We met at a friends wedding in 2001, but we were thrown together 2 years later when we were both single. We were both friends with the couple that got married and they wanted to go to the beach for the weekend. They each invited a single friend with the intention of a fun weekend. Oh, it was fun all right. We went to the beach, drank, walked around Ocean City, drank, went out to a bar (guess what)? Drank some more. Also, I made a complete fool of myself singing karaoke. I made our friends snap pictures of Hops and me - awkwardly pretending I was just taking pictures to remember the weekend. Right. I really wanted to have a picture of the two of us together. No, I will not share those horribly embarrassing photos on the web. They're in print form and that's enough.
We got home from the beach on Sunday and I called Hops on Monday,to see if he wanted to meet up that evening. I didn't reach him, so I left him a message. The message went like this, "Uh, hi ... this is Jill? From this weekend? I was wondering if you were around tonight..." I'm really smooth. He did call me back and he was free and even after all of my awkwardness, he still wanted to hang out with me. We spent the evening together and had a great time. I had to leave on Tuesday to go back to New York, but that was the start of a long and wonderful relationship.
He still has the answering machine tape with that voicemail on it. <3
On our quest for dinner last night, we decided to get out of the house and try something new. We don't go out to eat that much and we hardly ever eat in downtown Raleigh. We ended up at Capital Club 16. Their prices were very reasonable and it got pretty good reviews on Yelp.
We walked in and were greeted by both a waiter who was walking by and a waiter who was grabbing menus from behind the host stand. Both people were very nice and the waiter who grabbed the menus let us choose our own table. The building was amazing. I love going downtown just to enjoy the old buildings. The ceilings were, I don't know, 20 feet high? There were windows that started at 10 feet and went up from there on the far side of the restaurant (it has a nice corner spot).
Our waiter was fantastic. He was attentive, helpful and friendly. He let us know that they had just changed their menu two days ago and there were a lot of new options on there. We let him know it was our first time there, so we wouldn't notice either way. :) We did take his suggestions on what to order. We received our drinks and then picked two appetizers to start. Homemade chips with an oniony sour cream dip and a sausage platter.
The red sausage was cheddarwurst. Mmmmmm. Delicious.
For dinner we both wanted the macaroni and cheese. It was made with Gouda, Jarlsberg and ...oh I forget the other cheese. But it sounded absolutely fantastic. It came with a salad on the side. I let Hops order the mac and cheese with the assumption that we would be sharing. Of course.
The "salad" was a mix of fruit and veggies. Very clever and had a perfect mild dressing mixed in.
I ordered the really interesting sounding Crispy Garden Salad. The first weird thing about me ordering a salad is I'm not a fan of salads. They're just not my thing. This dish called to me, though. I think it was the fact that it had crispy rice on the bottom. I love rice. Here is the description: Seared vegetables over crispy rice topped with a fried egg and served with a side of sweet and spicy paprika dressing. $11.
Both meals were fantastic. The side of dressing on the Crispy Garden Salad didn't really get used because I thought the skillet had enough seasonings on its own. The veggies included sweet potatoes, spinach, squash, zucchini, carrots, pickles(?!), sauteed onions and white asparagus. The rice was seasoned with thyme and rosemary. Dear lord, it was absolutely divine. I am so going to try recreating this at home!
This was the perfect dinner for our dating anniversary. This restaurant was definitely our type of place. Great food, good prices, friendly staff and a good drink selection. I definitely think we'll be back.
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