Last Friday, my dinner at Five Star was served in an actual ceramic star plate.
The last time I ate there, my food was merely served in a black bowl. Psh.
This was way cooler. Maybe five stars cooler -- Oh yeah, I went there, haha. I was also not the only one in the restaurant taking photos of these plates. There were iPhones and flashes galore, so I wonder if it's a pretty new thing for them? Regardless, it was a good decision on whoever's part.
Pictured: Chicken lo mein. It's so yummy, but it's even better if you ask for a side of hot sauce. And even better than that if you eat your leftovers with even more hot sauce and you wash it down with a ginger flavored Izze. (More about this delicious natural sparkling juice in another post.)
For the month of March, I've been voting in the Triangle Arts & Entertainment's poll for what I think is the "Best Brew in the Triangle." For the most part, I pick Big Boss Brewing Company because I love a lot of their beers (Blanco Diablo, Aces & Ates and Brown Betty, to name a few) and they also host cool parties at their brewery (such as the "Who's Your Paddy?" gathering I went to last night). They get a bunch of food trucks, such as the delicious Klausie's Pizza, to park in their lot and have bands playing in the warehouse and have the taps pouring out $3.50 pints. It's a good time.
There are 14 breweries listed on the poll, and I think I've tried 9 of them (but most I don't remember what I thought about their beers and only 3 of those 9 have I had recently). The leader in the poll is Aviator, and while I've only had 2 of their beers and I really really liked them, I want to try more before I vote them the best. Though I'm not really convinced I think it's the best, I do really like the beers from the Boylan Bridge Brewpub. I've voted for them a couple times, too, just to put them on the board.
Speaking of the BBB, I had a LivingSocial deal, which included a free flight of their beers, and I took advantage of it with J yesterday for lunch because the weather was nice enough to sit outside (and I know their porch will soon explode with people, especially on the weekends).
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| Beer flights |
What we ordered: Crab Dip and Bacon Wrapped BBQ Shrimp to start. The dip was our favorite out of the two starters and is something I'd order again. J went with the Spicy Chicken Philly he already knew he really liked, and I tried their $5 sandwich of the day, which was fried catfish. I of course had to trade chips for sweet potato fries because they are so good there, and they serve them in a little paper bag, which is just too cute.
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| Fried catfish sandwich |
If you want to vote for your favorite Triangle beer, the poll closes March 31. You can vote once a day!
Last night I ate dinner with my parents at Capital Club 16, and we will all definitely be back. (Seriously, we're going back in a couple weeks for my dad's birthday!)
I'd mentally put CC16 on my list of places to check out because it's a restaurant downtown that I'd walked by several times and always thought it looked cool. My parents had actually eaten dinner there a week or so ago, and they wanted to introduce it to me as well. The bar and chairs in the restaurant have a really cool story to them. They come from a restaurant in New York City (I can't remember the name), where my dad and granddad used to eat together when he was growing up. The owner and chef of CC16 moved to Raleigh from NYC and brought these pieces from warehouses up north. My dad was so excited to see them again! They're pretty deco and go well against the open white-wall feel of the rest of the space.
Anyways, we were actually the first to arrive for dinner, so I picked the table right in the window. I love people watching. I enjoyed a glass of Chardonnay while my mom opted for Big Boss Brewery's Aces and Ates. I was pretty excited when she ordered it so I could have a sip (it's a heavy stout - think Guinness) because Big Boss is a great Raleigh brewery, and I desperately wanted to try that beer, but not with my dinner! It's brewed with Larry's Beans, which is a local fair trade and organic coffee company. I've bought his espresso beans from Whole Foods and man oh man is it a good roast! I can't get it every time because it's a little pricey (you get what you pay for, though: fair trade organic beans) but it's so worth it when I can.
We all started with the roasted vegetable soup (yumm) and also got a bread basket with German pretzels (double yumm). Dad then got the potato cakes with applesauce, and I got a Caesar salad. It may have been the best Caesar salad I have ever had. They definitely make their own dressing and croutons in house. It was just so delicious. For our entrees, we all ordered the special, which was NC trout in a cream sauce with spinach and cherry tomatoes over black rice. The trout was cooked really well (overdone fish makes me sad) and the cream sauce was so good (but I wanted a little more to mix with my rice). Then for dessert, Dad got the chocolate bread pudding, and Mom and I shared some apple blintzes (basically fried apples I think) in a vanilla sauce with vanilla ice cream. What a delicious meal! Though we were the only people in the restaurant when we ordered, it was packed when we left.
Like I said, we will definitely be back for my dad's birthday (and then some). Granddad will actually be in town, so he'll get to see that bar and those chairs from New York! I'm happy I can cross off a place I wanted to go from my list.
