Venice

After our quick Disney visit the fam had a whole week left in the Sunshine State. Venice, FL is a spot my family has visited every summer for as long as I can remember. Over time we've developed our usual go to spots, and after twenty something years we've developed so many it's hard to fit them all in. I've been campaigning for a longer vacation to solve this problem, I'll let you know if I succeed. We spent the majority of the trip boating and eating, which makes for a pretty stupendous week in my book.

 

Camera wars.

Captain Dave

Our schedule went a little like this: boat a little, stop for lunch, boat a little, swim a little, boat a little, stop for sunset.

Sharkey's is Venice's only beachfront restaurant and became one of our regular spots early on. Over the past year they have built a whole new fine dining restaurant connected to the old Sharkey's. On our last night in town my parents and I eagerly hit up Fins.

I had some sort of watermelon/tequila/spicy concoction that I can't quite remember, but it was good!

I mean, the grilled watermelon salad was good, but look at that backdrop.

I was so indecisive I couldn't even land on one appetizer, so I just ordered a few different ones and shared with mom. My "main" appetizer was the lobster and gouda nachos.

Both key lime pie and creme brulee are family favorites, so when we saw key lime creme brulee on the menu it was a must. This was gone in a second.

Fins gets two thumbs up and will most definitely be on our go to list from here on out. So sad to have to leave Florida but maybe next year I'll get that longer vacation I'm campaigning for!

XO,

Lo

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Serendipity

This past week one of my favorite mother-daughter duos, Jeni and Caroline, were in the Big Apple. Luckily, they love food and fun as much as me, so we had a week full of just that. Our first stop was Serendipity, an institution in NYC. It's been around since 1954. It's always been on my list but I hadn't yet visited. Jeni and Caroline have always raved about it, so I was pretty excited for my first experience.

I would describe the decor as a little girl's dream playroom, with lots of colors and whimsical decorations.

A flying monkey made of grass? ok. It fit right in.

Serendipity has a massive dinner menu (literally) but what they're really known for is their over-the-top desserts.

That's, like, a whole chicken....in her bowl. But you can never have enough fried chicken.

I was in the mood for some comfort food and opted for the chicken pot pie.

I think someone who drops $1k on a sundae might need to re-evaluate their life, but I'm oh so fascinated by this. Maybe one day they'll let me test it out for the blog? Yeah?

 The moment we had been waiting for: dessert! We decided on the frozen hot chocolate and a sundae with hot fudge and caramel sauce. MMMMMM.

The frozen hot chocolate is the dessert they're best known for. I had expected it to taste basically like a milkshake. To my surprise, it actually tasted like hot chocolate....but frozen. Imagine that! (p.s. can you tell Caroline is also a blogger by all my shots with her camera in the background? ha)

I have to say the sundae was my favorite. I'm just a sucker for hot fudge. It was out of this world!

Look at all that drippy goodness.

So excited for Caroline to be coming to NYC for school this fall! You should all be too, because blog posts always get better when you have blogging friends around ;)

XO,

Lo

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Hundred Acres

This past week Mom was in town to celebrate her birthday. We fully celebrated with an Italian night and Broadway, but I still owed her a Mother's Day gift. Brunch seemed an obvious choice. That way I got to benefit too! ;) I have a long list of NYC restaurants I've been wanting to try. After some debating I landed on Hundred Acres. It's a farm to table, Southern infusion restaurant that's beautiful and nearby my apartment. (Not to mention, it's visited by a certain blonde socialite on Gossip Girl.) What's not to love?

The menu is always changing. You can count that the ingredients will always be fresh and your food will be delicious.

 

Subway tile and marble counters are both components of my future dream kitchen.

Bellinis to start, cin cin!

The space had lots of big windows that allowed the sun to pour through. They were beautiful, but proved to be a problem for my picture taking.

We just couldn't pass up the ricotta fritters. They're served warm and drizzled with honey and powdered sugar.

When I looked at the menu online this caught my eye, and I had been dreaming about it ever since: goat cheese bread pudding with spinach, poached eggs, and lemon butter. MMMMM

Mom went for the egg scramble with a bunch a fresh veggies and a big hunk of cornbread. Truly Southern.

In hindsight the fritters on top of the bread pudding on top of the cornbread might have been a little too decadent, but I don't regret it in the slightest.

After brunch we just happened to stumble upon a once a year street fair that was taking place just a couple blocks away from my apartment. It was a beautiful day and we needed to walk off our carbo-loaded brunch, so we decided to take a stroll. 

 How much is that doggie in the window??

XO,

Lo

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