Date night

Its the weekend!!! Finally. I really could not fathom making it through the entire week on Monday and actually tried to take Friday off and couldn’t, so I was extra happy to walk out into the almost sunshine yesterday evening to meet my hubby for a date night!

He picked me up right outside my office and we parked the car in Boston’s lovely Seaport District. Normally we walk/bike ride to and from work, but Friday morning was a monsoon, and he drove me in because I was so cranky about the day. Isn’t that nice? 🙂

Our first stop was Barbara Lynch’s Drink in the Fort Point neighborhood. Drink is a very cool basement level bar with windows looking up and out on to the street above. Its very minimalist and clean looking, and the concept is pretty cool. They are devoted to cocktails, though they do offer small plates of food and a small beer and wine list. Drink does not have a cocktail menu; you can request pretty much anything from their master mixologists. They squeeze all of their own fresh juices, grow lavender on site, and make their own syrups. Your order can be a straightforward, “I want a vodka tonic.” or it can be totally vague, as I decided to be. I asked our mixologist, Sam, what his favorite drink with lavender was, and he made me a Bee’s Knees. It was a delicious, summery blend of gin, lemon juice, honey, and lavender, served in a beautiful etched glass that looked like it came out of my granny’s attic, in a very good way.

We were given complimentary olives and fried chickpeas. Oh my gosh, delicious! We also decided to order the bacon wrapped dates on a gorgonzola sauce. I took the bacon off, but these dates were so rich and sweet, perfectly warm and caramelized. The tangy, salty cheese was the perfect contrast to the sticky sweet of the dates. These were heaven.

Olives and chickpeas

Dates

They were also filling enough to tide us over for our walk to the North End where we put our names in at Neptune Oyster.  While waiting at Neptune, I had a glass of Borgo Magredo prosecco from the Veneto region of Italy. It was lovely, dry, and sparkly. Neptune is tiny and very crowded. They don’t take reservations, but they will call you if you put your name in and go down the street for a walk or a drink.

We were seated more quickly than I expected and knew exactly what we wanted to eat: lots of oysters and a hot buttered lobster roll. Nom.  We ordered a variety of oysters from the east coast, mostly from MA and Prince Edward Island. I am not a fan of west coast oysters at all for some reason, but give me Wellfleets and I am a happy girl. They are the taste of New England to me.The lobster roll was outstanding. It was perfectly warm and buttery, with sweet lobster meat and a toasted bun that soaked up some of the butter and was slightly crunchy and soft at the same time.

Taste of summer

Because the restaurant was so tiny we were seated at a shared table which ended up, as it often does in conversation with our neighbors. People hear my husband’s accent and instantly they want to talk to him about their long lost Irish relatives. Its pretty funny! Without going too much into our conversation or my political viewpoints, lets just say that these lovely folks worked in an industry that, in my opinion, really harmfully impacts our environment and our national security, so the conversation was interesting. Ok – and they totally denied climate change and somewhat chastized us for having wind power at our home. I won’t say anything else on that topic except that I left dinner a little irritated. The meal was outstanding though, and we got a funny story out of it!

After dinner we walked down the new Rose Kennedy Greenway, which I really wish I had gotten to take photos of last night. It is SO pretty and such a beautiful use of space in Boston. I would highly recommend a walk here, and if any of you ladies coming to Boston for the summit have some extra time, I would love to do some restauranting!

We ended the evening having an unpictured Whale’s Tale Pale Ale at Mr. Dooley’s Irish Tavern, one of my favorite places to hear Irish music in the US. It was a  lot of fun, and us wild things were out until 11!

This morning I am off to a dog walking class at the MSPCA. I am graduating to the next level of difficult dog, and I am excited that I will be able to help more aggressive, sometimes troubled dogs after this training. Then I am going to do some cleaning, shopping at Trader’s and hopefully some relaxing before our wine club event at Travessia tonight. I will be back with a full recap!

Have a great day!