So, I’m breaking all the rules right now and sippin’ on a cup of joe past 4 pm. Why? Because it was Daylight Savings this week, which is easily one of the most aggressively exhausting days of the year. How does one hour trip ya up that much? Also, let’s talk about how it was also International Women’s Day on the shortest day of the year… what’s up with that?! (P.S. Shout oooout to every.single.woman out there!). Also… reason #2 for having coffee past 4 pm….. *DRUM ROLL*…. it’s our spriiiing break!
Somehow, someway we both have a somewhat less intense “spring break” that actually overlaps! With grad school, I’ve always used the “breaks” to get ahead or catch up on work, but this time around I actually can afford to take a couple days off?! What is that madness! I do still have an assignment or two, but overall I can catch up on sleep and spend some time with my guy <3 I also scheduled in a few restaurant food shoots!
In addition to all the above, something I’m particularly excited to do these next couple of days is catch up on some bloggin’ :’) So without further adieu, I’m transporting us back a decade (and you thought those jokes were over, tehe).
On December 31, 2019, I made this naan panini with the garlic naan from Trader Joe’s for lunch! Highly recommend trying out paninis with it! Mmmmm mmmmm!
That evening, to celebrate New Years Eve, we first went up to the rooftop bar of an apartment complex! These views!!!!
We had a dinner planned at an Italian spot on SoCo. Wellllll, I missed the part where it was only a special prixe fixe dinner for NYE (I thought they’d have the regular menu still). This restaurant is usually extremely reasonably priced, but this night it was about $100 a person.
I thought maybe I needed to go back to the eye doctor when I saw this! Upon this realization, we cancelled our reservation. I will say, they were incredibly gracious about the cancellation, especially with it being last minute.
So, we were standing on SoCo around about 9:00 pm with no dinner plans, extremely hungry (AKA Me: HANGRY, DJ: cool as a cucumber with no emotional reactions determined by his level of hunger, ever). We contemplated what to do- I had done a major grocery store trip that day, so I thought we could cook at home… but we were both so looking forward to a night out on the town together. I went to Open Table, and La Volpe located downtown was the first restaurant that popped up. It’s a newer restaurant in Austin, but had great ratings, so we took a chance on it. We hopped across the bridge and made it in at about 9:30 pm.
We stepped inside and were mesmerized by the decor. It’s kind of hard to pin exactly what this restaurant is like— it seems to be inspired by 20s old-fashioned-chic meets modern eclectic (does that make any sense?? Probably not).
We sat out on their patio and were surprised it wasn’t poppin’ more given the cozy ambiance.
^And this is how not to use Portrait Mode, friends!
We ordered a few different dishes, most of which we shared. They had an array of chef selected menu items you could pick and choose from for the evening.
I was cravin’ something green to start, so I had their house mixed salad with their balsamic vinaigrette (I think?). Gee, good thing I took a picture of the menu to actually confirm what we ordered, hah- who put me in charge? Anywhooo, the leafy greens were pretty basic, as you can probably tell, but I did rave about the dressing. If they sold it in a bottle, I’d probably stock up on some!
The dish below was a mushroom risotto. YUM! So much flavor.
And lastly, our favorite dish, the blue crab gnocchi. Goodness gracious, I need to have this again!
They even brought out some complimentary champagne. It was a beautiful dinner and we were both pretty happy the original plan fell through. This is definitely a new favorite spot in town of ours. It’ll be a local favorite in no time too, I have no doubt.
We officially rang in the New Year at home, asleep, per usual 😆
January 1st was a day of cleaning/getting everything in order for the year ahead! January 2nd I went to get my car taken in for maintenance, and while I waited I walked over to The Meteor Cafe on South Congress.
I’ve passed by this place countless times, but this was my first time popping in.
It was a great, relaxed vibe- they even had a little shop fully equipped with biking gear.
The food on display was catching my eye! Next time I’m gonna try one of their flatbread slices.
I wasn’t initially planning on ordering any food, but when I saw the lemon curd kouign-amann I couldn’t resist!
I also ordered a cafe au lait with almond milk. The combo…. can’t dream of anything better.
The Kouignn Amann was yummy and perfectly flaky. But. Still not on B. Patisserie’s level in SF 😉
On January 3rd I worked on getting ready for the next semester. When going for a walk I realized they painted the bread blue! Do y’all remember from this post?
January 4th was a real treat! DJ and I went to Antonelli’s, a local cheese shop, for their “date night” cheesy experience.
Soo… this is not just any cheese shop. This is THE cheese shop. It has been voted as one of the top cheese shops in America.
As soon as I saw these signs I knew I would love this place <3
They also had some very education artwork as well!
Below on the right is the menu for our date night. If you decide to order any of the cheeses you try you just circle the form to the left.
Wow oh wow. Some of the best darn cheese of all time. It was the kind of thing where you just wanted to savor each and every bite. They also had pass around marinated olives and bread. Gotta have the fixin’s! I think my favorite of the cheeses was their blue cheese (Roquefort), but it was all tasty.
They even brought out a little array of desserts- some gingerbread (my favorite), dried apricots, caramels and sea salt dark chocolate (yum!).
Questions for you:
- What’s your favorite kind of cheese?
xo <3
