Fiamma Mama

Matt and I spent the afternoon preparing for our company tomorrow.

Which meant that I cleaned out the attic for the Big Move, got out the Thanksgiving decor, set the table, and cleaned.

And he did beer things

It was one of those days when I was pretty hungry for a snack but I just didn’t feel like stopping to eat because I had so much to do so a snack never happened.

Which was great because the food at dinner tasted SO GOOD!

Karen took us out to celebrate her boys being together. We went to Fiamma’s, a quaint + cozy Italian restaurant she’s been raving about since she moved to Charlotte two years ago. We had never been!

I wore my stylish boots from Loehmann’s again since Gloria thinks my shoes are lame.

I normally don’t really care for Italian restaurants. I mean, I really love red wine, but that’s about it. The food is always too heavy, often bland and always the same!

But THIS restaurant was everything an Italian should be. The pasta is homemade and the ingredients tasted so fresh and the menu was actually creative!!

We were seated in a cute alcove up some stairs with a fun view outside. Too bad we weren’t in a big city to people watch!

The foccacia and breadsticks totally hit the spot. I had two small pieces of bread and several bread sticks. I am a bread lover at heart and will never, ever support any diet that says "tell your waiter not to bring you the bread basket." The bread basket is why I go to restaurants!!

We ordered a bottle of red for the table. I had about 1.5 glasses through the night.

Cheers!

The boys got salads to start. Both were fantastico!!!!

Andrew ordered the marinated shitake mushroom dish with goat cheese and greens. The mushrooms were so good that I could have closed my eyes and been convinced I was eating a tender piece of beef. So herby and flavorful.

Matt’s endive, fennel and radish salad was incredible too. Again, so herby!!

I had a taste of both –

I love any restaurant that brings me dessert before dinner!! HELLO sorbet!!

The dinner entrees were also so very impressive (Can you tell I really liked this restaurant!?) I had a few bites of each and shared mine as well. Almost every plate was empty by the end!

I ordered the black linguini with shrimp + arugula in a tomato sauce. The linguini is black from squid ink! It was so delicious and yet so fresh. Definitely didn’t leave me feeling to heavy. I had about half and shared the rest. We’re a big fork sticker family (meaning you can stick your fork wherever you please for a taste). Wouldn’t have it any other way!

Matt’s gnocchi. Might have won for best dish??!! I just love how doughy and chewy gnocchi are.

Karen’s crab + saffron tagliolini

Andrew’s butter + truffle ravioli – a special!

When our server – who was excellent – described this dark chocolate melted baked torte with gelato and caramel Andrew and met eyes like Lady + The Tramp. It was ….incredible. I loved how thick and creamy the chocolate was (it wasn’t all thin like typical molten tortes). Mmmm!!! I had about 25% of this guy. ‘Twas the perfect amount.

Our dessert ended up taking a while to come out because the first one accidentally burned, so our server brought us some limoncello on the house!! It was sooo sweet and the perfect ending. I’ll take a delayed dessert with a complimentary drink any day!

Despite the fact that it looks like I ate a lot, two nights in a row I feel good about how my stomach feels. I had bites of everything yet put my fork down in time. Maybe my stomach is just stretched so it can hold more!? Anyways, how I FEEL is the most important factor and I’m so glad to be feelin’ good.

I’m off to bed a little early ’cause tomorrow’s a big day! My parents are arriving around noon, Karen + Andrew around 1PM and Matt’s dad and Cheryl around 2!

Gobble.

by Kath on November 25, 2009

in Dinner, Restaurants