date night

Eric and I decided to have a date night on Saturday and it had two parts. For the first part, we went to the Elfreth's Alley annual holiday open house - you'll hear more about that tomorrow. Today, I'll tell you about the second part of our date, which was the eating and drinking portion (the most important/fun part of the date in my opinion). We wanted to go to a byob and wanted it to be in Rittenhouse Square because I wanted to be able to get drinks at Snackbar at some point during the evening. It had been a while since I had been to Audrey Claire and Eric had never been there, so that's where we went. Like most byo's in the city, Audrey Claire is teeny tiny. That coupled with the fact that they don't take reservations AND the food is really really good - there's usually a long wait to get in (especially on a Saturday night) and this weekend was no exception. During our hour wait, we went to Snackbar and got some drinks and a little pre-dinner snack.

I've been wanting to go to Snackbar for a really long time but just never got around to it. It's also very small inside but I love it because it feels cozy - and perfect for cold winter nights because of the fireplace. We both ordered the Paris Manhattan...and to be honest I'm not sure what made it Parisian and different than a regular Manhattan. But it was good. Really good.

We also ordered the calamari which was dressed with some citrus-thyme aoli. Yummy. It didn't come with any extra lemon to squeeze over top which I usually want, but it didn't need it. It was perfect. Delicious.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos at Audrey Claire. There was literally no space between us and our neighbors - we were so close I felt like we should've introduced ourselves because we were basically sitting at the same table. I was slightly annoyed at first because I like having that extra foot of "privacy"...but I quickly got over it - but was still too embarrassed to be take photographs of everything we ate. Sorry guys. Here are some photos of the restaurant that I found online:

via visitphilly.com

via AudreyClaire.com

My favorite part of the meal was our appetizer dish - we got the antipasta sampler which included seared brussel sprouts, grilled portobello mushrooms, roasted asparagus, grilled baby artichokes, olives with wild pickled cucumbers, and salted beets and pumpkin. I could've just eaten that as my meal - which says a lot because although I like vegetables, all veggie dishes are not usually my favorite. I got the maple brined pork chop with wild boar bacon as my entree and Eric got the skate wing which was one of the specials. Mine was very good - the pork was juicy and the bacon delicious and Eric loved his. For dessert we split a warm chocolate cake which was SO GOOD. I could go for some right now. Hoping to go back soon! Great meal, great date night.