I'm salivating....

Excuse my gross title....but seriously, this looks incredible! 

Photo credit:  Elaine Skinner

What an amazing concept!  A transient restaurant that travels from venue to venue (sometimes farm to farm) with ever changing menus fit to echo the setting, city or hands of the people who bring food to the table.  This sounds like a foodie dream complete with local ingredients and a local, celebrated chef all dining elbow to elbow at a long table together. 

If only I had a spare $400 lying around for Blake and I get experience this!

Food Review Times Two

I got the chance to hit up not one, but two new places in Austin.  Since you've probably seen Menu Plan Monday, you know that we don't eat out that much, but Wednesday was different! 

I met Kristin, a new friend from my Discipleship Group at Bouldin Creek Cafe.  Blake and I have been watching this place while it was under construction every time we drove up South First.  We were curious to see what would go into the space.  The Caffine Dealer sign is out front - I guess this popular spot moved to a new building.  

The space is so cool and has a great patio out front.  It doubles as a coffee house but also has great food.  I was a little bit suprised to find only vegetarian food but it did not disapoint.  We shared veggie fajitas and sweet potato tamales and they were both so good!  I was really satisfied too.  I might be making this my new office every once in a while!

Wednesday night was date night for us.  We've been trying to do a better job of sticking to our evenings out.  This week we tried The Backspace.  This spot is owned by the same people that own Parkside on 6th and is just around the corner from their first store.  It's actually unmarked, without a sign, and people are finding their way in just by word of mouth.  It's a really small spaace - only seats about 30 people, including the bar.  The menu is on the short side, but we were impressed by the quality of ingredients and the suprising flavor combinations. 

We shared the Octopus as an appetizer - drenched in a chilie & blood orange sauce and then shared the beet, fenel and citrus salad.  We started with only one pizza - Roasted Mushroom, Ricotta, Capers and Tomatoes but then decided it was too good to just stop at one and had the Fennel Sausage pizza as well.  The crust was really great.  Chewy but crisp at the same time.  I love the coal fire oven.  Yum! 

This is one that's worth checking out.  I'd stick to a week night if you don't want to wait since it is a small place.  Enjoy!

New Austin Eats & Drinks!

This week we had a chance to try a few new (to us) spots around town.  I love exploring new restaurants around town and this week's picks were great! 

Wednesday night's date night took us to a new Mexican food joint, Takoba, on the East side of 35.  Blake had been there before with some guys, during the weekend I kicked him out of the house for the Bachelorette Party.  The atmosphere was really great and they had a fabulous patio.  Would be a great spot for families too - there is a giant sandbox in the back.  Now that it's finally warmed up, we enjoyed sitting outside - even if the space heater was going.   I tried their mango-habenero margarita to start and we shared some chiviche.  It really inspired me to want to try to make my own - I'll keep you posted on that!  I had the fish tacos and Blake tried the chile relleno.  The chiviche was our favorite part!  

Friday Night we celebrate our friend's birthday at Lustre Pearl in the Rainey Street District.  We had yet to venture over to that part of town and sad that we haven't been yet.  We loved the vibe of all of the laid back bars.  Again, great patio.  There seems to be a theme here with this wonderful weather. Definitely a cool scene - but not too cool, if you know what I mean.  We can't wait to check out Clive - another bar on the street.  We might be hitting that up this week for date night. :)

Saturday Night we were pooped after a day of moving and saying goodbye to some friends.  We had an empty fridge and pantry and I wasn't really up for cooking - so we decided to go out.  We thought we "earned" a burger as a reward for our hard work all day so we tried out Hopdoddy on South Congress.  Hopdoddy is fairly new and recently replaced a grocery type market.  It was packed that night with the line nearly out the door.  Somehow, we snagged 2 seats at the bar and avoided the line.  Blake had the Magic Shroom Burger and I had the Greek Burger (lamb, yum).  We also indulged in some chili cheese fries and a beer.  Totally not what I expected for chili cheese fries but they hit the spot. 

Great new finds for us!  We're excited to keep exploring our new city.  If you're from Austin or love to visit, what are your favorite restaurants, coffee shops or bars?  Would love some recommendations!

Reunited!

This weekend we headed to Dallas to visit the Kersey family.  It was so great to be with our sweet friends, we've missed them!

Us with the Kerseys (brand new baby Adi) the night we got engaged!

Kristi and Michael were some of our closest friends at our church in Scottsdale.  Coincidentally, they are also from Texas and have since moved to Dallas from Arizona.  It's so nice to be close enough to drive to see each other for the weekend.  It had been way too long!  They were such a blessing to us in Arizona.  We loved spending date nights out with them, listening to their experience on marriage as newlyweds/ an engaged couple and talking about Jesus together.  We spent a couple new year's eves with them as well and they threw us a WONDERFUL Texas themed shower in their backyard last spring.  They are dear friends to us. 

We were so happy  to see their kids, Trevin and Adilyn.  They are such awesome kiddos and we had a blast playing with them and getting to know them all over again.  So excited for Baby Kersey #3 on the way in 8 weeks.  The next time we seem them, they will be a Party of 5!

We got in late on Friday night and stayed up chatting and catching up.  It was fun to see their home in Texas and hear how life had been the last couple months.  We both have experienced quite a bit of transition.  Interesting how so much of the challenges and blessings of that time were similar for each of us. 

The next morning we got up and made breakfast panini sandwiches.  The kids were a little shy at first, but quickly warmed up once they were awake and alert.  Trevin gave us the tour of his playroom and bedroom.  It was so fun to play with them.  I also loved watching B with them, he's going to be such a great dad someday.  (Don't get any ideas people :) )  We headed to the park later that morning.  It was a gorgeous day! We loved enjoying a picnic lunch outside.  So nice to not be cold or rainy.  Beautiful days like that make me really miss AZ, where the weather is like that more than 6 months out of the year.  I even fell asleep outside on their swing later that afternoon!

Trevin and Adilyn were going to spend their first night at their Grandma's house that evening so we all could have a night out.  We headed to the Uptown area and had a really yummy dinner at Villa-O.  I had a seafood risotto with a spicy tomato sauce.  It was so decadent, but I ate the whole dish!  I really enjoyed the uptown area.  Looks like there are a ton of cute shops and fun restaurants in that neighborhood.  We finished our night with some ice cream and headed to bed.

Sunday AM, the guys went to go pick up the kids and Kristi and I met them at church.  We were excited to be able to go to the Village with them.  We've heard so many great things about this church and it was fun to see where they worship each week.  Loved worshiping together again with them!  The Lord is really working in and through this church.  It's exciting. 

We ended our time together over brunch and then got back on the road after hugs.  So blessed by our time together.  It really was a fun, relaxing weekend and awesome to be together with them. 

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures while we were there, but hopefully the recap can help you imagine all the fun we had! Can't wait to visit again soon after Baby arrives!

A Lovely Little Saturday

To enjoy one of the last cool(er) Saturdays before the insane AZ sun hits in full force, B and I rode our bikes to Vincent's Farmers Market this morning for some great eats and fabulous people watching. We skirted Camelback Mountain with some gorgeous views on our 13 mile trek. One of my co-workers, Meghan, recommended Vincents to me the first couple weeks that I moved here and we got hooked. They are a very high end restaurant in the valley but on Saturdays take over their parking lot with a very gourmet market.

It's such a relaxing atmosphere with so much to taste. We love that high school kids (we think a couple are the owners kiddos) run the show- preparing indulgent crepes, pizza, paninnis and manning the produce section. The paninni guy is our favorite. We can't seem to resist having one everytime we go. It's hard to say no - even at 10:30am to a Shrimp and Chicken Pannini fresh off the press!

Thursday Night Date Night

Thursdays are usually date night for the hubby and me. We started this during our engagement and have tried to keep our standing date each week. We try to make an effort to get out and connect, across the table from one another (not sitting next to eachother - we don't want to be "that couple"; how do you chat when you're sitting side by side anyway?) and just spend some time focusing on us. It always proves to be a great time regardless of where we go, what we do, or what we eat.

Tonight we decided to try out a new spot near our house called Blue Wasabi. I love trying out new places in the valley. I think in my 3 years of living here, I've done a pretty good job of covering most of the must-eats, but I'm always up for something new! I can eat Sushi at least once a week in the summertime, but the only affordable way to do that is to make sure you hit up the good happy hour spots. We were really impressed with the food overall, the service was excellent and very friendly too. They have a very large selection of happy hour items. Maybe over half their regular menu (including drinks) is featured at half price from 4:30-6:30. I always appreciate happy hours that go past 6 for the working girl that doesn't always get out of the office right at 5. We would agree that it's worth checking out for happy hour!

What's your favorite spot for Happy Hour in the valley?