We plan to try to continue our usual food resolutions in 2012, which includes making a new recipe a week and trying one new (to us) restaurant a month. We don’t always manage to get to one new place a month but that one is a bit easier than the one new recipe a week. Often I go weeks at a time without having time to focus on cooking and then will have a weekend where I will make three new recipes. Here is a glance back at 2011.
For new restaurants our efforts went well until October. Then things got off the rails slightly. We did manage a new place in October but it was out of town and then our November outing really took place in December. We never did get to some place new in December, but we did two new places in June so that has to make up for it. An addition to our resolution this year will be to actually blog about these dinners as we have them versus attempting a year end recap.
January we started with Bella Mia, a wonderful brick oven pizza place. They have unusual offerings and my favorite is the Bleecker Street with fresh mozzarella, arugula, prosciutto di parma, extra virgin olive oil. We also recently discovered that their chicken wings, soaked in lemon and then oven baked, are incredible.
February was Jibarra, a contemporary Mexican place with a focus on classic dishes done in a modern style. The guacamole sampler was fun and I recall getting a pasta special which was very rich.
March was technically only new to Brad, Havana Grill. My favorite is their cuban sandwich and the fried plantains. For another opinion check out this site: Triangletastebudz.com
April was Boylan Bridge Brew Pub, which gets a big plus for the view. The menu has significantly changed since we were there shifting to more sandwich/burgers which I will go out on a limb and say is probably very wise since the best of what we had fit more into this category while the “fancier entrees” such as lobster mac and cheese, etc. were just so so. Back when we went you had to be prepared to wait for servers due to the seat yourself picnic table design but I am not sure if that is still an issue or not now.
May we finally went to Roast Grill. This is a Raleigh institution where they only serve hotdogs with options of yellow mustard, homemade chili, cole slaw and onions. Sounds boring but they are the best hotdogs and have a huge fan base considering the length of lines around lunch time.
June was Chow and then Mura. Chow is one of those places we would go to more often if it was closer to our house. We went a couple times with friends on trivia night. The burgers are fantastic. We did Mura on one of the Triangle Food Nights and some in our party did not get to order what they had planned off the set menu because the restaurant was out of it. They have a wide selection of options from bento boxes to sushi to chicken teriyaki.
July was Five Guys, again, new to Brad not to me. He described it as gut busting burgers which if you aren’t aware of their portion sizing that is certainly the truth. We also did Draft for the first time in July and that was new to us both. Draft became a place we would gather with friends until Brad’s work schedule made going out at night a challenge. Like Chow they have great and interesting burgers plus focus on NC beers on draft.
August was Ruckus Pizza, where we made use of a Groupon and had fun sitting at the bar chatting while our to go pizza was made. We opted for the Ranch Bacon Chicken Pizza (Applewood bacon, chopped chicken breast, roma tomatoes, fresh garlic, Romano and mozzarella cheeses on a homemade ranch base) and it was very yummy, too bad they are not more convenient to us or we would be eating there on a regular basis.
September was another Groupon deal leads to trying a new place month and we went to Vino Ristorante and we loved the mix of old world and new world menu options. They passed my Bolognese test and Brad loved the pan seared pork loin. We were concerned that the place was empty on a weeknight and hope they can make it.
October was Boardwalk Billys in Charlotte which was part of our Nascar Driver Experience weekend. We had really good smoked meats and bbq.
November was Rosatis Pizza where we had a margarita pizza, thin crust that was not bad. I think we should go back and do a Chicago pizza sometime for a real assessment of this place.
Stay tuned for part 2 where I will highlight the new recipes I made last year.
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