A new state!

Knocked off another state this week. I hadn't even realized that I've never been to Virginia before. To me, I guess it's just one of those states that feels like I have to have visited at some point.

I was in Richmond for work, and I was fortunate enough to visit during the city's Restaurant Week (Cleveland's is next week!) I tried The Hill Cafe in the Church Hill neighborhood on Wednesday night and got a great meal for its Restaurant Week special of $25.11, of which $2.11 is donated to the food bank.

When visiting someplace new, I like to try local cuisine as much as possible, so I sampled fried oysters, shrimp and grits with bacon, and pecan pie. Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't know this, but the pecan pie I had from two different places had a lot of syrupy chocolate. When I've had it in the past near home, I don't remember it being so chocolately.

Last night, we tried Comfort, which was just featured in GQ this week. Comfort is to Richmond as Melt is to Cleveland -- cult following, comfort food, funky staff and no rezzies accepted. Each dish comes with a choice of two to three Southern sides (of course I opted for three). I had the luscious meatloaf with sweet potatoes, squash casserole and fried okra. I also tried a Legend Brown, a yummy, local brew.

After dinner, I convinced our group to check out The Fan neighborhood since it sounded cool. We went to tiny Bacchus, but since there wasn't room at the bar, we moved on to The Fan House. Lots of cool drink selections here, and the mixologist didn't disappoint. I tried a proseco drink (#11) with sweet potato purée because it sounded so crazy, and it was goooood.

I was disappointed that places seemed to be pretty spread out in The Fan since we couldn't just walk from place to place. I wish I had some daylight hours to explore, particularly since I heard there are a ton of galleries in that area.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the charming old row houses from the 1800s in the city, particularly those by VCU, this year's March Madness Cindarella story. (Incidentally, I saw Davidson soon after its storybook March Madness a few years ago during a Charlotte trip.) I also liked the refurbed old tannery and tobacco buildings in the city...so much character.

I wouldn't be disappointed if I was able to visit Richmond again, particularly since it's 90 minutes from Virginia Beach. Hopefully I can get some daylight hours to properly explore the neighborhoods and galleries.

Girls' night out followed by burgers and naps

Saturday oozed girliness with shopping, a mani/pedi (sorry, Amanda!) and a girls' night out with a smattering of new and old Charlotte friends, family (Lisa's cousin) and one of my high school girlfriends. One of the new girls we met at dinner is a Funky Fit workout aficionado, and we came this close to a cardio class dance off between Lisa and her.

Jen insisted that the three of us wear falsies (lashes, not boobs), but her aunt has always put them on for us, so getting them to stay was interesting (not intriguing...inside joke). Lisa, bless her heart, glued one of my eyelids together when she was applying mine. FYI, on this trip we learned that "bless her heart" is a popular, misleading Southern intro to an insult. My eyelids were a hot mess for a moment, but easily fixed. To Lisa's credit, neither she or Jen trusted me to put their lashes on since I can barely apply my own eye shadow.

Jen hosted a wine and cheese reception at her place before we all shuttled off downtown to M5, a restaurant that reminded us a lot of Fahrenheit in Tremont with a Mediterranean/fusion menu. Last night marked day two of pear salad (this time with poached pears) and moscato. Dinner was to die for. Zone and I swapped portions of our meals since we both were torn between two dishes. She scored with a short rib version of beef stroganoff with porcino mushrooms (P.S. Phil is Husband of the Year and surprised me with short ribs and halushki when I got home tonight). My aromatic rock shrimp and butternut squash risotto sent me to heaven. I have to mention that I'm becoming a big fan of bread dipping dishes designed like mini paint trays (Table 45 at the InterContinental has these too). Got to get me some soon.

M5 had a genius dessert menu that featured dessert tapas, three for $11. It's a crime that we didn't sample any. Had I not completely stuffed myself, I would have opted for the orange sugar shortbread, chocolate cake and pomegranate-cranberry ice. Next time.

Uptown at Cosmos, we met out one of my girlfriends from high school and Lisa's cousin. Lisa defended Jazzercise's honor when a Rob Lowe lookalike said it was for old ladies. In her defense, Jen brought it up to every guy we tried to fix her up with. Thus, the phrase of the weekend became: "OMG, this is a Jazzercise song." (to the tune of 30+ times). After Cosmos, we walked to Cans for some serious dance floor action. Definitely a night to remember.

After last night's antics, it's only fitting that we had lunch today on a college campus at Davidson's Soda Shop. I loved the Pink Elephant soda (strawberry Sprite!), and the burgers were juicy and delicious. Also had my first introduction to cottage fries. I'm in love. Then we napped while watching reruns of America's Next Top Model. Not a lot of action today.

Unfortunately, we left 60+ degrees today and sunshine to go back to Cleveland blah weather. Side note: Charlotte airport bathrooms have attendants with mouthwash and gum that try handing you one-ply paper towels like you're at House of Blues. Super weird.

Can't wait for Cleveland weather to catch up. My toes look pretty and need some more flip flop action. (Note: Ladies, Amanda at LaBarberia in Little Italy rules. And, they serve wine during mani/pedis! Hook yourself up.)