Double Date!

Bryan and I always look forward to Restaurant Week, and the past few summers and winters we have enjoyed the celebration with our friends, the Monopoli. Restaurant Week occurs in Baltimore in the summer and winter, and it is a great opportunity to eat three great courses at some of the nicest restaurants in the city for a set price. Since we probably only eat out about once a month, Restaurant Week is a big deal for the Saxton's. We budget for it for months, peruse menus for weeks to select a restaurant, and then generally have our meals planned out well before we arrive.

This winter we decided to try The Wine Market, a cute restaurant and wine store in the Locust Point neighborhood of Baltimore. This turned out to be a genius move, since they are pretty much the only restaurant in the city, particularly that part of the city, with their own free parking lot. As we had received about 9 inches of snow the day before and Baltimore isn't known for their plowing prowess, the idea of not having to find street parking made the night a lot more relaxing!

I dropped Noelle off at friends, and arrived a few minutes early to the restaurant. I was excited to see they had both 3 oz and 6 oz pours of lots of their excellent wines and sipped a Pinot Noir while waiting for everyone else to arrive. Soon we were sitting down with our menus, catching up on the last month. Bryan and I both started the meal with a really good duck ragout, and then I had a seafood risotto and Bryan had a sirloin for the main course. I finished dinner with a chocolate pretzel dessert, while Bryan had some carrot cake. Everything was really good, and the portion sizes were just right - you felt satisfied but not so full you can hardly move. It was a yummy dinner with some great company!

Here are a few pictures of the company in the wine store attached to the restaurant!





Bryan and I are actually going out for a solo lunch date this coming weekend - 2 nice meals in two weeks is quite a treat! Got to love the excellent job we are doing budgeting to allow it to happen!