White Girls CAN Wrap!

Stay tuned.....

MINT

 

Head down to the historic 2500 block of West Main Street in Richmond, and you'll find two of the best brunch spots in town.  Anchoring one end of the block is 3 Monkeys (more on that in another post).  Holding down the fort, and quite nicely, is Mint.  Meant, I think, to be the "working man's" version of Julep's Southern Cuising near the Farmer's Market, it does so quite well.   This all started when Miss Leslie Owens and I started thinking about Bananas Foster (and how much Yours Truly would really REALLY like to have some). We were at a live music performance of Dave McKenney, so didn’t really have access to a laptop, but did have smart phones and so began a rousing game of dueling smart phones in a quest to find a Sunday brunch spot that serves said Bananas Foster.  Well.  We didn’t find one.  But we DID find “Mint” which serves Bananas Foster French toast.  Well.  I’ve already had that somewhere else.  BUT.  They did have something called “Duck Confit with Sweet Potato Hash.”  Well.  Anything that has duck AND sweet potato is something I MUST HAVE.  Well.  Of course we ordered mimosas.  They were AWESOME.  As the waiter lowered them to the table, I SMELLED the orange in it first.  YUM!  One sip and I was IN LOVE with that mimosa!  FRESH orange juice and plenty of champagne.  As I drank it through my straw, I immediately decided that NO MATTER what this thing cost, it was going to be worth it!  And then it only cost $7, so life was freakin’ good! The duck confit thing was indeed good….I could have made due with a few less roasted red peppers and a little more sweet potato.  Good food, good service (and quite attractive I might add!), and even easy parking. All in all, y’all, Mint is highly recommended by the Belles of Brunch (a subsidiary of the Mimosa Madames).

Head down to the historic 2500 block of West Main Street in Richmond, and you'll find two of the best brunch spots in town.  Anchoring one end of the block is 3 Monkeys (more on that in another post).  Holding down the fort, and quite nicely, is Mint.  Meant, I think, to be the "working man's" version of Julep's Southern Cuising near the Farmer's Market, it does so quite well.  

This all started when Miss Leslie Owens and I started thinking about Bananas Foster (and how much Yours Truly would really REALLY like to have some).

We were at a live music performance of Dave McKenney, so didn’t really have access to a laptop, but did have smart phones and so began a rousing game of dueling smart phones in a quest to find a Sunday brunch spot that serves said Bananas Foster.  Well.  We didn’t find one.  But we DID find “Mint” which serves Bananas Foster French toast.  Well.  I’ve already had that somewhere else.  BUT.  They did have something called “Duck Confit with Sweet Potato Hash.”  Well.  Anything that has duck AND sweet potato is something I MUST HAVE. 

Well.  Of course we ordered mimosas.  They were AWESOME.  As the waiter lowered them to the table, I SMELLED the orange in it first.  YUM!  One sip and I was IN LOVE with that mimosa!  FRESH orange juice and plenty of champagne.  As I drank it through my straw, I immediately decided that NO MATTER what this thing cost, it was going to be worth it!  And then it only cost $7, so life was freakin’ good!

The duck confit thing was indeed good….I could have made due with a few less roasted red peppers and a little more sweet potato. 

Good food, good service (and quite attractive I might add!), and even easy parking.

All in all, y’all, Mint is highly recommended by the Belles of Brunch (a subsidiary of the Mimosa Madames). 

Head down to the historic 2500 block of West Main Street in Richmond, and you'll find two of the best brunch spots in town.  Anchoring one end of the block is 3 Monkeys (more on that in another post).  Holding down the fort, and quite nicely, is Mint.  Meant, I think, to be the "working man's" version of Julep's Southern Cuising near the Farmer's Market, it does so quite well.  

This all started when Miss Leslie Owens and I started thinking about Bananas Foster (and how much Yours Truly would really REALLY like to have some).

We were at a live music performance of Dave McKenney, so didn’t really have access to a laptop, but did have smart phones and so began a rousing game of dueling smart phones in a quest to find a Sunday brunch spot that serves said Bananas Foster.  Well.  We didn’t find one.  But we DID find “Mint” which serves Bananas Foster French toast.  Well.  I’ve already had that somewhere else.  BUT.  They did have something called “Duck Confit with Sweet Potato Hash.”  Well.  Anything that has duck AND sweet potato is something I MUST HAVE. 

Well.  Of course we ordered mimosas.  They were AWESOME.  As the waiter lowered them to the table, I SMELLED the orange in it first.  YUM!  One sip and I was IN LOVE with that mimosa!  FRESH orange juice and plenty of champagne.  As I drank it through my straw, I immediately decided that NO MATTER what this thing cost, it was going to be worth it!  And then it only cost $7, so life was freakin’ good!

The duck confit thing was indeed good….I could have made due with a few less roasted red peppers and a little more sweet potato. 

Good food, good service (and quite attractive I might add!), and even easy parking.

All in all, y’all, Mint is highly recommended by the Belles of Brunch (a subsidiary of the Mimosa Madames). 

Head down to the historic 2500 block of West Main Street in Richmond, and you'll find two of the best brunch spots in town.  Anchoring one end of the block is 3 Monkeys (more on that in another post).  Holding down the fort, and quite nicely, is Mint.  Meant, I think, to be the "working man's" version of Julep's Southern Cuising near the Farmer's Market, it does so quite well.  

This all started when Miss Leslie Owens and I started thinking about Bananas Foster (and how much Yours Truly would really REALLY like to have some).

We were at a live music performance of Dave McKenney, so didn’t really have access to a laptop, but did have smart phones and so began a rousing game of dueling smart phones in a quest to find a Sunday brunch spot that serves said Bananas Foster.  Well.  We didn’t find one.  But we DID find “Mint” which serves Bananas Foster French toast.  Well.  I’ve already had that somewhere else.  BUT.  They did have something called “Duck Confit with Sweet Potato Hash.”  Well.  Anything that has duck AND sweet potato is something I MUST HAVE. 

Well.  Of course we ordered mimosas.  They were AWESOME.  As the waiter lowered them to the table, I SMELLED the orange in it first.  YUM!  One sip and I was IN LOVE with that mimosa!  FRESH orange juice and plenty of champagne.  As I drank it through my straw, I immediately decided that NO MATTER what this thing cost, it was going to be worth it!  And then it only cost $7, so life was freakin’ good!

The duck confit thing was indeed good….I could have made due with a few less roasted red peppers and a little more sweet potato. 

Good food, good service (and quite attractive I might add!), and even easy parking.

All in all, y’all, Mint is highly recommended by the Belles of Brunch (a subsidiary of the Mimosa Madames). 

Back in Love with the CW

Back in Love with the CW

Just HAD to try again, and try some different food.  Glad I did!

Took another girlfriend.  We were advised that there would be a wait of about 20 minutes for a table (after the last experience, I immediately checked my watch to see what time it was and see what time it would be in 20 minutes).  We found seats at the bar.  I immediately ordered us each a vodka limeade.  Every bit as good as I remembered!  Friend was just as enamored with the concoction as I was. 

Friend had the “Eagle” pizza (a “cheesesteak pie with shredded beef, mushrooms, onions, and mozzarella).  As I write this, I realize it’s probably named in “honor” of the Philadelphia Eagles football team.  As a lifelong fan of the Washington Redskins, I feel the word “honor” in the previous sentence should be in quotation marks.  It’s my blog, afterall, and I make the rules around here.

She also had a  side order of French fries.  Hey, if you’re going to overload on carbs, you might as well do it up right!  She loved her pizza every bit as much as I thought she would.  She ate half of it, then said she’d save the other half for lunch.  But as we continued to chat, I noticed that more and more of her pizza went from the plate to her tummy.  Just too good to resist!

I had a “Kentucky Brown”….sourdough bread piled high (and I do mean HIGH) with roasted turkey breast (like, “real” turkey, not the stuff they CALL turkey at the grocery store deli), bacon and white gravy.  I started digging in, and was in hog heaven.  My request for a little extra gravy was quickly granted.  I ordered a side of sweet potato fries.  I declare them to be the best I’ve had in Virginia. 

There was no way on God’s green Earth I could eat all that food on my plate.  So I did manage to bring home a good-sized portion of my sandwich and some sweet potato fries to reheat for lunch.  Not sure how well the fries will “translate” when reheated, but it’s totally worth a shot.  (an update-as expected, they did not adapt well to the microwave.  They came out mushy, but still tasted good)

Another vodka limeade a piece later, our bellies were full, we were all caught up on each others’ lives, and were happy happy happy. 

Still looking forward to brunch there!

Falling in & out of Love-The Continental Westhampton

 

Part One:  Falling in Love

Friend and I found ourselves on Grove Avenue yesterday with two missions in mind:  to see a movie and have some dinner afterwards. 

Movie was terrific, as was the company.  There’s nothing like a “friend of many years.” 

For dinner after the movie, we found ourselves at the Continental Westhampton.  What a great stroke of luck!  Atmosphere had that “cool diner” groove going on.  Although they were quite busy, the service was great. 

Friend and I each had a different 10” hand-tossed pizza.  OH MY GOODNESS!  “Goodness” being the operative word.  Both were PILED with assorted toppings and were reasonably priced ($9-11) and were (almost) more than we could eat in one sitting.  But it was soooo good, we just “made” ourselves keep on. 

The lunch and dinner menu is available online at: 

http://www2.richmond.com/mgmedia/file/594/continental-westhampton-menu/

I bet this would be a great place to go and get “juiced” before seeing “Rocky Horror” then come back after the show to hang out.

I understand they serve brunch as well, but couldn’t find that menu online.  I have no reservations (a little “restaurant pun” there!) about suggesting that The Mimosa Madames try brunch there.  The Continental Westhampton is on my “list of places to try for brunch” with my fellow Madames.

Part Two:  Falling (slightly) out of love 

 

So after falling soooo in love with The Continental Westhampton (the CW from here on because I’m lazy) I had an opportunity to go out to dinner with The Other Alison (TOA) and told her we just HAD to go there.  It was a Tuesday night, around 6:00.  That place was jumpin!  The hostess told us we would have about a 20-25 minute wait.  Not usually one willing to wait, I made an exception to my rule because the food had been so good the time before and TOA was raving about their vodka limeaide.  Boy was she onto something!  Totally my new favorite thing in life!! OH EM GEE!!  We had a drink at the bar and waited (and waited) for our table.  The bartender had a very busy bar to deal with, and he was right on point taking care of everyone and making it look easy.  We ordered another drink while we were waiting.  Bartender (Cody?) thought we’d waited just “that” much too long, so he comped us our second drink.  Does it get any better than that?  Yummm….   

While we were loving our drinkypoos, we split an appetizer of muscles that were lovely and cooked in the house red sauce.  In that sauce were some chunks of chorizo.   What a terrific surprise!

So now we’ve waited about 30 minutes for our table, both hungry and wondering what the heck, ya know.  I approached to hostess and asked when we could expect to be seated.  She said we would be “next” to be seated.   “Mmmmm hmmm,” I thought skeptically.  Upon learning our ETA to be seated, TOA (who is much better at just rolling with it than I) suggested we go ahead and order our dinner, by the time it was ready we’d be at her table. 

TOA ordered the “Atomic” pizza, which had every mushroom known to man on it.  It took me a while to make the connection between the name “Atomic” and “mushrooms, “ but then I had one of those “V8” moments where I smacked myself on the forehead and went “D’oh!”. 

I ordered the Mediterrean pizza, which is what my friend Dawn had when we were there a few nights ago.  I can’t remember if she had the lamb on it, but I was definitely willing to spend the extra $3 to try it. 

A little over 40 minutes later, we were seated at a table (AFTER someone else was seated, so were NOT the “next” ones to be seated).  I saw a waiter come over to the bar with two pizzas and wait a minute to ask the bartender who the pizzas belonged to.  I felt like just going over to get him and tell him they were ours, for some reason I decided this would be a good time to not act bitchy.  He made his way back to us a couple minutes later.  TOA was absolutely delighted with her pizza.  This is the part where I fell a little bit out of love with the CW because my pizza had clearly sat for a few minutes before even being brought out to the bar and then eventually made its way to our table.  Oddly, TOA’s pizza was hot and fresh.  According to TOA, her pizza was wonderful.  Even overlooking the fact that my pizza wasn’t served as hot as it should, it just wasn’t quite up to snuff.  It seemed like the ingredients (feta, fresh spinach leaves, sliced olive halves, and tomato slices) were just thrown on.  The lamb slices seemed like an afterthought (like “OOPS! I forgot to put the lamb on!”) because they were totally just piled on top.  I wasn’t thinking about the saltiness that would be in both the feta and the olives, so that’s my own damn fault.   But still…….

Since we had minimal (and I MINIMAL) attention from any waitstaff, a tip relevant to that degree of service was left at the table.  One the way out, I caught bartender’s attention and slipped him some cash.  He’d done all the work, so in the considered opinions of both TOA and myself, we felt that he deserved the lion’s share of tip. 

As an aside,  I gathered that they’ve recently done some sort of renovations at the CW.  Apparently, some of that renovation included taking some seating space out.  That just seems like a mistake.  There were a few tables outside, but who wants to sit out there when it’s 100 flippin’ degrees out?  Some people did, but not this intrepid reporter.

Do I still want to leave the CW on my “must try for brunch” list?  Heck yeah. 

The Dairy Bar-so much more than just milk!

Well it only took THREE tries, but we finally got all the Mimosa Madames at the Dairy Bar at the same time!  I didn't really know what to expect from someplace called "Dairy Bar" but boy was I happily surprised!  T-the name of the place pays homage to the building it's in-the old Curle's Neck Dairy in the now less than prosperous midtown section of Richmond.  (Remember when the Traveller's was headquartered there and there was lots going on?  Sigh.  But I digress).  

Our waitress was just totally awesome.  All the food very "down home"....soft flaky bicuits, and pancakes that I could eat for the rest of my life.  

An important sidenote:  the butter that came for the pancakes, biscuits, etc. was PERFECT.  Served in heaping portions in those little plastic cup things, it was served at room temperature, so it melted right away.  A small thing, but important!  :-)

The mimosas were OUTSTANDING!!!

Dairy products, as you may imagine, are a big deal.  There was the breakfast special that offered a biscuit and a peanut butter chocolate milkshake.  Not up my alley, but I heard the milkshake blender doing its thing PLENTY while the besties and I got all caught up.  

One afternoon when I'm not all stuffed from eating such a wonderful (and pretty cheap!) breakfast, I'm going to HAVE to stop in and try a milkshake.  

Do I recommend this place?  HECK YEAH!

Give me an "A!" (Vitamin A, that is)

So I'm learning about Vitamin A.  I pan roasted some butternut squash yesterday, and totally pigged out on it.  Was vegging out on the couch feeling all full and proud of myself for eating so much of something so healthy for me.  Then I looked up some information about the nutritional value of it, and realized that it doesn't have much fiber and it's relatively high on the glycemic scale.  Poo.  BUT it's off the freakin' charts for vitamin A!  So I said to myself "YAY!  It has lots of Vitamin A in it!  Now what the heck does Vitamin A do????"  So I went to my "go to" resource for things like this.  No, not the internet, but an actual book, the "Time Life Medical Advisor" from back in the olden days.  Vitamin A is really good for your vision, especially night vision, and helps to support your immune system.  However, TOO MUCH vitamin A can cause headaches, vision problems, nausea, dry skin and and enlarged spleen or liver.  

This blogging thing is an educational outlet for me, apparently.  Dang!  I learned something! 

Another Good Din Din

Simple and good for me.  What more can a girl ask for?  (Well...we won't "go" there...)

>Tilapia fillets:  Took 'em out of the freezer before work and let them thaw in the fridge all day.  When I got home, put them in some cheap Italian dressing to marinate for about 15 minutes.  You can use that 15 minutes to take off your shoes, change clothes, pour a glass of wine and update your Facebook status.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees during this time, too.

>Frozen sweet potato fries:  Shaken, not stirred.  Oops.  I mean baked, not fried.  They'll take about 20 minutes to bake.  While this is going on, snap the end off the green beans and start sauteeing the scallion in some butter.  Throw the beans in there and still a couple times for about 15 minutes.  Put beans on dinner plate and:

>Smack the fish and some the dressing in the same pan you just used for the green beans.  About two minutes a side.  Then add the fish and the fries to the plate.  

What'd I tell ya?  Simple.  Good for you and for me.

Total time:  about 45 minutes.  But that first fifteen minutes your doing other stuff while the fish sits in the dressing because you're such the multi-tasker.