Showing posts with label lunch. Show all posts

Office Lunch

Last week, My bossman took us three ladies in the office out to lunch. We put an “Out of Office” sign on the door and headed down town. 
We had reservations at Barristers in the Esquire Hotel. You may remember me talking about this place a couple years ago when I took my husband here for his birthday. I was not to impressed then, but it was new. The prices were high and the plates came out with only enough food to feed and elf.  
Things have changed since then.


The wait staff was more personable, the music was different and you got more on your plate. I could not help but admire the new outdoor seating area. The have it gated to keep out the people from the streets. 


The walls were covered with a trellis of new plant growth beginning to climb as Spring reaches close. 


I ordered the grilled feta cheese sandwich with red peppers on sour dough bread and a side of squash. When we finished our meal, we ordered a piece of chocolate caked to share. It was absolutely delicious. 


The restaurant sits on the main floor of the the Esquire hotel. Before we left, the waiter took us on a tour of the coffee house they had recently opened on the bottom (basement) floor. It was called “The Notary”.


Until two years ago, this building had been empty forever. One of my blogger friends, Jack over at the shipslog blog, is from around this area too and may remember this building as the “Lawyers Building” and had a bank of the main floor. This was before my time. 

The hotel also has a has a roof top lounge and it has always been a goal of mine to get to the roof of this building. Unfortunately, the waiter would not let us go up there this day due to some construction still going. I see my rooftop visit in the near future. 

I’m glad we have this little elegant spot in the heart of town and I’d like to see more nice places open around here. It has always been such a ghost town and magnet for homeless people and drug addicts. Things seem to be changing a little. I hope. 

A Walk Down South End

My daughter was on a one week furlough with her job due to Covid-19. They are making each employee take one week off without pay. This was a scary moment for her but she took it as a little vacation and tried to enjoy it the best she could. She spent time around her pool, and took some shopping trips. 

One day during her furlough week, we went to visit her for lunch. It was a beautiful day so we took a walk around South End Charlotte. We walked the Light rail trail. This is a sidewalk that runs along each side of the light rail and it goes from one end of town to the other. There are many restaurants and shops along the trail. You will also see a lot of people jogging or walking their dogs. 


We love walking to places when we visit. We all decided to walk to a nearby place called Eight and Sand Kitchen for lunch. The menu consist of soups, salads and sandwiches. Everything is made fresh and the atmosphere is clean and relaxing. 


This place offers more healthy options so we thought it would be a great place to stop in. We each ordered a sandwich. I chose the Pistachio Pesto Caprese.
 

My daughter got some kind of chicken sandwich and my husband opt for the club sandwich. Everything was delicious. 

After lunch we walk about a mile to a little ice cream shop called Jeni’s Ice Cream. It’s a pretty popular place around the area. They have a variety of unique flavors. 


Just look at all those different flavor combinations! 

I got a half and half single scoop. My flavors of choice was goat cheese red cherries and caramel pecan sticky buns
They scooped it into a fresh made buttercrisp waffle cone that was still warm when they handed it to me. I had to eat my ice cream pretty quick. 


It is alway nice to get out and walk to places without having to fight traffic or find parking spaces. 
Though times are bad right now, we felt safe as everyone we passed was nice and respectful to others. 
No mask required. 


Sunday Lunch

The weather has been hot here in North Carolina and very sunny. It is just too pretty to stay inside especially on a nice Sunday afternoon.

After church, Nick and I decided we wanted just a sandwich for lunch. Unfortunately it was grocery shopping day so we were out of sandwich fixings. That's when we decided to go out for another adventure to find a little spot to sit down and have a lite bite.

We ventured out to a little town close by to try a place everyone raves about called the Table and Market. As we walked inside it took us back in time. This restaurant was structured using old materials recycled from the towns historic buildings.


The bricking and roof are all original structure of what used to be an old supermarket. The shelving are from the town library which was the first library in the Piedmont of North Carolina. The bar tops and wine racks were taken from a Parr Yarn Mill.


We found a spot to sit down on the outside patio. It was so peaceful as we observed our surroundings. Service was great and the food was delicious. Oh, and we did get a sandwich but it was not a small sandwich. 


I ordered the BBQ sandwich with a side of slaw and Nick had the Italian club with a side of tomato. It was delicious and the meat was fresh deli meat prepared right there in the restaurants deli. 


We will definitely go back to this one again. They had a good looking brunch menu I’d like to try. It’s just hard to eat “brunch”. I’m old school where it’s either breakfast or lunch. Nothing in between unless it’s a stale danish with a cup of coffee. 

Pinky's

My daughter and her boyfriend (I'll call them A&A) invited us to the farmers market in their town of Charlotte, which is about 45 minutes from our house. Nick was not feeling well enough to get going that early in the morning so we suggest that we all could just meet for lunch.

The two agreed. So after several minutes of trying to decide where to eat, A&A mentioned a little place in Charlotte called Pinky's Westside Grill. I remember Pinky's from when I was a little kid. It used to be an automotive garage. I distinctly remember this place because it always had a Volkswagon bug on the roof. We would pass this place when the family would go eat at the Gondola Italian Restaurant. It was always a big deal to us. When we would see the car on the roof, we knew we were almost at the restaurant.

Well now that garage has been transformed into a grill with a wonderful selection of just about any kind of grill foods you would want. I really wanted the fried pickles but I opted for the "Pinky Dog".


The pinky dog was a Nathan's hot dog on a french bun loaded with chili and Pinky's famous spicy pimento cheese.


Nick had the Bologna and I cant remember what A&A had but both looked delicious and I saw cream cheese on that dog! oh my! 


Incase your wondering, Yes, it still has the Volkswagon on the top of the building. It even has the original sign at the road but due to traffic, I was not able to get a shot of it.


This would be a place we would go back to. It was an easy drive there and had fast friendly service. There was a covered seating area outside that we enjoyed too. We love to go any place with outdoor dining.

I give Pinky's WestSide Grill an A plus.


Birthday Baked Apples

My daughter has gotten to celebrate her birthday all week! Her birthday was September 23rd. She turned 26. We went to her town and took her out to breakfast on her birthday. We also gave her a couple gifts and a cheese cake. She was booked up with plans with her friends the rest of that weekend and the next. The soonest we could get family together to celebrate her birthday was this past weekend.

The birthday girl complained that she got every kind of cake for her birthday except her favorite. We asked “what kind of cake would that be?” She answered, “birthday cake!” She likes white cake with white buttercream icing. Of course, as her mom, I knew that. 

The family piled in after church for a birthday dinner. Me and Nick spent all morning in the kitchen preparing the food. The menu consist of bbq chicken, macaroni and cheese, slaw, squash casserole, green beans, rolls and baked apples. The apples were a last minute decision as I wanted to have a Fall themed dinner. 

There is something about the aroma of baked apples. They were a treat that went over good and made my house smell like a country bakery. 

I grabbed some New York apples because they were cheap. 


I would have much rather had honey crisp apples but they were tripple the price. The New York apples worked just fine.

I carefully cored out the centers and removed all the seeds and any hard stuff. Then I trimmed the peeling from the edges. Usually this will keep the skin from splitting and keeps the apples in tact. That didnt really work by the way. 



Next I stuffed each hole with a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins and pecans and butter.  I baked them until they were soft. They are great as a side or add ice cream to make it a delicious dessert. 



We were expecting twelve people for dinner but ended up with only eight. Needless to say we had lots of leftovers. We are those people that over prepare so nothing runs out. We make sure everyone can have as many helpings as they want. 

The food was great and YES, the girl got her Birthday cake with plenty to take home to share with her friends.

Lunch With A Friend

It's been a long time since I had a lunch date with my friend E. We met years ago at dance class and she is also the sister of my primary doctor and worked in his office. We would often speak when I made a visit there.

We decided it's time we meet up again. We usually meet for dinner after work but she currently has another job that allows her to take an hour lunch and is not located to far from my office. So we agreed to do lunch this time.

We met halfway at a restaurant called Dino's in Bessemer City. It's a little Italian place tucked alone off the hwy. This was my first time visiting.

I'm really wanting to stay on my healthy eating plan this week as I'm still trying to shed a couple pounds I gained the past couple months.

I may or may not have just blown it again.

The items on the menu looked delicious, but since I'm not used to eating a big lunch, I chose just to have the Ruben sandwich. It was served open face with a side of home fries. As the waitress put our plates on the table, our eyes grew large as theses sandwiches were made for a giant. The waitress suggested we take a picture of them. Of course I will. I'm a blogger!!!

I ended up only eating half. I took the other half home for my husband to enjoy later.

 

The sandwich was delicious and I had a hard time skipping those home fries. I love any kind of fries! I managed to only eat a couple and leave the rest alone.

My friend E had the Roast Beef Club with french fries.



She talked about how good it was. She said it had lots of horseradish sauce on it which she liked, but again, it was way to much food and she ended up taking half of hers home as well.

I really needed this time with a girl friend. I work all day, every day around nothing but men.
Its nice to have a female to talk to. We had a lot of catching up and girl gossip to do. We had a great time and suggested we do this again. The only problem is we didn't have enough chat time as we both had to head back to work.