Wednesday, January 18, 2017

catching up

Last night we caught up with my old boss and the Chairman of two of the Boards I served on- Lew and his wife Ellie.  They live nearby in St Petersburg and we get together once or twice a winter to catch up and hear travel plans etc....

We met in another new-to-us place in St Pete called Il Ritorno.  The food was good- with excellent pastas and the service was welcoming, however this was not the place for conversation as the noise level was extremely high... They do have outdoor tables (a few) and that might be an option for an easier way of getting caught up with friends you don't see all that often and really want to talk to...LOL


yellowtail crudo starter-


short rib mezzaluna  (Phil's starter and my main)



Lew's main of black grouper


Ellie's Bucatini pomodoro main-


Phil's truffle risotto main-



tiramisu (deconstructed) that I mostly ate but Lew tried a few bites-


Phil's dessert of hazelnut donuts thingies LOL-


so we shared a bottle of 2000 Chianti (don't remember which producer) and spent most of the time talking about travel plans for 2017 trips - the cooking school in Italy with Chef Hazan for the Estabrooks and Georgia epicurean trip for us and other ideas and favorites... nice evening... and this morning we are off to Chicago for a few days so you will get to see our Oriole dinner and a new hot place Entente... which coincidentally is right down the street from us! stay tuned!

Monday, January 16, 2017

add it

to the list of places we have tried for dinner in Sarasota... good - not spectacular but a good option for when we say to ourselves "where haven't we been in a while" and are bored with the regular places during the winter....

MoZaic on Main Street around the corner from the Opera House-

We had never been there before but our friends had - they were pretty neutral about this choice but it was Sunday so there was some restriction on choices --- Anyway here is what it looked like- going with dessert first because those were the most photogenic courses LOL

chocolate tart with raspberry-


two ice creams times two-


molten chocolate below -


poached pears-


and now back to the menu for starters and dinner choices-


Gene and I had crab cakes (he for entree and me for a starter)


this might be the winning dish of the night - a crab salad with fresh dressing with lemon and mint - it was excellent! MaryAnn was kind enough to share so we could taste the flavors...


Phil ordered the shrimp starter -


Gene's starter New England clam chowder-


Phil and MaryAnn both had the lamb chops and I had the risotto as a main-


 
as usual we closed the place down with our conversation flowing easily over the three hour meal... when we arrived the dining room (located off to the left of the photo) was full LOL but we outlasted them all - they brought in the outdoor tables and chairs and the two last servers were sitting at the bar just hanging out until we wrapped things up - LOL- with still much more to discuss...





tonight we catch up with Lew & Ellie in St Pete... and then tomorrow back to school LOL and Wednesday back to the great white north... except we are hoping we won't have white! so stay tuned...