I <3 Charlotte

Welp. My boyfriend moved to Charlotte NC! I visited him this past week for my birthday! SO amazing...not only was it good...no scratch that...great to see Oliver, but of course it is always great to try new places to eat. We all know that Oliver loves Barbeque so off the plane he took me to Mac's Speed Shop. Okay, at first I was a little nervous...a biker bar? Are we going to be well recieved? So we pull in and its a well manicured building, new looking almost. When we walked in around noon we were lucky to get a table. Boy was I wrong about the type of crowd that would be in this joint...this place was full of yuppies! Prepsters were filing in and out, not seeming to get enough of the BBQ and ambiance. Simple tables and a few wooden booths, we ordered the "Little Bit of It All" which had the Beer Can Chicken, St.Louis Style Ribs, Texas Beef Brisket and their Kansas City Style Ribs. We also got FOUR sides (all included onion rings, mac and cheese, fries, and green bean casserole). The food was really good! The brisket was perfectly cooked and the sauce was on the sweet side which is how I personally like it. Needless to say we did not finish the meal. So much food for a really good price. www.macspeedshop.com
I had fun here, people watching and eating great food. Apparently at night it turns into more of a bar atmosphere and WOW! they have a Huuuuuggggeee variety of beer. I am waiting patiently to go back and try some! Noon was a little too early for me to drink...just a personal choice.

I must say that I like barbeque and "soul food" too...its not just Oliver. Wanting to explore some more of the local divey places, Oliver had heard of a place called "Merts". Soul Food at its finest I must say! I got fried chicken with mac and cheese and green beans. The mac and cheese was perfectly cheesy and the green beans were vinegary but sweet. they were realllllly good. I can't even explain them. I wish I could! Then I could recreate them! A lot of the time green beans at soul food restaurants are cooked in fat and you can tell. They can be heavy and greasy tasting yet of course delicious. I am pretty sure these beans as well were cooked in fat but you couldn't taste it! yum in my tum. Mert's had a good mix of people which in my opinion is a really good thing. Good food is good food and good sweet tea is good sweet tea! www.mertsuptown.com

Like I said, I went to Charlotte for my birthday! Oliver told me to get dressed up and he wouldn't tell me where we were going. So I got dressed up and we got in the car (which was only because I was wearing heels) and we ended up walking into MORTON'S STEAKHOUSE! I was in shock but so excited. It was funny too because when we had walked by it earlier in the week he was asking me all about it. I could probably write a book on the dining experience and since I am a poor story teller I will give you the abridged version. When we got to our table, there were confetti stars all over the table. When we were presented the paper verison of the menu, it said "Happy Birthday Stefanie" on the top! Throughout the meal, I felt so special. Even at the end, the waitress Brittany took our picture with their camera, and then put it in a frame that read "Happy Birthday" and was signed by all of the staff. OMG! Not only was the service excellent but so was the food. Being philanthropy week for Morton's the restaurant was offering a prefixed menu for $75.00 which $25.00 of it went towards the Food Bank of North Carolina. I ordered of this which was plenty of food and went to a great cause! I don't know when I will get the opportunity to eat at Morton's again, but I will jump at the chance!!

All in all, Charlotte had some great restaurants. The downtown area was fun to explore, the tree lined streets were charming, and the crsip fall air, all made my experience one to remember. I can't wait to go back...checking expedia now!

Epicurean Dallas

Last week I met up with Oliver in Dallas. We stayed at the Ritz Carlton Dallas (ahhh-mazing) and had a wonderful time!!! I always love to go to a new city and explore it and for cool and quirky new places. This time it was all about fooooood. When people think of good food they think New York and Los Angeles. I think that a lot of new cities are on the up and coming....HELLOOO Vegas!! Hell, its the host city of Top Chef this season. Other places on the way up include Miami, San Fransico, and Dallas to name a few. Of course this is in my opinion, but watch you'll see. These places will become more main stream.

SO, here are a few of my highlights of foood while in Dallas.

Off the Bone. A Gourmet BBQ restuarant. Having a boyfriend who is quite particular in what he wants to eat we asked the concierge where to go to get good BBQ. He gave us directions and off we went. Off the Bone was kind of in an industrial area of Dallas, past the Convention Center. Set in a relatively big parking lot, painted white with red trim, I think it was an old gas station. Entirely take-out this food was AMZING. Lemme break it down for you...Smoked Pecan Baby Back Ribs, Honey Spiced Baked Beans (I'm not usually a baked bean eater) and Tri-Colored Spiced Pasta. Wow. It was SO good. When I was finished, I went back in and told Dwight(owner and chef) that Off the Bone was the perfect name for his restaurant because my ribs literally fell of the bone. I am salivating thinking about it....yummy!

The Cupcakery. okay, maybe not a meal....but cupcakes are awesome!! This is a whole new trend in the bakery/pastry world. Yum. Yum. Yum. I was a little put off that the girl behind the counter looked anorexically thin, but was immediately distracted by the amazing display case of cupcakes. I got the Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake. It was lemon cake swirled with fresh strawberries, and topped with strawberry cream cheese and a strawberry. It also had like food glitter on it.

My next top pick was the Coconut Bliss...sweet coconut cake with cream cheese frosting sprinkled with luscious coconut flakes. Other cupcakery favorites include the Mound of Joy, Southern Belle, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup.

Decorated inside with hot pink and just cool awesome-ness, there was a whole wall of pictures of celebrities enjoying cupcakes. Come to find out there is another store in LAS VEGAS. Duh. Just go and google (or bing) The Cupcakery images to see yummy pictures of glittery and delicious looking cupcakes!

CRAFT. Anyone heard of that little show I referenced earlier called Top Chef? Tom Colicchio is the owner and executive chef of this brand, which restaurants in Atlanta, Dallas, and LA also has craftbar (ATL and LA), craftsteak (Vegas, NY, and Foxwoods/CT) and 'wichcraft (NY and Vegas).

This was a no brainer that we would have to eat here. Set in the contemporary W hotel, this restaurant is SO cool. With a huge backdrop of wine, walls of black cow fur, and leather, craft had filament lightbulbs hanging down too. Just go look it up online. Its so beautiful. It is the type of restaurant that I strive to own one day.

I ate the cavatelli with veal ricotta meatballs. Oliver had the craft burger (not your average burger). You should be jealous people. jealous. This food was so good. Rich in flavors but not overpowering. Think of what Tom says on TopChef when he describes the winning dishes. He is definitely worthy to judge those people. I feel so cool to have eaten there. It was SO good. Can't wait to eat there again. What I really liked about this restaurant was that it wasn't pretentious. An average person can go there, read and understand the menu, and definitly appreciate just how good this food is prepared!!

Autobiography of my "adult life"

HEY!

I am totally new to this blogging thing but I am so excited to start. Who knows if anyone will even read it?!

Here is a little bit about me and my crazy life! I grew up in Fairfield CT and could not wait to get out of there...I succeeded!! I went to the University of Denver for my freshman year of college. I freaking loved it!!!! DU was amazing. Denver is an amazing place and I loved the mountains, my school, my new friends! It was the first time I really felt like I had REAL friends and people to relate to. I could truly be myself and I really flourished in the environment. I was active, involved, my mind was stimulated. Being inspired to experience life I took an "internship" at Walt Disney World!!! I was a College Program member (CP). I hated it!! I had moved to Orlando, had ghetto roommates, got paid CRAP, missed my lame ass boyfriend at the time, and was HOT and sweaty all the time. I even took six months off from school (including the summer) and endured the experienced. It is great to have on your resume, blah blah blah.

The best part of it was I took up a 2nd job doing valet at the Ritz Carlton there. Amazing money, amazing car, amazing body (due to running) and I met Oliver! 3 years later we are going strong! After my "internship" of CP hell I went back to DU for a quarter. I decided that DU was EXPENSIVE and that I couldn't afford it. As much as I loved Denver I knew that it will always be there and that I needed to do something with my life to stand out! I moved back to Orlando and transfered to the University of Central Florida. I finished college, fell in more love with Oliver, built my resume by being a restaurant manager at Universal Orlando (& other jobs), and GRADUATED COLLEGE ON TIME! I met some people that Iwill never forget and some really cool times.

My life goal is to live a lot of places and have an incredible resume of my work and my LIFE!

It is August of 2009 and I just moved to HOUSTON TX!?! I got an incredible job offer as a restaurant manager for an awesome company and am loving it!! Although I am not with physically with Oliver since he has ties all over the place, we take it one day at a time and are happy!

All in all, my blog is for my thoughts, to bring excitement, and try something new! I am super excited!! :)