The Big Night Out

My dad sent me money earmarked for a special birthday dinner. Since we didn't have time on my actual birthday for anything fancy, we went out last night instead. I considered restaurants like Henry's at the Barn, Nemo Grille and Lola, but ended up choosing The Melting Pot because we haven't yet been disappointed there. I'd love to try the others and I'm all about choosing local independents over national chains. But, if I'm going to blow $100 bucks on dinner, I'd like to have tried the place for lunch or apps first. So, on the agenda for when I am actually making some money is going out for small plates at all kinds of cool local places.

As we always do when we go to The Melting Pot, we chose to have the Big Night Out. I chose to do the traditional Swiss fondue, which was very good but not enough for all of our bread & apples. Salad was a caprese salad drizzled with balsamic---nice, but not as good as mine & it needed more basil. Then, we had mojo cooking liquid with a variety of meats, adding a lobster tail for my seafood-loving baby. I think my favorite was the chicken dipped in the mild curry sauce followed closely by the filet dipped in the blue cheese sauce. Our dessert fondue was dark chocolate with Chambord. I am a huge fan of the combo of dark chocolate with raspberry.

The food was great, we had the same fantastic waiter (Dan) as we did last year in the other Cleveland location (this was our first visit to the Westside location) but the best thing of all was the company. We had a delightful time visiting with one another and I am so in love with J. Oh, the drinks were terrific, too. I had a Hang 10 (10 Cane rum with muddled fresh basil, mango Monin syrup and pineapple juice) and J had a (really fabulous) Love Martini (Malibu, cranberry juice, peach schnapps and strawberry slices that looked like lush little hearts).

Thanks, Dad, for a great dinner out!