I surprised Patrick and took him on a progressive lunch in our town yesterday for his 40th birthday. AP went to 4-H Winter camp on Friday night and my mom came up to watch Abby. Mrs. Bower (my library clerk) came and got Margaret for the day and all of a sudden- we were kid free for the FIRST time in TWO Years!!!
I told him we were going to celebrate Top Chef style and we headed out at 11:00 am to start the eating. Our town is lucky to have several high end gourmet restaurants in the historic area. First we went to "It's About Thyme" which is a French cafe where we've always dreamed of dining. We shared Seafood Bisque and rosemary foccacia bread, a corned beef and cabbage pastry puff, and crawdad raviolis with two sauces. We sat in the front window and enjoyed the food and ambiance.
Then we walked a block to Knackles, (which isn't fancy, but is famous in this area for it's delicious baked goods) and bought some cupcakes for the kids for Tuesday's dessert.
We stopped at a country store and got a new flag pole for our porch and then figured since it had been about 45 minutes from our first lunch, that we should eat again. This time we tried "Foti's" which was more formal than "It's About Thyme." The waiter refolded my napkin when I left for the bathroom. At both restaurants the somellier, owner and head chef visited our table; it was neat. Of course, we didn't want to admit we were eating twice! We ordered root vegetable soup which was topped with pine nuts and apple spears. It was fantastic. We also split a pizza topped with duck coq au vin and sun dried tomatoes. Yummy!
After our second lunch, we walked to "The Frenchman's Corner" to fill a ballotin with Neuhaus chocolates. The chocolates are kept under glass and you get to hand pick which ones you'd like. Patrick picked a chocolate truffle with butter cream with chocolate chips. I picked a "pagode with coffee ganache and gianduja" (whatever that is- it just looked pretty!)
From there we walked to "Tea, Lace and Roses" Victorian Tea Parlour for our grand finale. I ordered the Raspberry Rooibos, which is a naturally decaffeinated brew from South Africa. Patrick ordered Cream Earl Grey. As you can see from the pictures, they have a dress up room where you can choose a hat, jewelry and accessories, which I forced Patrick to don and he begrudginglycomplied (just for the picture).
We shared a sampling of desserts which included a wonderful warm mixed berry tart, a brownie, a lemon ball, a key lime pie tort, scones, and a delicious almond pound cake. The only thing we skipped all day was a goat cheese filled fig, which we packed up to bring home to AP!
We were stuffed and satisfied and didn't think we could eat again for the rest of the day. By 6 pm, we changed our minds... but it was a wonderful day and we enjoyed playing tourists (sans children) in our own town.
Happy 40th Birthday, hon!
