Advocacy Trip to Tallahassee, FL Nets Great Meals!

Every year we assist the Friends of our libraries in their advocacy efforts by joining them on a trip to Florida's capital city, Tallahassee. Although we certainly don't go hungry while we're there, as a college town Tallahassee is full of chain restaurants, bars, and pizza places. We're staying at the DoubleTree near the Capitol, and they have a restaurant, Jacob's On The Plaza, that leaves much to be desired. We told you about Jacob's in our post of Monday, February 15, 2010, "The WORST Restaurant Experience Ever!" Let's just say that Jacob's hasn't changed much in a year... Lisa noticed a restaurant right next door to the hotel...Avenue Eat & Drink. We decided to try it with the small group that was left here. What a terrific decision! Avenue has only been open about 6 months. The owner, Chris Clark, used to own what was (according to friends who live in Tallahassee) an excellent restaurant, Cafe Cabernet. Avenue Eat & Drink celebrates Southern Fusion cuisine that showcases many locally-sourced ingredients. We started with an Heirloom Tomato and Burrata Mozzarella Salad that featured both red and yellow tomatoes and soft, lucious burrata. For the unitiated, burrata is made just like the regular firmer mozzarella except that instead of throwing the formed balls quickly into ice water to firm up, burrata is formed into a pouch and filled with cream and scraps of mozzarella. It's a rich treat! Lisa had the Park Avenue Chicken Pot Pie as her entree, which was a different take on one of the most popular comfort foods. Avenue tops theirs with a corn souffle crust. Lisa thought there was more gravy (darker than any other chicken gravy we've had) than filling and would not order it again. Since we likely won't be back in Tallahassee until next year, we had to try other dishes. We tried the Anson Mills Grits with Smoked Cheddar and Stripling's Sausage. Anson Mills is an organic mill in Columbia, SC, and Stripling's is a family-owned sausage producer in Cordele, GA.. The grits were creamy, cheesy and rich, although they weren't very hot when they arrived. The small bowl of sausage crumbles tasted of sage, thyme, and mild pepper. Carol's entree was the Grilled Cheese and Pulled Short Rib Sandwich, served on sourdough bread with carmelized onions and horseradish mayo. Cheese was smoked cheddar. Short Ribs are the darlings of many restaurant chefs right now with their rich beefy flavor. All the ingredients in this sandwich work well together but again, it would have been better if it had been hotter. The side was sweet potato chips and they were good! A fun item that another diner ordered was chick pea fries...ground chick peas (garbanzo beans) blended with spices and formed into little logs before being rolled in chick pea flour and deep-fried. Dipped into Avenue's special ketchup, they were different and tasty. We HAD to try at least one dessert, and all shared the Bourbon Banana Pudding with Glazed Pecans. Avenue's version adds toasted angel food cake to the ingredients in the name. No one didn't enjoy this dessert! Strange as it might seem, we returned tonight for dinner! We had plans with our local friends to eat at another restaurant but we suggested Avenue since we knew they'd enjoy it and they also didn't know of its existence. We started with the Artichoke Spinach Dip with Tortilla Chips. Avenue changed the ratio of artichoke & spinach to creamy cheese sauce for a chunkier appetizer. The bowl was emptied pretty quickly! One of the reasons Carol wanted to return to Avenue was to try their appetizer of Braised Pork Belly With Cabbage. Yeah, she knows, pork belly is fatty...it's the cut used to make bacon. She thought having a small portion in a restaurant might prevent her from wanting to cook a whole piece at home. She decided to order it for dinner, along with a side of roast potatoes. The small chunk of pork belly was braised then deep-fried and served with spicy (VERY!) cabbage along with a vinegary dressing that cut the richness of the pork belly, although it was still unctious (Carol has always wanted to find a place to use that word!). Lisa's dinner was the Risotto with Boursin Cheese, Rainbow Kale, & Shitake Mushrooms. It was creamy and rich, but didn't have a lot of kale or mushrooms. On to dessert, again...tonight we had Mike's Reese's Peanut Butter Pie. Although not made in Avenue's own kitchen, it was delicious and surprisingly light, as the peanut butter filling was whipped. Before we close, we need to mention the service...at lunch we were served by Frankie and at dinner J.C. took care of us. Both gentlemen were extremely knowledgeable about Avenue's menu and were professional and pleasant. We're planning to return to Avenue Eat & Drink next year with our whole crew! Avenue Eat & Drink 115 East Park Avenue Tallahassee, FL 32301 850-224-0115 www.avenueeatanddrink.com

Maggiano's Little Italy Restaurant

We'll cut to the chase immediately...we LOVE Maggiano's Little Italy! Now for the reasons why:

We love the decor and the Frank Sinatra music...it reminds us of restaurants in New York's Little Italy. We think the service is excellent; attentive but not intrusive. And the food is wonderful!

We visited Maggiano's last Sunday with Carol's mother. We began with a couple of appetizers...the tomato caprese salad and stuffed mushrooms. Though tasty, the caprese salad could have used a bit more drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The stuffed mushrooms were medium sized, filled with spinach (there was a bit of green in there) breadcrumbs, and what the menu described as "garlic white wine sauce".

Moving on to dinner, Maggiano's has the GREATEST deal! Their "Classic Pastas" are two for one! Order one for dinner at the restaurant and get a second one to take home! Choose from Spaghetti Marinara, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Spaghetti with a Meatball, Eggplant Parmagiana, Four Cheese Ravioli, Gnocchi with Tomato Vodka Sauce, Coach Joey Z's Angel Hair Pasta with Sausage, Mom's Lasagna, or Taylor Street Baked Ziti.

Carol chose the Taylor Street Baked Ziti and it was delicious! Chunks of crumbled Italian sausage mixed into melted cheesy ziti and a wonderful tomato sauce made for a satisfying meal. She was only able to eat half of it! As her take-home meal she decided on the Eggplant "Parm", which was her lunch two days later. Wow! That was great, too!

Lisa had the Chicken & Truffle Tortellacci. We knew what "tortellini" were but had never heard of "tortellacci"...they turned out to be huge tortellini-like pillows "stuffed with chicken baked in a garlic and white wine cream sauce with smoked ham, Asiago cheese, and fresh spinach". Notice that no where are truffles mentioned in the menu's description. Although this was a dreamy, rich dish, there were no truffles, and Lisa didn't find any recognizable pieces of chicken.

No dessert since we were very full!

www.maggianos.com