Total awesomeness......

Friday night ~ here we are getting ready to leave the house ~ much out of character ~ J was surprising me with dinner out at a super secret place. First, J planned ahead. I know totally shocking huh? But he shared later that I has mentioned that we needed a date night and the soonest he could get a reservation at my "surprise destination" was July 3rd. All I knew was "smart casual" dress code. When I asked if we were going to be heading north, I sort of guessed, but was sure there is now way my dh who was not on drugs would splurge on that! So I kept quiet as much to maintain the surprise as I wasn't totally sure until we got off the exit on Rt 78....we were headed for.......

Emeril's Chophouse at the Sands!! Wooheeee!! I am a huge foodie and total fan of Emeril. I know it sounds totally corny and so cliche, but I am! It was his show that made me more adventerous in the kitchen and showed me that all those big fancy words and techniques weren't so hard at all. "it's not rocker science people!" So needlesss to say J is a big fan too, since he gets to be on the receiving end of my epicurious adventures!

I could not believe it! This is J enjoying his after dinner coffee. {three liquors in it, we had to gamble just to sober him up!} I was very remiss that the only camera I had on hand was my phone. And these are mixed up but anyway....I was ordered to blog the details before we forgot them. We were trying to remember another memorable dinner for us, while we were talking at the table at Emeril's and all the details of it are gone....our first real "fancy" dinner was in WDW when we were just dating. We had a bottle of wine that I was far to young to drink, and our only memory of the dinner is the fresh made at our table Ceasar salad...yumyumyum.....so we didnt' want to forget this one.
if you notice behind J is a glass wall. Not just any wall. But on both sides of us, huge high as a wall glass coolers for wine. Bottles and bottles lined up there. We took our waitresses suggestions on an Italian Rose that "had just come in today" Delish!

The menu's were REAL leather, and yes, I sniffed. Real leather people!
The waitress put our napkins on our lap for us. So I immediately thought, uh-oh, stuffy. Wispered to J that we would probably get small portions etc. I should have known any place with Emeril's name would not be into small menus or hush hush tones. For the service we got from our two servers, you would think you were in a high class restaurant where everyone wears a tie and talks in hushed tones. But there was an energy of converstation there, that was so cool and didn't interfere with our converstation at all. We were not rushed at all. And as you can see by the picture of my plate the portions were not small at all. J got a 22 oz ribeye which he enjoyed with a homemade worstechire which I can tell you put the bottled stuff to shame! Mine is Wahoo. It is a fish. Certainly no other restaurant in these parts would put on the menu. Our waitress assured us that "Chef" aka Emeril, likes various seafood on the menu, and when he is "in house", there is even lobster mac and cheese on the menu. Oh man what I wouldn't do to eat there when he is "in house"! I was trying to decide between the salmon and shrimp scampi and the Wahoo special when the waitress kindly reminded me that the others were always on the menu but the Wahoo was the special...so may not return. Sold. She said the chef was joking with them when he gave them the specials menu that the Wahoo was the fastest fish in the ocean, that is why they call it the Wahoooo! As she set it at my place, I replied that it was apparently not fast enough!
Oh I digress. I must comment on the way our soup was served. I had the most awesome corn chowder eva! And J had lobster bisque. Brought to our table in steaming soup pots. Our bowls were set before us with the fresh relish in the middle for mine and the lobster meat in the center for J and the soup poured over by the waitresses.
My portion of fish was huge, and served with a crawfish cream sauce and lyonaise potatoes, I will not lie I ate every bite!

This is me totally flaoting on air with the awesome-est food in my tummy!!
I got a chocolate truffle for dessert, and J got a slice of apple pie. When I tell you these were at least 1/6 th of the pie I am not exaggerating. I was very remiss but could not finish!! J finished mine and his!
There were then 6 different beans to chose from for fresh expresso, man does that man know how to speak my language!! Since I know a very little bit about the different beans, I chose my favorite, Suamtra beans and had the best cappachino I have ever had! Sorry Starbucks!!

By the end of the meal, I could still not believe what a treat my evening was. We enjoyed ourselves so thoroughly, especially knowing it was not a treat we would bestow upon ourselves often. The service and food combined had us just in a state of bliss. I was concerned of the cost, believe me , it was well worth every penny, but not cheap. Then what made it even more special to me was how J shared he was paying for it. He saves his birthday money, and other monies here and there that his mom may slip him "for gas or dinner" on the way home, or after they have stayed here. So he used that for my treat. Most of that is his money. But he did say he had just a good time as I did, so that made it better. We were still savoring the night , the next morning, and enjoyed the rest of our bottle of wine Saturday night. We have decided that this is our new "special night out" place, most likely just for our anniv. since that tends to fall around tax time! :)
I am counting the months til our anniversary!