A big upside to our unexpected out-of-town visitors was the free babysitting they provided last Saturday night. YIPPEE!!! I can't remember the last time Elijah and I were out alone, so we were definitely due for an evening away from the monkeys.
About four months ago Elijah attempted to arrange a lovely Mother's Day Brunch at Max's Wine Dive in downtown Austin. The brunch was a wash, as they had overbooked their couples with young kids, so we ended up walking out on our reservation. The manager called Elijah and offered to send him a $50 gift card. A week or so later, we received said card, along with a very nice note apologizing for the inconvenience. Not that that makes up for being stuck at 11 am on Mother's Day without a place to get a drink! But still I'm not one to throw away 50 dollars worth of free food.
We decided that this weekend would be a good time to give them a second chance so we headed downtown early in the evening. I'd worked Friday night, so we both knew we'd be home by 9:00 or I'd be the total wreck that I usually am once the sun goes down. As you can imagine we pretty much had the place to ourselves, although downtown was fairly busy owing to the UT/UCLA game.
The food was amazing! They pride themselves on producing comfort food for adults, encouraging you to order Syrah with your hot dog entree, and they absolutely deliver. We ordered from the appetizer menu because I was determined to taste their mac-n-cheese. I've tried, and failed, repeatedly to make homemade macaroni and cheese that has all the gooey goodness without that grainy texture that usually comes from not using Velveeta. They hit it spot on. It was perfect. And dessert, peach cobbler with cinnamon vanilla ice cream was amazing as well.
We spent the rest of the evening wandering around town, just hanging out. Although we didn't do anything crazy, it was really nice to just spend some well deserved alone time with Elijah.
