Matt and I felt like celebrating tonight, so we treated ourselves to a nice dinner out.
Sadly the forecast was very threatening, so we didn’t get to walk to Tavola (although looking back, we probably could have) but there’s lightning in the distance!
Our wait at Tavola wasn’t bad – about 30 minutes – so we got drinks and an app to share (of course, I was starving!)
VIDEOS
Our favorite app at either Tavola or The Local is the burrata cheese. It’s incredible!! We were thrilled to find it as a special tonight.
I frozen for a moment when I realized it might not be pasteurized when it arrived. But thank goodness, I checked and it was. Whew!
Served over arugula pesto with sundried tomatoes.
We had some great conversation while we waited for our table. We pondered the menu for a good 15 minutes! This involved searching my Cville page for our last visit to Tavola to see what we ordered. As it turns out, last time Matt had the linguini with clams and I proclaimed it wonderful, so I decided that’s what I’d get tonight.
/Begin LOST jokes/
We even saw BOTH John Locke and John Locke’s “dad” come into the restaurant!! The resemblance was uncanny and had us both laughing hard under our breaths. The joke continued throughout the night when I asked “Where’d Locke go” and Matt replied “Probably to The Hatch…”
/end LOST jokes/
So I present – Linguini with Clams! Unfortunately, it was way heavy on the chicken broth (I don’t really like the taste of chicken broth unless I’m eating soup) so Matt and I ended up trading dishes halfway through.
He had shrimp with capers, peppers in a gorgonzola-butter sauce over angel hair and it packed in so much more flavor. He loved them both though, so the trade was a good one.
I now have two babies in my stomach: one is a human and the other is made of shrimp and clams!
Cozy LOST marathon up next!!
Sharing food has got to be one of the top bonuses of being in a relationship!
So nice to hear you had a peaceful and lovely meal together. The pics always make me feel like I am there!
Have a nice lost marathon!
I know it’s jerky to come here and spellcheck, but…LIGHTNING. Not lightening. This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed it here so I thought it was time someone pointed it out.
fixed, thanks
What a lovely meal the THREE of you must have had! 🙂 ….Lost joke- to the hatch, seriously too funny! Enjoy the Lost evening!
Yay for date nights, gotta have date nights with your honey. Gotta say Matt’s dish looks yummy. That appetizer looks good too!
Haha I’m a huge Lost fan – John Locke, love it!
What a good husband to trade with you! You found a keeper!
I hope nobody told John Locke what he couldn’t do!
have you ever seen the movie “the cutting edge?” i loved it growing up, and was surprised when i rewatched it to see Locke in it…
No, but we were just talking about how weird it would be to see those actors in other films!
“The Cutting Edge” is such a good movie – Kath, I think you would really like it! “Toe pick!” 🙂
One of my all time favorites!! I used to watch it with my grandmother all the time and was so excited to introduce my stepdaughters to it. Another favorite is The Man In the Moon with Reese Witherspoon as a child.
Ha! We once had a man on our flight who looked just like John Locke. I know it was completely irrational, but I felt so much safer having him on board! 🙂
That crusty bread is making me crave it something fierce! Living in Tampa, FL the delicious eats are few and far between. Time for a trip, if you ask me! 😉
I overheard in the trader Joe’s in Richmond that they were opening one in Charlottesville. How excited are you!
SUPER!!!
Both your entrees sound amazing- love me some seafood! Although I would never think to mix clams with chicken broth?
What a nice date night!
Glad you two were able to enjoy a Saturday night out…GO OUT as much as you possibly can!!!!!!! You will thank yourself later after baby is here and you have all kinds of great memories 🙂
It’s always nice to celebrate just because you feel like it 🙂
Besides, you want to go to nice places now before the baby arrives! 😉
Kath I think you’re gettin’ the pregnancy glow 🙂
🙂
You make me want to move to Charlottesville! It sounds like a dream – being able to walk everywhere, enjoying such nice mom& pop shops.
Burrata cheese is my favourite cheese but it’s so hard to find. The food looks amazing!
Is it crazy that I have never seen Lost? Both your meals look delicious. I love going out to celebrate unexpectedly.
Get to Netflix RIGHT NOW and get started!!! I hadn’t seen it either until this year, and it’s been a life-changing experience!
Lost was an amazing show! I’m always curious to people’s reaction to the end..
My mom calls sharing food with my dad the “switchy tricky”…always makes me laugh because it sounds distressingly dirrrty. Everytime my hubby and I go to eat we pull a ST, because normally his dish always looks more delish!
And BOTH of your babies sound delightful!
Haha cute. We do that all the time! Normally we don’t completely switch dishes, but we always, always share 1-2 bites.
That looks like a very nice restaurant. Matt’s pasta minus the shrimp sounds good to me!
random baby question…Do you think a hyphenated last name will be practical to maintain throughout a life time? Do you think he will drop younger eventually when he starts working
or gets married and has kids(and names his kids). Totally asking out of curiousity
Sure! It’s just a name. Plenty of people have super long or hard-to-spell last names. When he is 18 and on his own, the decision is his. He could take his wife’s possible super-common, 5-letter last name or drop one of his. But while he’s a child, we want him to be half of each of us.
Also, hyphenated last names are way more common than you think these days.
Sean and I were recently discussing this a week or so ago. Our last names are both very telling of our ethnicities and both are rather long. If we hyphenated our names it would be six syllables and a lot of letters (plus my last name has 3 hyphens already). We both want our future child to have both our last names but I’m thinking back to how much trouble I had in school with people spelling and pronouncing my name and wouldn’t really want to pass that trouble along.
I personally do not like hyphenated names at all. i think the answer is to have the mom’s name as the child’s middle name. as kath said, it is just a name, but a name is a big part of who we are!
Why not the dad’s as a middle!! Women’s rights 🙂
lol well that is another option! the only reason I do not like hyphenated names or the like is because I think it is confusing for when the child is school aged and his friends don’t know what to call the parents, etc. I remember it always being weird when a kid’s mom had gotten remarried and now had a different name than the mother. I know it is a silly thing but kids have enough to worry about these days. But then again I am one of those girls that will absolutely change my name so I guess I am pretty traditional. but on the plus side, when some little boy asks why momma has a different last name (well somewhat…lol) you can teach them all about women’s rights and tie in how to treat a lady 😉
I expect to be called Mrs. Younger-Monson a lot of the time, and that’s OK with me. Mrs. Monson isn’t though!
I’m sure it will work out just fine! and I am also sure that your baby boy will not be the only kid in kindergarten with a hyphenated last name 🙂
That’s a pretty pic of you! maybe a bit of that pregnancy glow?!
Our friends said the wait was an hour last night at Tavola! So we missed you, boo 🙁 I’ve been dying to go there.
Haha! So funny that you “saw” characters from Lost! My husband and I are in the middle of Friday Night Lights (which we love and I recommend!). We’re always telling each other “I saw Jason Street at the gym today…” or he’ll send me an email telling me he was just in a meeting with some other character. It’s been a fun inside joke between us. We’ve never seen Lost, but it sounds like we may have to watch that next!
I have never heard of Saratoga Sparkling Spring Water. Ever since I became pregnant, I have had an aversion to the taste of our water–most likely because my senses are heightened. I still drink water, though, because I know how good it is for both the baby and I. However, we definitely need a new water filtration system in our water pitcher. I would like to get a filtration system for the sink as well in the future.
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
Saratoga Water is the best! (I know because I’m from Saratoga!) It’s our pellagrino and served at most restuarants in our area. It’s delish! They also make a flat Saratoga water. http://www.saratogaspringwater.com/
Dinner and the restaurant look fantastic! Especially the burrata — never heard of it. It looks like fresh mozzarella — is that what it is? Yum, yum, yum! 🙂
OMG I thought you were going to say you were having twins! hahah. Love you and miss you!