Fun First Friday night celebrated with a handful of friends – a night coordinated by a handful of last minute texts: “Hey do you want to do something tonight?”
Stop 1 was the produce drawer for a crisp apple + sunflower butter to tide me till dinner. All summer long I hated apples because every one was mealy. Now I can’t get enough!!
Stop 2 was McGuffy Art Center for a dance performance! Every First Friday there is a 15 minute performance (for about $5-10) where a dance company or dancer performs a short piece. Tonight’s group was from Raleigh and they did 3 short dances inspired by 3 major fashion designers, including Gucci.
We joined Faith and Tate for the dance, per usual. Really enjoyed it!
Stop 3 was Tempo, a newish restaurant on the downtown mall known by window shoppers for its cowhide booths!
The colors inside were SO hard to photograph – everything from here out is tinted orange, red or green!
Joining us for dinner were Meredith and her new coworker, Emma.
And Sara + Juan, plus their friend Winnie who I did not get to photograph 
She is moving to Hong Kong next week and was a hoot!
I was quite starving by 7:30 when Matt and my appetizer came out – the Duck Empanadas. Hunger is definitely the best sauce – these were incredible!!!!!!
I really wish the restaurant had served bread – so much time passed before our entrees came out (which is totally fine with me if I have bread to keep me from eating my arm!) and I was so very hungry when my Scallops arrived
They were served over a savory rice pudding and lime-scented “air,” which was a foam. I love foams! The portion, however, was really small and desperately needed some veggies somewhere in the dish.
Since I was still hungry from lack of roughage, I ordered dessert!
A Lemon Blueberry Tart with Toasted Marshmallows!! [I admit, the marshmallows sold me!] I was in a lemon mood and this totally hit the spot. Although I admit I Winnie and I traded desserts a bit – her bread pudding is in the background above!
The dessert portion was quite nice – but check out the spoon made for a giant!!!
It’s way past my bedtime for my morning plans tomorrow.
Also, I am sure I have used up my 200 text messages for the month already!
{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
Your title will surely make your cell phone bill skyrocket
That restaurant looks awesome! I’d love to try out more contemporty restaurants with variety. My hometown is FULL of privately owned Italian places. Though I do love Italian, a switch every now and then would be appreciated.
That sounds like a wonderful evening!!! And yes, I have been LOVING apples lately. So crisp! Yay Fall!
That dessert is almost like the birthday cake I had tonight-white chocolate lemon blueberry! Yum
Also, my grandma made me 2 scrapbooks with “Camp Granny” memories and your bakery was in it. It was a big part of this summer!
Camp Granny!!! Haha
first fridays seem like a of fun! I’m glad you enjoyed dessert…it looked amazing!
Wow, you are the fastest blogger ever. I barely had time to get home, change clothes, open my laptop and here’s your post! Thanks for including us tonight, it was really fun! Have a great weekend!
I sure hope those weren’t real cowhides! I hate it when I’m that hungry, and they didn’t even give you bread. At least the food was good!
i love impromptu nights…
You and Matt look so cute and everyone looks so happy.
This would have sold me too “with Toasted Marshmallows!! [I admit, the marshmallows sold me!]“– love marshmallow anything
And bread pudding too. I will gladly ingest gluten in the form of bread pudding and pay the price later
Have a great weekend, Kath!
Ha! I’m TOTALLY over my 200 text messages. I knew it was coming though. If the trend continues I may have to change carriers!
Love the great blueberry tart photos!
Looks like a great evening!!
That blueberry tart looks simply amazing.
I almost never text, lol.
Hate when lighting is so bad in restaurants that pics come out poorly. At least the food still looks yummy to eat.
I hear nothing but good things about Hong Kong as of lately; good for Winnie!
‘”hunger is the best sauce”–> couldn’t have said it better myself!
I just dont eat apples in the summer, but they’re one of my favorite fruits.
That dance show looks like so much fun, I wish we had that here!!
Oh my gosh – I don’t even like duck but those empanadas look AMAZING!!
I (luckily) have unlimited text messages. I think I would be in big trouble if I didn’t!! Haha
You live in such a cool little city! Never a lack of things to do.
That restaurant looked interesting. I love the plates.
That last dessert looks especially tasty! What a fun night
What an interesting meal!!! I love all the different flavor profiles!
Sounds like a fun night!! Haha I always used to go over my monthy texting quota…I had to switch it to unlimited
Oh my god I want that pudding! Id have to eat it with a teeny spoon though to make it last longer!!!
I love the cowhide booths! So neat.
“Hunger is definitely the best sauce” –> So true! When I’m starving, almost anything will taste good to me, even if it’s only a mediocre meal. This dinner looks far from mediocre though. The dessert especially looks amazing!
You guys always choose the nicest restaurants. Beautiful! The food looks delish.
Ben & I cut our talking minutes to the bare minimum and changed our texts to unlimited! I thi we use up 200 texts within the first week every month!
*think
Haha I would be starving too! I always debate whether to order a salad with my dinner because a lot of places don’t give you much veggies. I should have last night since my dinner entree was a tilapia filet and 5 pieces of asparagus! Lol I felt like I was on a diet!
I would have a huge bill if I didn’t have unlimited texting – yay for Verizon unlimited texting/data!
Stating the obvious here, but I’ll say it anyway: apples in the summer are either last year’s stock or from somewhere far away, so yeah, they won’t be in season and won’t taste good. I never eat apples till fall’s new crop of apples is available. Then, go nuts!
Wow, only 200 texts? I’m sure on my last bill it was well over 1000 for me.:) I got rid of my home phone ages ago though, and mainly text, since I hate talking on the phone. I have an unlimited talk and text MY5 plan with my cell phone company anyways, so it only works out to 46 dollars a month (including call display voice mail and call waiting). When I get an iphone though it will go up since I will have to have a data plan.
that spoon is gigantic!!!
makes me want to munch on some carrots upon returing home.
I hate it when there are veggies missing in a dish
The scallops look really good!
I really like that giant spoon!
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
Did you really pay $10 to watch someone dance for 15 minutes?
supporting the arts
it is a beautiful thing!
I’m a huge supporter of the arts, and I live in a large city so am familiar with high ticket prices. But that seems ridiculous to me.
It was $5 but I would have paid 10. It’s once a month and goes to a good cause
what a fun night! love impromptu get togethers… always end up being such a blast!
Good snack choice! Yesterday afternoon I cut up a honey crisp and scooped out sun flower butter and passed it around to the nurses and dietitians for an afternoon snack. My popularity points increased for sure!
“Hunger is the best sauce” <– haha, so true! That's a great way of phrasing it…I just might have to steal that from you
Sunflower butter??? interesting… Willing to try it. I do Looooove Sunflower seeds…. Any brand preference?