Taste of the Nation Recap!

Photo by Tonya Russ Price, POPROCK Photography

The Food Baby would like to give a special thanks to our friends, families and readers that came out on April 13 to support Share our Strength at the Taste of the Nation soiree!  Thanks to the efforts of people like you, over $115,000 was raised to fight childhood hunger!  Most importantly, this money will stay in our community, benefitting Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina and the Community Culinary School of Charlotte.  As an event sponsor, ticket ambassador and auction committee member, The Food Baby sold over 30 event tickets and rounded up over a dozen silent and live auction items, ultimately raising well over $5,000!!  WE ARE CHARITABLY SMUG!

Farm to Fork Restaurant Month

We are pleased to relay some great information on behalf of our new friend Richard Grucia, who we met as Ticket Ambassadors for Taste of the Nation. 

Richard is the founder and organizer of Good Eats and Meets Charlotte, which is a local foodie-focused meetup group which boasts almost 2500 members! Good Eats and Meets Charlotte has created a fantatic concept that we put our full Food Babies behind:

FARM TO FORK RESTAURANT MONTH: MAY 2011

We hear from Richard that 15+ restaurants are already on board! Be sure to visit carolinasfarmtofork.com to sign up for the mailing list - you'll be the first to know all the latest details!

Great work Richard (aka Foodzilla) and all the Good Eats and Meets Charlotte folks who organized this wonderful concept. The Food Babies always be loving some local and sustainable food!! We're waiting for the restaurant list with bated breath.....

-Lauren and Brianna

Rooster's

The source of my olfactory pleasure!
Photo courtesy of tripadvisor.com

The Food Baby bottom line:

• Please bottle and sell the grill aromas as an aphrodisiac.
• Excellent mains, above average desserts...but weak sides.
• “Our medium is medium rare”
• Congrats to Kiley and Andy!!

Last week my fabulous Mom and Dad came into Charlotte to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and to join us for Taste of the Nation! We had the best week ever, and part of that included checking out Rooster’s Wood Fired Grill in Southpark.

In addition to Mom, Dad, hubby, and me, our wonderful friends Kiley and Andy joined us. Andy lives right around the corner from Rooster’s, and he and Kiley are quite the regulars. Little did we know at dinner that Andy was less than 24 hours away from proposing to Kiley!!! Ever socially gracious, my family and I hurled relationship questions/advice at them the entire night, and Andy deftly fielded them all with a big secret up his sleeve. Congrats to a serious bestie and phenomenal couple!

The Wine Shop at Foxcroft

The Food Baby bottom line:

• Marrownaise.  Enough said. 
• Amazing, wine-friendly food at this South Park gem rivals any fine dining restaurant in town.
• Recipe for a fabulous Saturday:  lunch at The Wine Shop followed by a wine tasting!

At the suggestion of our new homeboys, The Charlotte Burger Bloggers, we recently checked out The Wine Shop at Foxcroft.  After their detailed description of the MARROWNAISE – yes, that is bone marrow mayonnaise – we knew we had to go (click here for their review).  So, I asked Lauren out for a Saturday lunch date in honor of her birthday and we made our dream a reality.

The Wine Shop at Foxcroft is both wine store and wine bar/restaurant.  I was shamefully unaware first that they served food, and second that it was so incredible.  I did know that they carry an impressive selection of artisinal and hard to find/limited release wines at all price points.  My kinda place!  During the day, the space is light and inviting.  There are beautiful natural wood wine racks lining the walls and gorgeous wooden floors.  The bar is off the kitchen and faces the dining area, curving gracefully around to end at the edge of another wine filled room.  I understand that the bar is getting a bit of an upgrade with taps being installed for select craft beers.  They already have an impressive craft bottled selection, and I think the taps will be a great addition.

Taste of the Nation Ticket Giveaway!

Hello dear readers:

As you may recall, The Food Baby ladies have partnered with Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation event, held NEXT WEDNESDAY on April 13th! We've sold tickets and worked on the auction committee...and have been all around rock stars, if I do say so myself!

We want to share the love with you!

We are doing a ticket giveaway for this fabulous event. Wouldn't you love to come enjoy tasty bites from 30 of Charlotte's most upscale restaurants, unlimited beer/wine/cocktails, live music, and partying it up with TFB ladies?

The giveaway is this: Buy one discounted ticket for 70 dollars (promo code: FOODBABY) and get a second ticket FREE! A night out for two for 70 bones is a pretty sexy deal to me.

The tickets are regularly 85 dollars each, so this will be a savings of 100 BUCKS!

We want to hear from you: In order to enter the giveaway, you can e-mail us at info@thefoodbaby.com with one of the following:

1. A new Food Baby Type to add to our library. Hold nothing back - we love hilarious, inappropriate, and random FB descriptions.

OR

2. A paragraph with your feedback on the site and blog. What do you like? What sucks (be honest)? What do you wish there was more of, and what should we keep coming?

That's it! The giveaway will end Tuesday April 12th at 8:00 PM, and we'll select two winners.

Good luck! We'd love to party our asses off with you on April 13th - for an AMAZING cause!

-Brianna and Lauren

300 East

The Food Baby Bottom Line:

• Cozy, welcoming atmosphere in a prime Dilworth location
• The menu is, indeed, eclectic...but everything is tasty
• White mocha bread pudding makes me eye-roll and grunt simultaneously

Last Wednesday, I was feeling like a pretty lucky girl! Two of my most fabulous friends, Kiley and Zuzana, took me to 300 East for a very low-key birthday celebration. I just turned the big 2-8, and on April Fool’s day no less. Yes, I’m an April Fool’s baby….that explains a lot about me, I believe.

300 East is a Dilworth staple. The restaurant is in a renovated old house on East Boulevard, and the atmosphere is what you may expect from that (in a great way) – cozy, intimate, and has a historic feel. We were seated in one of the very front tables, near windows looking out onto East Boulevard, and anxiously ordered a bottle of Cotes Du Rhone to start with. Take note: Wines are half-price on Wednesdays!

The Crepe Cellar

TFB + The Charlotte Burger Bloggers!

The Food Baby Bottom Line:

• The Charlotte Burger Bloggers rock our world.
• Crêpe Cellar has a sexy and cozy atmosphere that never fails to seduce me.
• A little salt helps…and a little to the left?

Oh, Crêpe Cellar…where do I begin?  First, let me say that I am pleased to present you with The Food Baby’s first joint blog/review.  We had been envious admirers of the work of the amazing guys behind the Charlotte Burger Blog, Patrick (aka “Hereford”) and Gio (aka “Angus”), for some time.  So when they suggested we dine together and do a joint review, we were jazzed.  Next, let me say that this has been one of the hardest reviews I have written to date.  Perhaps most daunting is the sheer awesomeness of the Charlotte Burger Bloggers – these guys have such a legit and systematic method – they each order the same dishes at every restaurant (a simple cheeseburger, perhaps with bacon and a house specialty burger), they use the exact same criteria/categories each time to assign ratings on a 5 point scale, and, perhaps most epic, these guys weigh and measure their burgers (see their "Burger Manifesto" for more detail).  AND, as we learned at dinner, they also record their dining experiences on a professional-grade recording device.  I wish to publicly apologize to CBB for having to listen to our crude, inappropriate and overly-blonde ramblings more than once.  And I will take this opportunity to request that you destroy the tapes.  THANKS AND SORRY.  All kidding aside, these guys are genius – go immediately to their site and check it out!