Valentine's Day

Thanks to a very special Grammy Eats, Mr. Eats and I got to go out to dinner--just the two of us--to celebrate Valentine's Day. Normally, I'd make a special dinner for us, but the addition of Baby Eats and Grammy Eats at the table would make the occasion less than romantic...

So where to go for our big night out? I procrastinated because I couldn't decide where to go and the days were ticking down and yada yada we were lucky enough to get 6:30pm reservations at Germantown Cafe, one of Nashville's best restaurants for a romantic dinner.

Germantown Cafe isn't fancy pants; it's a really nice but casual restaurant with good food. In other words, it's a step up food-wise from J. Alexander's but you don't have to worry about whether or not you're wearing the right kind of jeans. But maybe you oughtta change out of the sweatshirt covered in spit-up (oh, that's just me? nevermind).

We started out dinner with a couple of starters...escargot for the husband (pass) and baked brie for me. Mr. Eats remarked that you don't see either item on menus much any more and that even though he was happy to see both, the menu seemed kind of dated. I reminded him that the popularity of Julie and Julia had propelled Mastering the Art of French Cooking back to the bestseller list recently so French-inspired cuisine and these old standbys are actually rather trendy. Or maybe they just like this stuff.

For dinner, I had the pasta dish. There's a green plate that features a portobella mushroom cap, but because they're a popular staple here at home (sooo easy to roast), I skipped it. The pasta had a mushroom cream sauce. I wasn't super intrigued, but was very pleased. The pasta was cooked well and the portion was large enough to feed the husband the next night (bonus!).

Entrees are served with a salad and bread. Normally, I wouldn't mention either, but this bread...wow. It's akin to a beignet and in fact, is served sweet for brunch. I could make a meal of these little rolls. They were dangerously good and didn't even need butter. This, my friends is remarkable. Because to me, everything needs butter. As a kid, I only ate bread so I could have butter. I ate butter sandwiches. So for me to say something is good enough to have without butter, you know it's one awesome piece of dough.

Mr. Eats had a sea critter for dinner that was served on a bed of sweet potato risotto with sauteed asparagus. Luckily, the plate was arranged so that I could taste the risotto that was not soiled by critter juice. Delicious. I'm going to have to try it at home because the flavor was more delicate and pleasant than pumpkin risotto.

But the highlight? Dessert. I had a sort of apple cobbler thing that was good but could not compare to the red velvet cheesecake. I was a little worried about this cheesecake at first. That's a lot of dye, right? I'm not so sure, because neither of us looked as though we'd been freebasing red Kool-Aid. I thought it might affect the taste, but no. This cheesecake was fantastic. Cake-y without being dry (who hasn't had a disappointignly dry red velvet cake? So sad). The texture was wonderful. And it was topped with a delicate cream cheese frosting. I know, I know, but it worked. Incidentally, it was not chocolate-flavored, thankfully. And the portion size was (again) very generous so that I didn't have to worry about getting stabbed each time I reached across the table for a bite. Because that could seriously ruin the mood of a Valentine's dinner, don't you think?