Girls Night at The Grocery

Every piece of literature on marriage always says that it is important to maintain relationships outside of your spouse. For a while I didn't necessarily see why it is always talked about with such importance, of course you're still going to have friends other than your husband! Right?

Matt and I are that rare couple that is ALWAYS together and prefers it that way. We both work out of the house and there are days in a row where he will be the only other person I see on the planet. But, we like it that way. In fact, we prefer it that way. We genuinely want to be around each other all the time. This makes it difficult to find time apart. Thus, I only have a few girlfriends in the area. But I've always been a proponent of quality of quantity.

So last night I finally had a girls night out with a few of these quality ladies. What's funny is that I've met all of them through Matt. They are the girlfriends/fiance's of Matts' buddies. I guess things like that just work out. Anyway we went out to dinner for Charleston Restaurant Week, a fabulous event that takes place almost every six months here and something not to be missed. We settled on this relatively new and trendy restaurant, The Grocery. All farm-to-table quirky goodness that I love with exposed brick walls and abstract paintings of serene marshlands.

So five of us girls,  my two friends Lindsey and Allie, and their two friends Julie and Chandler. pile into a booth and begin what is to go down as the best restaurant week dinner I've ever had.

I started with the bouillabaisse which was warm and soothing , which was just what I needed since I've been feeling a little under the weather lately. It had pieces of fish, shrimp and squid in it and came with a crunchy piece of bread for dipping, a nice touch.

For my main course I had the braised short rib with creamy farro, peas and oyster mushrooms. Side note, the waiter described it as coming with chanterelle mushrooms...a VAST overstatement which only I would notice, but still worth mentioning. For those that don't know chanterelle mushrooms are the most delicate, expensive mushroom around. Not something you usually see on a 3 for $30 restaurant week menu. Anyway, despite the miscommunication about the mushrooms the short rib was excellent. The short rib was juicy and tender and shredded apart with and ease it was like an erotic striptease. The combination of the earthy farro and mushrooms just upped the ante for this dish, making it rustic and warm and extremely satisfying.

To finish, there were churros. The Latin American version of the funnel cake, these crispy, sugar coated ropes came with three dipping sauces: a salted caramel, a creme englaise and an orange chocolate sauce. The salted caramel was by far the best of the bunch and although I was stuffed, I managed to take down two ropes of goodness before calling it quits.

It was a fabulous night. A night filled with laughter and wine. A good reminder of why girlfriends are so important to a newly married, contantly coupled girl like me.

XOXO

Lisa