do exist and a youngish girl answered the phone and was very nice & very helpful. I told her the tab didn't work and she said they probably didn't want us to see what was on the bar bites menu because it is so exclusive. Huh? She then tried to remember what was on there and listed onion rings & fries, oh, parmesan fries, beef sliders, pork sliders, then proceeded to say and I quote, "You know, your usual, standard greasy bar foods" I think the manager/owner would have been appalled to hear her say that because the items we ended up getting were anything but! She then offered to go to the bar and got a copy of the menu and read it to me over the phone. They did have the above choices but also have Sea Salt & Tortilla Chips & Dip (guacamole & jalapeno cheddar) Wild Mushroom flatbread (with goat cheese & fresh herbs) We did not try these 2 because we wanted to try different things besides dip & pizza. We had the Mussel Bowl which was outstanding. A huge bowl of Mussels in smoked tomatoes & garlic. Mimosa's Signature Popcorn Shrimp where yes, I was thinking greasy but it is soaked in sweet chili & wasabi aioli sauce. Served in a cute wire "fry" basket and greasy does not describe this dish at all. Tasty yes! We also did try the Cab Beef Sliders with herb aioli & pimento cheese. Just a nicer version of a traditional slider. The Pork Belly Sliders were the best suprise though. I was thinking typical Carolina pulled pork but they consisted of a nice slice of white meat pork with cracked mustard and red dragon cheddar and carrot "slaw" A nice variation on our NC BBQ. Standard, greasy bar food? Far from it! We once again ordered 4 different "bites" and had just enough food. They also have nightly drink specials to complement their bar bites. I also wanted to mention that some of the normal prices on these "bites" are $8 or $10 so you are getting a good savings at $5!

Another good find in Uptown Charlotte at an upscale restaurant!

www.harpersgroup.com/mimosa.asp

New meaning to "Blue" Plate Specials!

I know when I think of Blue Plate Special you think of a diner or a "dive" type of restaurant. I was extremely pleased to find out that one of our favorite "treat ourselves" restaurants had a special bar/late night menu that was super affordable and super delicious.

Blue in Uptown Charlotte has appetizers Two For $10 in the bar Monday thru Friday 5-7 and late night (although if you go on their website, it's a little confusing. Sounds like they serve these specials until 11pm or 12 am) I ordered 4 different ones and it was too much food which is a good thing! Paired with the multitude of martini's my husband and I drank (OK, mostly the Hubster. He couldn't help it. His favorite were on special, Appletini's $6 which yes, I do believe we spent more on drinks than food, whoops!) Which brings me to another great feature to these bar bites - nightly drinks specials featuring a different beer & a specialty martini Monday thru Saturday. YES, including Friday and Saturday! I'm telling you, there are great ways to eat at the nicest restaurants in Charlotte at a really good savings!

The four appetizers we had were:

Number one, Flavors of the Mediterranean - Tapenade, Baba Ghanoush, white bean and Parmigiano-Reggiano salad and traditional hummus served with a warm pita, Greek olives, roasted peppers and olive oil. I could have made a meal out of this one itself. Lots of good variety and plenty to eat. My favorite was the Tapendade, a spread made from greek black olives, capers, anchovies & olive oil. Yum yum!

My second favorite was the Crispy Calamari with Fried Olives and Peppadew Peppers. Chickpea flour crusted with a lemon-harissa dipping sauce. The unusual twist on this that made it stand out from other fried calamari dishes I have had was the fried green olives & peppadew peppers. Great bursts with the calamari.

Third choice was the Duck Sausage and Rapini Flat Bread - Crisp flatbread topped with house made duck sasage, rapini, herb goat cheese and mozzarella. They had 3 choices of pizza and even though this is listed as flatbread, it was pizza. A good twist though with the duck sausage.

Lastly, Jero's favorite of the evening the Crisp Arrancini - Risotto balls stuffed with pancetta, sweet onions and mozzarella fried crispy and topped with a tomato sauce.

Everything was wonderful. Our servers at the bar were great. Had fun sitting there and chatting. The bar area I feel is just as nice as the dining area at Blue.

Check out their entire menu and drink specials at:

www.bluecharlotte.com

My first bad review. And the Award Goes to . . .

Nix Burgers Uptown. Believe it or not I'm writing this because the food was bad not the service. You all thought this was going to be about service now didn't you? My fellow friends, countrymen that know me so well. I can't blame our servers, either time we went (and yes, this is based on TWO bad experiences, not just one) I can't even blame the manager, the first visit anyway. Ironically, I did have one of my worst service experiences at one of Nix's "sister" restaurants"

Our first visit was a couple months ago. We had our Citipass BOGO. It was a slow night and we were only 1 of 3 tables, the other tables having 2 people and 3 people at them, so no large parties. We both ordered right off the menu, nothing special, neither of us pulled a Meg Ryan from "When Harry Met Sally" Extra points if you get that reference - I know Meme will :) It was taking forever and our server told us they had a new cook. He had only been there 2 weeks. She kept apologizing and went and stood over him at one point until our burgers were done. I ordered mine medium and my husband ordered his medium well. They both were so overcooked when we got them they were just about inedible. The medium well one was actually less done than the medium one. Our waitress took one look at them and called the manager over for us. She apologized profusely and gave us cards for 2 free burger/meals for our next visit. We did use our BOGO so we were happy with that.

Fast forward 6 weeks later. Even though it was 6:30 on a Saturday night, a few more people than last time but still not crowded. Most tables were taken by the time we left an hour later but we beat the crowd. We were a little worried about service when we both ordered Blue Moons and were asked if we wanted an orange slice with that? Uh, yeah! That's part of what makes a Blue Moon so good! We both ordered burgers again, right off the menu. This time we both went with medium since we figured if it was done right it should be a nice, pink center. This time they erred on the opposite end. They were so raw I couldn't eat it. Jerome's was medium raw so he ate his. Mine was actually cold in the center so yes, you got it, we sent it back. We didn't have the same server as last time but we told her what happened and she knew exactly what cook we were referring to and told us he was no longer with them. She sent it back and took my sweet potato fries with her which I really would have liked to munch on those waiting for my burger to be re-cooked. The manager came over again (this time a guy) and apologized. He said that that is how he likes for his to be made. Not sure exactly what that meant but I told him, not the way I like mine to be made (really?!) They brought my new burger, which by that time I was no longer hungry and we were Uptown to watch the Criterium and running out of time. I took a couple bites. Cooked the way it should have been but this late in the game, I took 3/4's of the burger with me. I need to mention at this point it looks like they took my original sweet potato fries and refried them so now 9/10's of those were inedible and burnt. We were not offered any other compensation and honestly, even if they gave us 2 more free burgers/meals I would not have taken them up on it. Burnt is bad but I feel undercooked is worse. You can get sick by undercooked meat and they did not instill any confidence in me that they could cook burgers properly, either way.

So I absolutely would NOT recommend spending your money here. I don't know about you, but we only eat out once a week for dinner if we are lucky and I want to make sure I feel like I'm getting good food for the money. This was not. Even free if you know what I mean. Very disappointed that someone that bills themselves as a burger joint does not know how to cook a burger. I would rather spend my hard earned money at Big Daddy's or a turkey burger at The Burger Company. Would love to hear if anyone else had the same experiences here! So bottom line, yes, wait for it . . nix on Nix!

By the way, went to PF Chang's this past week for Happy Hour AND the free lettuce wraps (for liking them on Facebook) It was just as good as the last time and they had their dessert shots too.

If you want to know about one of my all time bad service stories at LaVecchia's let me know and I will add on comments section.

Half Price Sushi! How did it taste . . .

. . . pretty darn good!

I have been coveting Cat Covert's cravings (how is that for alliteration?) for 1/2 price sushi for weeks now and finally checked out what all the fuss is about! Edomae at Northlake Mall, in the Super Target shopping center offers 1/2 price Maki rolls on Wednesdays from 3pm to closing (10pm) I took my son who usually loves sushi but he had just had a McDonald's strawberry lemonade on the way over so I don't think he was super hungry. More sushi for me! We tried a couple of our standards, Spicy Tuna Roll & California roll. We usually get Unagi (cooked eel over rice) but since that was not half price we tried the Eel Avocado Roll. We also tried the Spicy Crunchy Salmon Roll. It was all very tasty! Definitely on par with Rusan & Nikko's. I thought we were getting regular Spicy Tuna but it was the Crunchy Spicy Tuna so honestly, it was hard to differentiate between the tuna and the salmon. They were both very good but too similar. If Heath had been a little hungrier I would have liked to have ordered a couple other items. A couple different items that I have never tried before. But that's OK! At half price, guess what we will be eating next Wednesday?! Plus I want my husband to try some of the items too. He usually likes a "Firecracker Roll" breaded & fried but I told him that wasn't on special. Our bill came to $10 for 4 rolls or 24 pieces. Our waitress Amanda was super so I tipped her well! I based it on the $20 we would have spent before the 1/2 price. I just realized as I was writing this who she reminded me of, the actress Gina Gershon! She was a fellow Pennsylvanian! But I digress. Cat orders her sushi to go and I really think that is the best deal. For what I tipped I could have potentially ordered the other 2 rolls I wanted to try. They have 28 different Maki rolls to choose from ranging from $3.95 to $7.50. Remember, cut those prices in half! Definitely going to try them again and order more, different items!

If you go or have gone, please share your experiences with me!

You can check out their entire menu at: www.edomaenc.com

Food Happy Hour at P.F. Chang's! That works for me, how about you?

It's not all about an alcoholic Happy Hour, now is it? I had to recruit a friend who was a little flexible for P.F. Chang's Happy that is 3-6 daily. I have to admit I was a bit perturbed at trying to get here by 6pm. This is not an easy task for anyone who works until 5:30, even 5pm if you don't work near a P.F. Chang's location. (We went to the one at Northlake Mall) I asked our waiter, Brian, if they had many customers that take advantage of their Happy Hour and he said mostly on weekends. I did not realize the specials were offered on Saturday and Sunday and I would assume that this would work better in most people's schedule. Even my son & I tried to go after a movie on a weekday and we couldn't make it, too rushed. Plus Brian did tell us, if you tried to order anything after 6pm, the register is programmed to not accept the specials even at 6:01. Good to know!

With that being said, we thoroughly enjoyed our meal. The Happy Hour Menu is exclusive of their regular menu, meaning there are items on it that aren't on the regular menu which was a fun option. I would have only made one change which I will get to, and that is because I was sharing with another person and the change would have given us a little more food. My "buddy" and I usually go to P.F. Chang's for lunch where we share a big bowl of the hot & sour soup and the lettuce wraps and finish up with their "dessert shots" which totally rock. Soooo, we wanted to try different items than any of those. We tried 4 different items. I wanted to try 5 but my buddy was too full :) We started with the Crispy Green Beans which they claim are more addictive than potato chips! They were very good. Breaded green beans, deep fried and served with a special sauce. Only $4 and almost too many for us to finish with the other items we chose but we are not complaining! We also shared the Spicy Shrimp Tacos - wok-seared red curry shrimp served on soft taco shells. Add the tangy sauce they make for you at the table and these totally rock! You get 2 for $4.95. Tuna Tataki Crisp - Sliced Ahi tuna, seared rare on a crispy wonton, topped with fresh diced Ahi tuna, crisp cucumber and scallions tossed in a citrus-sesame soy sauce. Finished with a hint of spice and toasted sesame seeds (3 per order) $4.95 Only order this if you like sushi, which both of us LOVE sushi! Very tasty, very good. Our fourth choice was recommended by Brian, our waiter, the Pork & Rice Siu Mai - Peking pork and sticky rice with ginger, garlic and sriracha. Very, very tasty but there were only 3 little ones for $3.25 and this is where I would have tried something different. I would have tried the Flaming Red Wontons - pork dumplings in a spicy garlic and sesame soy sauce finished with scallions and pickled chili peppers (6 per order) $5 which to me is a little better deal.

We were going to splurge for a $2 dessert shot but they were all out of them. Brian recommend their Banana Spring Rolls - six warm, crispy bites of banana served with coconut-pineapple ice cream and drizzled with caramel and vanilla sauces but we knew we were too full for this. The dessert shots are a perfect portion of their popular desserts without being too filling.

Our total split bill was only a little over $10 each including tip and not including drinks. I asked if they had any alcoholic drink specials but not really. Check out their Happy Hour Menu at: www.pfchangs.com to see all selections and drink menu.

Good food, at a good price. If you can get there before 6 on a weekday, great. Even better, going on a Saturday or Sunday before or after shopping or a movie!

You think you can’t afford the Melting Pot? I say you can!

We literally have not been to The Melting Pot in years because the last time we were there we blew over $150 for 4 people. Granted, we did order a bottle of wine but still waaaay out of our price range these days. Heck, even back then. My son Heath had just been there with his Dad for his half brother’s 8 year old birthday dinner (where yes, they blew over $100 for 5 people) even with their special 4 for $100. Hang with me guys and I will get your appetite satiated with delicious food for $28 for 2 including tip. Yes, that is $28 for 2!

Did you know that Monday thru Thursday 5-7 they have half price specials in the bar and patio areas? Their cheese fondues, salads and chocolate fondues are all half price!

Heath enjoyed the dessert so well that for Mother’s Day he wanted to take me to The Melting Pot for dessert. Then my wonderful friend Debbie, reminded me of the bar specials. When I told Heath about it, he said he would treat me to an entire meal, and he did, Bless his pea pickin’ little heart!

We shared a spinach mushroom salad - fresh spinach, baby portobello mushrooms,red onion, chopped bacon and Roma tomatoes with a warm burgundy shallot vinaigrette. Normally $6 it was only $3. I kind of wish I had got my own but I didn’t want to fill up for the fondue. It was a good portion though and I don’t think it would have messed up my appetite to have eaten a whole one.

We then moved onto the marvelous fondue! We started with the Cheddar Cheese Fondue - aged, medium-sharp cheddar and Emmenthaler swiss cheeses, lager beer, garlic and seasonings. It’s served with apples, assorted veggies consisting of broccoli, carrots & cauliflower. And 2 types of breads. Normally $16 it was only $8.

Then came the best part! Dessert! They have several different types to choose from. We chose the Big Night Out® Chocolate | Dark and Dulce Chocolate Fondue Classic flavor combination featuring our bittersweet dark chocolate and sweet, thick dulce de leche accented with coarse sea salt. This was served with fresh strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, Rice Krispies Treats®, marshmallows, pound cake and brownies for you to dip.They are really good about bringing you as much “extra” of any of your favorite dipping items, no extra charge! My favorite taste sensation is sweet and salty and this totally fits the bill. I am a huge fan of dark chocolate (insert your own joke here) but the sea salt is what made this orgasmic for me! They leave it for you to put more if you want!

A little side note. It was a great time to give Heath a lesson on tipping. I told him 15% for good service, 20% for outstanding and on the rare occasion you get subpar service, 10%. The lesson here really was to tip on the original amount before coupons or discounts.

This is definitely a good girl’s night out or date night or let your kid take you out for dinner! I’m not sure I can take my husband though, he is big on “meat” and this meal didn’t consist of any. Although, we do have “app only” meals here without meat.

I highly recommend this for good food at a really, really good price!

Check out their entire menu & specials at:
www.meltingpot.com

Give me $2.95 and I'll give you more food than you can eat at Bravo!

I'm going to start out with the "bargain" portion of this meal then work my way into what ALL we ate. Our purpose was bargain but it was our 5 month anniversary so we splurged a bit and it was all well worth it.

The Bargain Portion

Monday thru Friday from 5-7 (and 9 'til close), in the bar only they have a nice variety of $2.95 appetizers. We were expecting reduced portions of their normal ones, but oh no! They were full sized! What normally would be $9.99 was only $2.95! There are 8 to choose from and the portions were huge! We went with Bruschetta with mushrooms & boursin which turned out to be my favorite. Just a delicious combination of flavors and a bit different from the typical Italian Bruschetta. It was toasted ciabatta topped with melted Provolone, sauteed portobello, caramelized onions, crushed red pepper, tomatoes and garnished with Boursin cheese. Yummy! Our next choice was the Crispy Shrimp Napoli. Shrimp fried to a golden crisp with green onions and a savory lemon butter, charred tomato Napoli sauce. This was the first one we asked for and my immediate question was how many do you get and our waitress told us 10. That's when we realized these were full appetizer portions. This one by the way, is normally $11.99 for $2.95! Our waitress then recommended the Chicken, Spinach And Bacon Flatbread. It was grilled chicken, creamy spinach, applewood smoked bacon with green onions, mozzarella and provolone. Also very good. This one is normally $5.99 but at $2.95 was still half price!

As much as the $2.95 was a great deal, I joined their "Club Bravo" online where they promptly sent me a coupon for a free appetizer. So we chose the Calamari Fritti - lightly battered calamari (scungilli for you Italians, squid for the rest of ya) cooked to a crisp brown, served with creamy horseradish sauce and marinara. This saved us another $10.99.

So we got 4 appetizers for under $10! You too can dine on delicious food at a budget!

Now where we "ran up the bill" a bit is with alcohol and dessert. I was content on having my wine at home but since we were celebrating I did opt for a glass of Riesling which was $6.95 and I thought a bit pricey. My husband went for a glass of Peroni beer which was $5. Hey! They have to make their money somewhere! So basically we paid more for alcohol (only 2 glasses) than we did food. But then there was dessert, ahhh, dessert . . .

We went with the Tre Dolce, described as a little something sweet. Smaller portions of three of their most popular desserts. Their award winning Tiramisu, Torta di Cioccolata, and Warm Berry Cake for $8.99. Well worth it! The Hubster ate the warm berry cake, I ate the Torta di Cioccolate which was their version of a rich chocolate cake with warm center topped with vanilla bean gelato (aka as ice cream for you Americanos!) I don't normally like Tiramisu (yeah, what kind of Italian am I?) but theirs was truly the best I had tried. We brought that portion home to my son. Plus Jero had a cup of coffee with this.

Still, our bill was only $35 and we gave her a $10 tip. Plus we didn't get there until 8 minutes before 7. (I know this because Jerome made sure he made note of that as I was dragging him into the bar!) I also had my BOGO from Citipass with me and when I pulled out all my coupons she had that look on her face, like, "Oh Great" a lot of work for a little bit of money! We showed her! Truly, if you drank water or even tea or soda, you could have feasted for way under $10. I'm looking forward to going back and trying the apps we didn't try (artichoke & spinach formaggio, cheese ravioli forno, balsamic onion, portobello & gorgonzola flatbread, flatbread Roma)

You can check out their entire menu at: www.bravoitalian.com


Who wants to come with? :)

Who Else Wants to Eat Great Thai Food with Me?

Those of you who know me really well, where is the first place I want to go on the rare occasion I treat myself to lunch anymore? Even if I have been there already that week? For those of you who don't know me that well, you probably figured it out from the title of the blog :)

Thai Taste!

It's funny, when I worked uptown (and was making considerably more than I am earning now) we went out to eat just about everyday. The $5 a day lunch quickly escalated to the $10 a day lunch and sometimes even more. Ahh, funny how we spend what we earn! I like to go out once a week now and stick within that $10 budget. I try and meet up with an old Observer buddy. Went a couple of times recently with the "Hubs" while he was out of work and yes, one of those times was Thai Taste.

I understand that Thai food is an acquired taste and I'm very lucky in that respect because 99% of my friends enjoy Thai food too (excluding Laura & Debmac!), including my 16 year old son. Now I have tried just about every Thai restaurant in Charlotte and even one in Boone but to me, no one even comes close to Thai Taste's quality, taste & price. I used to work in the Dilworth/Southend territory and the East Blvd location was in my territory. They saw me at least once a week. Then they opened one near my house which they call Thai Taste University and they know me just as well there! On East Blvd they would just ask, "The Usual" but I now have 3 dishes that I choose from - just to keep them guessing! I hate to be predictable!

Lunch is definitely the better bargain. I have been for dinner too but I prefer lunch because your $9 includes a bowl of delicious Gaeng Jerd soup (clear chicken broth with green onions, napa cabbage, clery & mushrooms), jasmine rice, spring roll & iced tea. I very rarely finish the portion and usually end up bringing some home with me, so more than enough food!

My old "usual" was Pud Puk and what I consider the healthiest of my 3. It is stir fried mixed vegetables with a light brown sauce; low in oil. I get with chicken and 1 star. At one point in my life, when I was younger, I used to get 3 stars. Times, they do change!

My 2nd choice is Gaeng Dang (please be careful of this pronunciation - I make my son very nervous every time before ordering. OK on purpose because at 16, everything mortifies him and I feel it is my mission to do everything possible to embarrass him) Gaeng Dang is your choice of meat/seafood/vegetarian in a red curry sauce with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, sweet basils, green beans, peas & carrots. I just spoon the sauce over my rice, add a little soy sauce, and chow!

My third choice and the dish that I recommend for all 1st time Thai virgins is the Pud Thai. This is a pretty standard dish for all Thai restaurants and once again, I feel Thai Taste does it best. Pud Thai is Thai rice noodles sauteed with spices, bean sprouts, green onions, grounds peanuts and egg (or no egg) Once again I get chicken, but my friend Suz always gets the shrimp which I think is also very good, but they leave the end of the tails on and I don't have the patience to "detail" because at that point, I am so ready for my Thai food!

Lunch is served 11-2:30 daily. They are closed on Sunday which we found out the hard way when we were Jonesing for Thai only to drive there and find it closed :( Also, the Dilworth location is closed for lunch on Saturday. The only one I haven't been to is the Matthews location but I don't see why the food and staff would be as exceptional as they are at the other two!

The staff is always exceptional, especially Robert at the University location

You can check out their entire menu at: www.thaitasteuniversity.com

Cupcake & Wine Tasting! Awesome Combination!

This is was my second experience (and Just Baked's) at their Wine & Cupcake Tasting. I enjoyed this one much more than the first for several reasons which I will come back to in a minute.

Just Baked Cupcakes in Cornelius has this fantastic wine & cupcakes tasting featuring their own home made cupcakes and a different winery each month. Their first one was last month and featured wines from Sweet Vine Winery which was good, but I like sweet wines so when I heard one of my favorite muscadine wineries was hosting this month, Rocky River Vineyard, I was totally pumped.

I had bid on a silent auction for a wine tasting for 12 at the 2009 NC Governor's Conference for Tourism and won. Six of us ended up going that September and had a blast. Kim Palumbo & staff really treated us like royalty. They set us out on the screened porch overlooking their beautiful winery on that gorgeous fall day. Their tasting is usually $6 which includes 9 wines and a souvenier glass but since we only had 6 people and the tasting was technically for 12, they let us do the tasting and each have a glass of our favorite wine. Now THAT is customer service. We bought a total of 8 more bottles of wine, 3 of which we drank there relaxing and enjoying the fantastic fall day and 5 bottles that we took with us.

Back to Just Baked's Cupcake & Wine Tasting . . . For $5 you get pretty much all the "baby" cupcakes you can eat and depending on the winery, at least 5 tastings of different wines. Bill Elliott, one of the owners of Rocky River was the ultimate host. He said you could have as much as you want of what I call the "communion cup" sizes or you could buy a glass for $5 that included one of their very cool souvenier glasses or you could buy a bottle. We did all of the above :) Miss Miss & I shared a bottle of White Gold, a sweet white muscadine. Amy bought one of only 2 bottle of the Fire Engine Red which reminded me of a robust red port wine. Bill didn't have enough bottles of that for tasting but Amy so graciously shared hers and once I tasted it I went and bought the other bottle home to my hubby who loves a good port wine! Debmac also bought a glass of the White Gold. Martha who doesn't like sweet wines enjoyed a glass of Cabernet which is another thing I like about Rocky River, they have some very tasty dry wines such as the Cabernet and a Charonnay as well as a nice Merlot. Cat, whom I met for the first time and must say, felt was a bit of a kindred soul (she scored a plate of mini cupcakes for me to take home!) came with her sister and her Mom (whom I did not get her name but felt like she was one of my Pennsylvania Italian aunts and am looking forward to hanging out with again!) I think her Mom bought a glass of one of the whites. It's interesting because I didn't see people buying glasses & bottles the first tasting. I know I wasn't interested only because as I stated earlier, I only like sweet wine, but I'm not sure that was even an option. Bill was great in letting us know all the options he had which I think helped his sales a lot.

For your $5 for the cupcake & wine tasting you get to taste all 5 wines paired with 5 different flavored cupcakes. All of Just Baked Cupcakes are so tasty & moist. They just melt in your mouth. Tonights features were Peaches & Cream that was paired with the White Zinfandel. Vanilla Vanilla paired with Rocking Red (which was my favorite until I tried the Fire Engine Red tonight) Chocolate Strawberry paired with White Gold. Signature Chocolate paired with Scarlett. Just Baked always does one cupcake incorporating one of the wines from the winery. Their Blackberry Cabernet was infused with Rocky Rivers Cabernet Savingon. A delectable combination!

I also need to mention Just Baked gives away door prizes. They refined this to where it was super fun by giving 4 separate ones every 30 minutes. You need to be present during the 2 hour event to win! The four prizes included a bottle of wine from Rocky River, a $20 gift card from Bebe Gallini and two prizes of (6) cupcakes and a free latte from Just Baked. To me the prizes were just "icing on the cupcakes" A fun bonus to an even funner event. I do believe their next one is scheduled for April 5th. You can "like" them on Facebook or follow them on www.justbakedlkn.com


Rocky River Vineyards website is: www.rockyrivervineyards.com


So for a fun, cheap, mid week date, or as we have turned it into, Girl's Night Out, I highly recommend this event! I mentioned my $10 and under rule in one of my previous blogs, I also have a $5 and under rule and this one totally rocks it! Thanks Missy & Chris for coming up with this and being such wonderful hosts!

This week we went "South of the Border" to "On the Border"

I told you in the first blog we were going to be all over the map when it came to where we like to eat. Last week was fine dining this week it is a chain restaurant with low to mid pricing but it is truly one of our favs! As a matter of fact, I usually hit this one once a week, usually with Debmac because we can get a good buzz on and be filled with yummy chips & salsa for around $10. For those of you who know me, I have a $10 & under rule and when I can keep within that limit, it makes me very happy!

This week we took Miss Miss out for her birthday dinner. Her choice & a superb one at that I might add! Depending on whether you choose to drink or not you still can have a full tummy for the $10. We usually choose to drink. Monday thru Wednesday Margaritas are $3.25 and mugs of beer $2.00. All the chips & salsa you can eat for free. I am perfectly contenting getting 1 or 3 margaritas and chowing on chips. This time though, since we had a $25 gift card (Thanks Mom!) me, Miss Miss & Jero each got an appetizer which I don't think I have mentioned yet, are half price on Monday thru Wednesdays 5-7pm. The apps don't include the sampler app or guacamole but my personal fave is the steak quesadillas. I always bring some home with me, mostly because I have gorked on chips & salsa (by the way, they know me now where they bring me both the regular(hot) salsa & a bowl of the mild salsa so I can mix them!) For this special occasion Miss Miss had signed up for their "Cantina Club" which I recommend and promptly did when I got home and she had a coupon for a free brownie a la mode which we all shared. It said you needed to purchase an entree to receive the brownie but the bartender knows me so well he said that the 1/2 price app would qualify. Gotta love being a regular :) Their normal entrees are very reasonably priced too. Right now they are running an all you can eat enchilada special for $7.99. So if you drink water you can get out of there still for close to the $10. We each had 2 margaritas, total of 6, 3 half priced apps & the brownie dessert for a grand total of $45 including tip. We tipped a little extra because of the brownie but we were very close to the $10 each! We also go to the one at Northlake Mall and my 2 favorite bartenders/waiters are Chris & Daughtry (don't know his real name, he just looks like the Idol singer Daughtry!)

So to summarize, good buzz, good salsa, good night!

Welcome to my new blog!

This one has been “stewing” in my mind for several months. Debmac and Patty actually inspired me to make it come to fruition. Hey, if they can do it . . .

Let’s call this: Dining on a Budget by I’m just one of you; I like to eat out too for the least amount possible; Let’s eat out – on a budget; Let’s eat out – for as little investment as possible; Let’s eat out . . . We'll come back to this.

We like to eat out but due to unforeseen financial circumstances over the last few months we have less and less to discretionary funds to do so. We have always utilized coupon books such as The Entertainment Book & Citipass, along with Valpak coupons and Coupon Quarterlies that come in the mail. Those are almost the “give me’s “. What I like to revel in are the “seek out and finds”. Some do a great job at advertising these specials, partially thru the above mentioned sources, others, word of mouth, any and everyone’s best form of advertising. Well, here’s your “mouth”. Some of these you might already know about. Others, I’m hoping I have shared a gem with you that you think is pretty cool and find helpful & informative. If you know of any, please pass them along, because not only will I share the specials with you, I am going to personally check out each individual restaurant and critique them. What’s so out of the ordinary about that? Exactly that, I am ordinary, I am you. Just a poor schlep wanting to go out and partake in the culinary delights of our fine Charlotte restaurants, from diners to upscale fine dining on a shoe string to see who has the best meals for the best deals. Oooh! Just came up with the name of the blog . . . . Nevermind, my husband gave me a better name . . .

Dining Outside of the Box (in Charlotte & the surrounding areas) by Terri Johnson

We delayed our romantic Valentines’ Dinner by one day because one of our favorite restaurants, 131 Main has Tuesday specials that we love absolutely love to take advantage of. The big draw here for us is ½ price bottles of wine. We basically can get 4 glasses of our favorite Riesling Barnard Griffin Riesling, Columbia Value for $12, normal price is $24 for the bottle. We get almost 4 glasses of wine for $3 each glass. To make this offer even more appealing is (Mon-Thur) from 5-7 they offer all appetizers for $5. This is more than half off for a couple of them, one of them being our absolute favorite the Smoked Salmon, normally $13. So for $40 (not including tip) we got (2)Smoked Salmons, (2) Blackened Scallops, (1) Artichoke & a bottle of Barnard Griffin Riesling. Did I mention we used a $50 Visa giftcard? So this meal was free for us (including tip) but even if you were paying, where could you get this much food & a bottle of wine for $40? I actually took some of my salmon & artichoke home with me - it was too much food! We agreed, next time, a scallop each, split a salmon & split new app we haven’t tried yet for $32. Truly, a great deal! Plus I haven’t had one app from 131 I haven’t liked and I have now tried them all. The cornbread is another awesome deal, as is the The Double Dip which includes 3 different dips. The best half price app deals look like this: The Double Dip 6/10, Home Smoked Salmon 9, Cast Iron Cornbread 7, Grilled Artichokes 11, Cast Iron Scallops 13

Bottles of wine range from $24 to $36, which remember, take off half on Tuesdays only.

I will probably get fat from this blog, but hey, what’s a couple extra pounds for being able to experience and share these delectable deals with all my friends! Bon Appetit!