Restaurant Week

It is Restaurant Week in Charlottesville, a semi-annual tradition when the best restaurants in town offer a 3 course meal for $26 (with $1 going to a philanthropy). This go around the donation goes to Meals on Wheels, a non-profit that provides meals for folks who are unable to prepare their own meals due to age or disability. I have had the good fortune of volunteering with them during Darden's Day of Caring projects and they provide a much needed but underfunded service to the community.

Blake and I joined our best friend, Andy, at Orzo. This is a quaint Mediterranean restaurant in the Main Street Marketplace (home to some of Charlottesville's best locally owned shops including Feast, Organic Butcher, and Gearheart's Chocolates).  If you live in Charlottesville and have never been to Orzo...run...don't walk to this fantastic little gem of a restaurant. We went in July for the summer edition of Restaurant Week and had to return. Andy and I started with a beautiful dish of roasted red peppers, mozzarella, and roasted tomatoes while Blake enjoyed the Prosciutto di Parma Bruschetta. For the main course, the men had the Asiago Mac & Cheese with Pork (honestly, the best Mac & Cheese I have ever had) and I had the Vegetable Risotto which was brimming with goat cheese, arugula, local mushrooms, asparagus, and roasted tomatoes! My first two courses were absolutely fantastic but the Tiramisu was out of this world! It was creamy and had a wonderfully sweet (but not too sweet) taste of chocolate and espresso. As you can probably gather, the January edition of Restaurant Week was a sweeping success!

Are you taking time for yourself to unwind and spend quality time with those you love? In our lives, we make too many excuses on why we shouldn't do something: it's too expensive or too fattening or too (insert best adjective here). If you are thinking that I spent too much money and ate too many calories tonight, you are probably right, but I had a fantastic evening with two of the most important people in my life and the food was absolutely amazing! In fact, I am dreaming about another piece of that Tiramisu right now...

You don't have to spend a lot of money or eat a fancy meal but I encourage you to do something today that makes you truly happy!