Our Anniversary Dinner

Here is the round about way we picked a restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary this year.  You see, for quite some time, I have been in search of the ingredients to make an adult beverage called a Pimm’s Cup.  It’s a British drink made with Pimm’s No. 1 and it looks like this:

It cannot be be found anywhere in the Greensboro, NC area. We’ve searched.   The ABC Store here tells us the only way we could get it is to order it.  But of course they will only order it for you by the case.  I am not willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a case of a liquor that I have never tasted before!  We looked online.  I could order a bottle online but between the cost of the Pimm’s and the shipping it would be about $60.00.  Again, not willing to pay that much for something I just want to taste to SEE IF  I like it. 

My husband has a friend he works with who lives in the UK.  He said he would send us a bottle.  We told him to wait and give us some more time to see if we could find it cheaper and closer to home.  So, my husband started google-ing Pimm’s No. 1 and lo and behold it turned up on the menu of a restaurant in Chapel Hill, NC where our daughter happens to live and go to school.  A restaurant there called 411 West serves a Pimm’s Martini!  So, that is where we headed for our Anniversary dinner. 

We took the son (and let him drive….that was a hair raising experience for me…my husband handles that better than I do) and we picked up the daughter when we got there and we dined at 411 West on Franklin Street in the quaint section of Chapel Hill.

    

And here is my Pimm’s Martini!  It was very tasty and refreshing just like I had heard.  So now that I finally got to taste it and like it…the hunt continues.  (We heard we can get it in Virginia, so in the next couple of weeks we are going to take a road trip up to Virginia to see if we can buy a bottle there.)

We had a lovely dinner.  411 West was very nice and the food was delicious.  Here we are toasting with our kids to our 26th Anniversary.    Cheers!

To start our dinner off, my daughter and I shared a cup of Tomato and Watermelon Gazpacho.  So good!  Sorry no photo.  And then we all nibbled on the Caprese Salad.  It was made with local heirloom tomatoes and was delicious.

Then the entrees came.  I enjoyed Chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables.  My husband and son each enjoyed a Wood Grilled Filet Mignon.

  

And our daughter had a Crab Pasta dish.  She said it was fabulous.  (Tasted better than it looks I guess. ) :)

   

And then the Filet on my husband’s plate started looking like the state of Michigan so of course we had to take a picture of that!  Kind of like when the image of Jesus appears on a potato chip.  People want proof!

And we were all so stuffed by the time dessert came around that we all shared this delicious piece of Carrot Cheese Cake.   The carrot cake was on the bottom, cheese cake on top with candied almonds and a caramel sauce.  Two bites of bliss were more than enough. 

My husband and kids all got a kick out of the 52 Reasons Why I Love You deck of cards I made for my husband and he surprised me with a gorgeous anniversary band ring!  It’s just beautiful.  It was a wonderful evening.  I got to finally taste the elusive Pimm’s No. 1, we saw the state of Michigan in a piece of meat, we had a delicious dinner out with our kids, and I came out of the restaurant wearing diamonds!  Does it get any better than that??!!