Dinner at The Merk

Gasp! It has been way too long!  This adventure happened all the way back at the beginning of February!

On Monday, Captain America and I had dinner with my cousin, two of his friends, my sister, and one of her friends at The Merk.  I had the most glorious plate of fettuccine alfredo.  The sauce was nice and thick with none of those gross pools of oil that cheap alfredo sauces have.  When I figure out how to get all savvy with this whole technology thing, I'll illustrate the word "glorious" with halos an angel wings.  Because it was that good. 

My sister and cousin had the scallops, which they said was also wonderful.  Captain America had the chicken parmigiana, which he tried to say with a Spanish accent, so that was special, but he ate all of it so I can only assume that he was either nearly dead from lack of sustenance, or that it was fabulous.  (Although he probably wouldn't have used the word "fabulous".)  I was too absorbed by my alfredo, that by the time I thought of asking to taste his dish, it was all gone.

I don't think any of us ordered any wine, but we did try a number of their speciality drinks.  I, of course, ordered a lemon drop martini and it was good, but not quite as good as the ones at Jayne's Gastropub, but I also didn't have to wait 20 minutes for it.  In fact, my second one came so quickly that I didn't even realize it had been placed in front of me. 

For dessert, I ordered the cannolis.  Sister commented that they were small, but in fact, they were the perfect size.  I also tried the espresso martini (don't worry, Mom, Captain America was driving!), and it was very coffee-y without being bitter. 

As for the conversation and company, it was all delightful (and yes, AC, I did tell your son to wear a bike helmet, but I don't think he's going to listen to me any more than he listens to you).

This is a restaurant I would definitely go back to!

Pubcakes and Charisma!!

Oh man, I've become way behind on this blog!

Last Saturday, Captain America, some of my girlfriends, and I went to the grand opening of Pubcakes, a new cupcake shop that uses beer in their recipes.  The grand opening included a beer garden, but that is not a permanent fixture.  I ordered the "beer for breakfast" which has maple cream cheese frosting and bacon bits in the cupcake.  The frosting was better than the cake, but the cake was pretty good, too.  It wasn't too beer-y.  Captain America ordered the "Irish car bomb", which was very good and very chocolaty. 

I've already pre-ordered a dozen of the minis for Valentine's day (I ordered two of each variety).  Also, there was a coffee shop.  The special was a mango iced tea, which was pretty good.  I had a hot chocolate, which was very good.  The only downside to Pubcakes is that it is located waaayy east on El Cajon Blvd., which is not a part of town that I frequent that often.

For dinner, we joined another set of our friends and headed to Hillcrest for Italian.  Coming from the east coast, I have very definite opinions on Italian food.  We went to Charisma Cucina Italiana.  One of our friends had the green linguine special, which was very good, another friend had the eggplant Parmesan, Captain America had a black spaghetti with shrimp, and I had the clams and white wine sauce.  I found my meal to be very salty, which sometimes happens with clam dishes. 

We also had all four desserts, including a tiramisu, cannolis, a custard dish (the waiter was off-the-boat-from-Italy, and we couldn't figure out what he called it, but it was very good), and a peach tart.  The desserts were very good, but the tiramisu was different.  If I thought I was ordering a cake, I would say it was moist and lemony, which is a strange description for tiramisu.  The service, atmosphere, and prices were great, and some of the food was fantastic, but not everything.

I am definitely going to go back to Pubcakes, I can't say the same of Charisma, but it won't be off the list, either.