You are invited to an evening at Chatham’s Restaurant

 

Hi Everyone,

I had such a magical evening on Saturday dining with 12 friends with a private vintage champagne and wine.
Chatham's is located in a little office building tucked away like a little gem behind the over hype resto on restaurant row.
Once you arrive in the parking lot the entrance is located on the side of the building, however there's a very small vestibule, where the restrooms are located, ladies you are provided with Avon hand moisturizers and soaps, not some unknown antiseptic soap.
Once you veer to the left the small dining room open up like a  well kept small secret. Upon entering you notice the elegant older decor reminiscent of the early 80's Dynasty era.
If you hail from New York it will remind you of the small, special family restaurant in little Italy only a friend of a friend is invited to.

Our group was tucked away to the right for more privacy. Each table was dress in fine white tablecloth, glass candlelight (not Glades). Fresh red roses on each table add a nice touch.
We had 8 different glasses for the different wines we were tasting, which was a great touch to have specialty glasses available base on the type of grapes.

We were assisted by a team of head waiter, assistant, and busboy that were excellent and efficient about what you should expected from a fine dining establishment.
Upon entering the dining room I was directed to the table, the chair was pulled out and the napkin was unfurl onto my lap.
I was asked if I wanted carbonated or still water, I was thinking still water will not be an expensive affair, well I was wrong it was to the tune of $8.00 per bottle.
Regrettably I must have drink 2 bottles, 1 bottle was taken care of by our host David.

TIPS
I must warn you this is not the type of restaurant that relies on quick turnkey. (meaning they expect most guest to be done within an hour so they can turn the table over) this more of a beautiful journey in opening your palette.
We were there for 4 hours :), meaning this is not Wendy's or McDonald if your food doesn't arrive in 30  seconds you can have a fit, this is more like 30 mtes per course to give your palette a chance to savor every morsels. If you are in a hurry or can't fathom spending 4 hours on dinner, you  better go to a chain restaurant.
You can bring your own wine but there is a corkage fee of $20.00, now let me explain why this is worth it.
Upon bringing your wine you will be assign a sommelier at least I hope he was :) who will analyze the wine and figure out how much aeration is needed and proceed to decant the wine and give you an estimate of time.
We started with the special appetizer of the day while sipping our first cuvee of champagne.

Tip
This is not the Golden Coral buffet,don't expect the portions to be gargantuan.
We were serve with bruschetta which was very flavorful, artisan bread with a dollop of butter with fresh Parmesan cheese and herb. I wish I was ABLE TO ask for a doggie bag for the bread.
while waiting for our entree we had a beautiful Caymus 1996 and 2009 to clean our palette.
Chef Tony sent us a little gift of a spoon of pasta marinated in a scrumptious red pepper sauce with fresh Italian basil.
At this point we were ready for more wine to flow, we were not disappointed by the Mouton Baronne Phillip de Rothschild.
In between courses our silverware were changed for the next course, unfortunately the assistant didn't clean our table of the bread residues, as I anticipated.
Our main course arrive unfortunately the plating didn't seduce my vision as I've had at other fine dining restaurant such as Norman.

The plating consist of half a teaspoon sweet potatoes separated by ONE GREEN BEAN. Which provided fodder for my companions, one analogy was there's a scarcity of green bean so we must be on ration of just 1 per person lol.

However my disappointment was short lived upon tasting the morsel of chicken in a delectable sauce that revived my taste buds for an affinity of chicken.
I was informed by our head waiter the chicken was organic and free range. When I asked him to elaborate on the type free range if the chickens were free during the day and put into a pen at night. He told me their chicken was completely free range.

My friend had the roasted duck and rack of lamb, both of them were making funny noises as they were deguste their meals.
After savoring 7 gorgeous bottle of wine, including champagne I opt for desert. However my companions had the key lime pie, banana pudding.

After 4 hours of fine dining and amazing wine and champagne it was time to take the party to Vines for some music and dancing.

 

 

Yes it was a magical dining  experience with a great group of friends and savoring $600 Cuvee champagne bottle.

What is your favorite wine?

Have a great week,

Maggie

You are invited to an evening at Chatham’s Restaurant

Let’s explore The new Ruby Tuesday’s

 

 

Ruby Tuesday of UCF11401 UNIVERSITY BLVD. Orlando FL 32817

As you know I’m really not a fan of chain restaurant, specially a restaurant known as a mall resto is not the type of spot I will be gushing about.

However when I heard about the new designs,go green initiatives and new menus, I was intrigue by the new directions and the way they are reinventing this chain. We visited this spot on a Friday during lunch hour we only had to wait 2 minutes for a table to be cleaned

They have designed the free standing restaurant to be environmentally friendly and has green building ratings.

Upon entering the restaurant you are greeted by a host/ess instead of a podium it’s a sideboard table, where there are menus.

The décor is definitely more refined than your malls establishments with an expense of polish faux woods veneer, the bar sports beautiful bistro chairs, the bar itself is highlighted by soft spotting lights and the TV's are on but not loud intrusive.

There are booths with wide birth to fit anyone of any size, even if you are over 300lbs it will be comfortable.

 

 

The menus are printed on recycle materials, plastic bags for Togo is made from recycled materials.

Now onto the actual menu and the  new changes. They offer a Chef’s special that changes periodically.

The menu is more of a bistro meal for lunch, and dinner more American cuisine. You can peruse the menu here

Here are 2  entrees that sound awesome I will sure return to try.

ASIAGO PEPPERCORN SIRLOIN

Top sirloin perfectly seasoned and flavored with
cracked peppercorns, Parmesan cream sauce,
and shaved Asiago cheese.

SHELLFISH TRIO

jumbo lump crab cake, tender broiled lobster tail, and
grilled jumbo shrimp brushed with garlic scampi butter.

 

What we ordered was  the Grilled Chicken

Memphis Dry Rub Baby-Back Ribs.

 

Complimentary Cheddar biscuits

My ribs were perfectly falling off the bone and the rub was flavorful. I was very please that it wasn’t smothered in vinegary or very sugary bbq sauce.  My green beans was cooked perfectly most resto undercook green beans or cook it to death and lose all the flavors.

However my fries tasted very frozen with no flavor. The biscuits were very flaky and a good amount of cheddar.

Service

Our wait staff kept on filling my water without having to ask, did comeback several times to check on us and asked if we wanted desert before bringing the check.

I was happy to have visited a Ruby Tuesday resto, and will return to this spot since we had good service, however I will not be visiting the older restos in the mall.

Let’s explore The new Ruby Tuesday’s

My little obsession for this week!

That is right as women it’s our right to have a closet full of yummy clothes.Don't you agree?

I don’t know what it is but lately I’ve been obsessing about nail polish and have began to collect quite a few…
I want to have all these colours from Mac new colour palette except for the pink it’s too light for me.







The first Ombre set nail polish in 1 packet.






and this one.

Now colorful cuffs, I’m looking for something similar but under $50.00 if you come across one please leave a link.









These are beyond adorable and functional at only $10.00 a steal.







I will take this anytime








Have a great day,
Maggie

My little obsession for this week!

Where have you gone to MOJO?

 

Hi Everyone,

Since the divorce and moving, I’ve lost my mojo. I’ve not submitted any work to magazine nor have I fulfilled any of the assignments I was given. Mojo is gone, I have not create any layouts since December. Now you know this is a major crisis since Scrapbooking was my career right?

I was at scrappy boutique store for the first time in a very long time. I was excited however to see what they are created, so guess what? I’m going cropping with my friends next month :)

 

IF you see mojo please send it back to me :) Click on the images to see them larger.

Here’s a mini album that inspired me using the Teresa Collins line  created for the store display, they have fabulous ideas all over the store:)

 

 

 

 

have a great day send Mojo back :)

Where have you gone to MOJO?

The seduction of the Spanish wines!

hi Everyone,
It’s Thursday night the beginning of the weekend, let’s go to a wine tasting and discover that Spain  is more than just dessert wine.
Let me start by saying I was very surprise to found out Spain produce a lot of the world boutique wines and it’s not always dessert wine.
Did you know they make a brut methode champenoise? no neither did I.
A little bit of history of Spain wine making.
Rioja grapes
Aging Requirements
Sin Crianza: Wine with little or no aging in oak casks. Often referred to as Vino Joven:. Must be comprised of 100% Rioja grapes, as with all Rioja guaranteed origin wines.
Crianza: Wine in its 3rd year, matured for at least 1 year in oak cask, at least 1 year in bottle.
Reserva: Carefully selected wines, aged for at least three years, of which at least one is in oak cask and the rest in the bottle.
Gran Reserva: Wines which have been aged at least two years in oak cask and at least three years in the bottle.

Today we are going to taste a total of seven wine including 2 methode champenoise. We gathered at the home of Foster for this evening festivities for a total of 20 guests.
Are you Ready???
We started with the dry wines the reason if you start with the sweet you will not be able to taste the dry.
We were provided with a belisi stem glass and two bottle of water to rinse out our glass and clean our palette.
In addition we had fromage from Spain, tomato bread, smoke salmon.



The reds are being aerated properly before the tasting.


Water bottle for palette cleansing

Our host the owner of Wine room in DrPhillips, he travels all over the world for his store and distributes wines to several restaurant in the area. Sigh I want his job :)









What more can a girl want? great wine, friends and food :)
Have a great weekend,
Maggie

The seduction of the Spanish wines!