Pie Lab

Wes and I finally made it to Pie Lab back in December after talking about it for months. Pie Lab is a quick drive down 69 South to the quaint town of Greensboro. It has a really cool ambiance. With just one big open room, with exposed brick walls and tables and benches, the place feels like small town meets cool hip city place.
The concept of this pie shop is pretty cool. On Facebook, they say this:
PieLab is a pie shop meant to gather communities together. It’s founded on the idea that simple things, like delicious pie and good conversation, can bring us together and spread joy.Pie+Conversation = Ideas.Ideas+Design =Positive Change.

The menu is different everyday. They offer a couple of lunch options and several pie options. If you follow them on Facebook you can see the selection for the day. We went on a Saturday when there was a sandwich option and two quiche options and about 5 pies.

Wes went for the pimento cheese  BLT. How can you go wrong with a BLT that ads the yummy goodness of homemade pimento cheese. You can always tell homemade pimento cheese, it is nice and creamy and not thick like the store bought kind. You can see in the picture, it was so good we barely stopped to take a picture. As a side, he had pasta salad. It was really flavorful and fresh.

Pimento cheese BLT

I had one of the daily quiche special. It was a spinach, mushroom, and goat cheese quiche and it was delicious. Of course, they are great at pie crusts, so the crust of the quiche was perfect. I had the side salad instead of the pasta salad and it had homemade balsamic vinaigrette dressing. And, in the picture below, you can see the drinks come in mason jars.

quiche and salad

But, of course, the main course isn't why I wanted to go to the Pie Lab. I wanted to try the pies!! We both got a piece of pie. Wes went with banana pudding pie and I had the honey pumpkin pie with whip cream. I watched as they made my whip cream fresh right then. And, it was the absolute perfect topping to the pie. In all honesty, it might have been my favorite part of the entire meal.

banana pudding pie & honey pumpkin pie with whip cream

The concept is great. The food is great. And, I can't wait to go back and try some more. It isn't a bad drive from Tuscaloosa and the place has such character, and cute shops nearby, that it is a must stop for Tuscaloosians.

Little Donkey

Ok, Little Donkey is such a fun name for a Mexican restaurant! It is so unique and stands out from your traditional Mexican names. Which is appropriate, because this isn't like your normal Mexican place.  Little Donkey is located in Birmingham, or Homewood more specifically. Now, I know this isn't in Tuscaloosa, but, Birmingham isn't that far away and we Tuscaloosians often find ourselves in Bham needing somewhere to eat.

Outside shot (I forgot to take a picture so I borrowed this one from my company) :)

I was in Birmingham for training this week and stayed over night.When planning dinner, I wanted to try somewhere I hadn't already been. I had heard that the food was extremely fresh, unique, and good at Little Donkey, so that was my pick. Wes joined me as well as a couple of our friends.

On their website, Little Donkey claims to be original Mexican food, inspired by Southern roots, with slow-cooked meats, and scratch made everything. You could tell that all of these things were happening on the menu. I have already said it was unique, or as they say, original. The variety of meat was really cool. They offered tacos with steak, chicken, fish, brisket, and pork all with different fresh ingredients. And, you could tell the tortillas weren't store bought.

We started with guacamole. This is one of Wes and my go to items at Mexican restaurants, especially those that seem to be using more fresh ingredients. My hope was that it would be made at the table. But, that didn't happen. It did end up being delicious guacamole. Topped with a little tomato and cheese, and the chunks of avocado brought extra flavor and freshness to it.

guacamole (half eaten)

I chose the enchiladas verdes. The fresh tortillas were filled with chicken and cheese and topped with the green salsa. I thought the cheese was a little thick and not as melted as I would have liked. I guess I was imaging the idea of traditional queso cheese in the enchillada, but this was more of a slice of cheese with the chicken. But, the flavor was great.

Enchiladas verde

This dish was served with two sides. The sides are unique too. You can choose from mexican rice, black beans, pinto beans, street style corn, fresh fruit, or la concoction. This last item was rice, with black beans, some sauce, and a poached egg on top. I tried the black beans and corn with mine. The corn had a seasoning on it that was really interesting. I am not sure what it was, but it wasn't spicy, it had a little kick of sweet to it, and the flavor of the corn, which was roasted on the cob, was yummy. The black beans seemed just normal to me; not bad, but nothing special either.

black beans and street corn

 

Wes got the tacos and tried a steak and a fish. His favorite of the two was the fish. I didn't try either of these but there wasn't a bite of either left! And, he had the la concoction as his side. It was really cool looking and definitely had neat flavor and texture. I did try this and it was tasty.

Fish and steak taco and la concoction

All in all, Little Donkey has a really cool atmosphere and vibe. The fresh ingredients and unique ideas make this a really awesome spot. I hear that we may be getting a Little Donkey in Tuscaloosa, which is really exciting. I think local places like this are exactly what we need in town.

Birmingham food

Saturday Dinner

Ok, so for the final round of birthday fun, we spent Saturday night in Birmingham and did dinner Saturday night and brunch Sunday morning. Birmingham has really become somewhat of a food destination. I have been hearing all kinds of great things about lots of different restaurants downtown. We were excited to have a night out and then follow up with something yummy on Sunday too.

I had gotten a gift card to Ocean and we had saved it for out birthday celebration week! I had heard great things about their food and it was all true. Everything we had was fresh, unique, and delicious. Everyone gets bread with olive oil and a cucumber, tomato, red onion, feta, and olive oil salsa type spread. I must say the fresh tomato topper was one of the best parts of the meal. Even Wes, who isn't a big fan of anything like that, really enjoyed it. I tried to take a picture but I just couldn't capture the real essence and deliciousness with a picture.

Our first item ordered was the calamari appetizer. This is always one of Wes's favorite starters, so when I see it on the menu I usually want us to try it. This was perfectly breaded and tender! One of the worst things is getting really chewy calamari. Of course, this one was perfect. And the sauce!! It was described as a remoulade. You know I have a hard time waiting to eat until I have taken the picture. As you can see, this one was no different.

Calamari appetizer

I followed this up with the Ocean salad. This was the best part of my meal! Imagine a Greek Salad topped with fried feta cheese. Yes, fried feta cheese. In the picture below, the piece of cheese look like croutons, but no, it's cheese.

Ocean salad- with fried feta

For my entree, I ordered pan seared scallops. Not only do they offer several special meals, they also offer a list of meats cooked in a variety of ways (pan seared, greek, fried, etc). All of these came with sage mashed potatoes and root vegetables. I chose the scallops with mashed potatoes and vegetables instead of doing the special meal with risotto. I know I would have like the risotto better than the sides that I had with mine. But, the scallops were perfect.

scallops, mashed potatoes, and vegetables

Wes went with the grouper. His sides were white cheddar cheese grits and a crawfish cake. Everything on his plate was delicious. It all has lots of flavor and as I mentioned before, you could tell it was all fresh.

Grouper with cheese grits and crawfish cake

I find that no real dinner is complete without a dessert. And I especially feel this way at restaurants like this with specialty desserts that I can't find just anywhere. So, I politely asked the waitress to hold off on bringing us the dessert menu until I was a little less about to pop. And, we were so glad that we did. The strawberry shortcake was spectacular, mainly because of the tempura battered pound cake. Neither of us were sure about the basil whip cream. It was wonderful consistency, but the flavor just wasn't my favorite. It also came with white balsamic sorbet. I thought the tangy, crisp, and fresh flavor was really interesting. Wes did not.

strawberry shortcake

All in all, this was a great night out at a really delightful restaurant. I told Wes I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. I think a big reason for this is the fact that I didn't order the risotto. Risotto is always my favorite. When I didn't really like the sage in the potatoes, I knew that the risotto would have made all the difference.But what we had still made for a wonderful night out on the town.

Sunday Brunch

Sunday morning, we got up and headed over the mountain to Chez Lulu. Even though we had asked a few people their suggestions for brunch, we just used the handy iphone and asked yelp for some brunch ideas. We narrowed it down to 3 and honestly, I probably picked this one because it seems French-ish. I am currently all about anything French in preparation for our big trip. This quaint restaurant is in Mountain Brook. With cute little tables outside and Christmas lights up inside, it was an adorable spot for brunch.

The bakery next door is also a spot where you can pick up items like croissants, muffins, and pastries and I am sure that all their offerings would be as tasty as the things we had at the restaurant. They start you with a very European breakfast option, bread and olive oil. There was a variety of bread, of course we tried them all, and were quite pleased with this start to our meal.

Bread at breakfast!

For my meal, I decided to go with a crepe. It was a French inspired place, right? With a wide variety to choose from, I decided to go local and chose the Chilton county peach crepe. Light, flavorful, and yummy whip cream on top, made this a great selection.

peach crepe

I also ordered the white cheddar biscuits. This was to share with Wes, but, who can resist trying some cheddar biscuits.  My comparison here would be the asiago cheese bagel at Panera. I love the way the cheese is delicate in the bread and not overpowering. But, you still get such a strong flavor. They also served these with fresh jam which made these biscuits Amazing!!

white cheddar biscuits

Wes has the daily frittata special. I now can't remember what was in it, but the bite I had was delightful. And, I didn't take a picture of his either. Oops.

This is a really cute place for brunch and I can imagine their lunches are just as great. I wish I had stopped in the bakery and picked up a couple of things to go. But, the weekend of food had to stop somewhere.

Nashville

Ok, so I said in the beginning that I wanted the focus of this blog to be about Tuscaloosa and the things I do here. But, I went to Nashville for a conference this past weekend and I just wanted to talk a little bit about this fabulous city that happens to be an easy drive from T-town.

The conference was for AAF District 7. AAF is the American Advertising Federation, and district 7 encompasses Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee clubs. The conference changes every time to a different location and this time we were in Nashville.

Thursday night we hopped around on Broadway and 2nd Ave. checking out some live music and the night scene. One of my favorite stops was at Whiskey Bent. They had a great band playing. This is one of the best things about Nashville, the live music. It isn't hard to find someone who can sing and play in this town. After all, isn't that why everyone is there, trying to make it big?? We stopped by a few other spots but we landed at The Big Bang Bar last and stayed there the longest. This is a dueling piano bar. If you haven't been to one before, it is a lot of fun. The guys take requests for songs, the more money you tip, the more likely it is to get played. They play everything from Elton John, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, and my favorite, Def Leopard's Pour Some Sugar on Me. We used to have one of these places in Tuscaloosa and unfortunately it didn't make it. The Big Bang was so much fun, we went back the next night.

Like I said, we had so much fun at Big Bang we went back Friday night after our Denim and Diamonds party. We also stopped by Tootsies, a classic stop on Broadway. And, we went to Paradise Park, which was really cool. Again, live music is everywhere and it is all good! You shouldn't miss these bars either.

Saturday we took a special tour of the Ryman Auditorium. I grew up only a little over an hour away from Nashville and had been tons of times before to the city. But, this was my first time in the Ryman. It was absolutely beautiful.

The stage at the Ryman

They have the original pews that were in the building around the turn of the 20th century. Those are some old pews!

Original Pews in the Ryman

The stained glass windows were gorgeous. They call this the mother church of country music. And, it actually was built as a church to have revivals but that turned out to not be all that profitable and so they started books acts to perform.

Stained glass windows in the Ryman Auditorium

They have exhibits that come and go and some pieces of the Ryman history on display all the time. There was a Johnny and June display currently with some really Johnny Cash boots and I can't believe I didn't get a picture. But, this picture shows Minnie Pearl's dress which I thought was really cool.

This is a great venue to check out if you visit Nashville. Of course, we didn't get to see a live performance, but I hear that the sound and acoustics are great.  This visit to Nashville has me wanting more live music! I might just have to check out their calendar of events.

The gala Saturday night was at the top of the Pinnacle building in downtown Nashville. It was just an open space and they brought tables in for the event so it had a really cool vibe to it. But, the best part was the view. I love a view!! I would live at the top of the Empire State building or the top of the Sears Tower if I could. It is even better when the sun goes down and the night lights up the sky. I have always loved city lights. So, you can imagine the view from this party was right up my alley.

This group likes to have fun. So, after the presentation of Clubs of the Year, the new Governor of the District, and some lovely speeches, we had a great band that played for us. Justin Nault and his band played great cover songs that had a big group of us dancing. They were tons of fun and even took a bunch of requests we threw out at them. It just so happens, that Justin is also a piano player at The Big Bang Bar and we had seen him play there too. What a small town Nashville ended up being. This isn't the best picture of the band, but you can also see the set up of the room.

My friend, and fellow AAF Tuscaloosa member, Laura went to the conference too.  We had a great time, heard great music, danced, learned some new things about advertising, and all in all had a great Nashville experience. It wasn't my first, and it won't be my last visit to The Music City.

Walking in Memphis

So, I started this blog with the intention of telling anyone who wanted to listen about things I do in Tuscaloosa. But, if I visit somewhere nearby, I want to share about those places too. This past weekend I visited Mollie, my good friend who left Tuscaloosa to move to Memphis about a year and a half ago. I have been to visit a couple of times, and each time we try to eat at different places and see something new.
Memphis is about 3 1/2 or 4 hours away from Tuscaloosa. Of course it is the home of good BBQ, Graceland, Sun Studios, and Beale Street. I didn't see any of those places on this visit but if you know anything about Memphis, one of those probably comes to mind.
Friday night, I joined in on a birthday dinner for one of Mollie's friends. We ate at Local, a gastropub in downtown. The atmosphere was very laid back but the food was delicious. It was one of those places where the food was kind of surprising for the location. I had BBQ tacos and green chile mac and cheese. Yummy!! I really enjoyed my meal here. The prices were mid range and seemed appropriate for the location and the food x. The mac and cheese had a little kick but was really creamy and baked on top. A really nice combo. Here is a picture before I devoured it!

After Local, we went a new speakeasy themed bar, The Blind Bear. It is a new bar, according to the group, and had a pretty good vibe and mix of people. Mollie and I kept talking about how it was too bright, maybe just turn down the lights a little. We followed that with Silly Goose and finished the birthday celebration at Raifords. Here is a shot of Mollie and me through the fog in there. It was super fun and different. With streamers hanging from the ceiling, the fog machine, and good dance music blaring, like Michael Jackson and Prince, you are sure to have a good time at this spot.

Saturday, we had brunch at SOB, South of Beale. The food was just ok. According to my tour guides, the food is traditionally better but they seemed to be understaffed.
That night, we went to a restaurant in East Memphis, The Beauty Shop. It was literally a beauty shop and they still have the sinks at the bar area and in the back they have the hair dryers above some of the chairs. I wish I had taken a picture, but where we were seated I couldn't get a shot and I felt weird taking a picture of people eating. My food was delicious. The best of what I tasted at the table. I had a grilled Barramundo, which I googed and is a Japanese bass. They used coconut milk and  a couple of other ingredients I didn't know which gave the fish just a little bit of a sweet taste but certainly not too much. For dessert, we tried their gelato. Now, I love gelato, but have a really hard time finding what seems to be authentic gelato in the US. We tried the white chocolate blueberry, the tangerine orangecicle (or push pop orange) and strawberry balsamic. The real reason I tried the gelato was to have the strawberry balsamic. And, it was worth it. It was my favorite with the white chocolate blueberry not far behind. The strawberry wasn't that different from regular strawberry, but it had just enough of a twang to show that there was another flavor that you aren't used to having in ice cream. If you have the chance to try strawberry balsamic ice cream or gelato, you should!

So, the weekend of food was a success. Memphis has more to offer than I once thought. There were a few events at galleries and museums that we thought about going to, but the weather was so nice Saturday we just sat outside downtown. If you are looking for a good weekend visit, Memphis can definitely be considered.