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!