We do fun things.

The situation is frequently the same in our house, but last weekends adventure was a little bit different!  We are normally at a loss for what to do when the babysitter arrives at our house, and I complain to M that I want to do something fun or go somewhere new.  This city is far too big to keep eating at the same crapola restaurants.  We comment on places we see driving randomly towards downtown and the other person usually retorts with a "nahh" or "been there" or "too fancy".   Mental notes are made for the locations we are passing by with a promise that we will get there one day.  This weekend was different though, the kid is going to sleepover at Gramma's house and we get to stay up late!   Well, I will try I suppose.  I'm nearing my third trimester and have a hard time being awake past 10pm.  But bags are packed, kid is dropped off and I buy a cute new sweater to wear on Date Night!

M has planned a fun evening of which I know nothing.  It's all a surprise and I especially love these kinds of dates.   I am a very indecisive person when it comes to what I want for dinner and it can be very annoying.  I know this about myself and I'm trying to work on it.  In this case though I didn't even have a say.  Dog got a walk, I got all did up and off we went!    Sometimes I'll have an idea of where the surprise is going to be, and sometimes I'm way off.  This was a way off time.

Moonlight & Eli, a champagne and fondue bar, opened quietly earlier this year on a main road in Bridgeland, and frankly you'll miss it if you drive past and blink.  Except that the whole building is painted bright pink so I'd be shocked if you passed it twice.   In what I can only assume is a turn of the century house a large glass window over looks the street and the narrow interior is flashy, cozy, bright and romantic.  We were the only table when we arrived and therefore had our choice of seats.  the front of the restaurant has a long bar, high top with gold chairs where you overlook the whole operation.  Cooking (I use that term loosely) the bar, the fridges are all in full view.   Normally I wouldn't mind sitting and watching it all go down, but I wanted a bit more schmoopy and this was too public.  The server pointed us to the back, a tiny dark corner that only seats about six people total.   Chandeliers reminiscent of an earlier time, artwork lined the walls and the music was hysterical.  Probably not what you were expecting to read, but it truly was.  Imagine the top pop charts today and from the last ten years, but slowed down, played by a jazz style cover band.   I caught myself singing along to a Bruno Mars song just out of habit, not realizing the tempo was melancholy and dramatic.   I mentioned it to the server and she explained that this is the most popular request, for the music to be changed to this station.  

On to the champagne and fondue!  The reason we are here!  I guess that's not entirely true since I can't even partake in the delicious champagne menu I get a plain old tap water and M orders a beer.  You can't possibly be surprised at that, right?  Had I been able to have champagne we would have shared a bottle no doubt, we can be classy you know.   But he's not about to venture down that road solo.   Our server explains the menu to us leaves us to ponder and we just take it all in.  It feels like we're on vacation- no kid, fancy new restaurant, no hurry to be anywhere.  Let's just talk for a bit.

The menu is fairly simple, and truthfully I don't remember all of it, but I can't even link it for you.  This place has a super limited online presence, maybe a bit of a detriment to a business nowadays, but also maybe to steer people away from the fact that it's pretty darn expensive.   There were choices like bread and cheese;  you could upgrade to the cheese with truffles; and of course a dessert option.  I was watching the budget as I tend to do and felt that some of the choices were just too much money, but that's me being cheap.  We ended up ordering the standard bread&cheese fondue for two, twenty five bucks a person, with a few add ons.   The plate we chose has pickled vegetables (that's a stretch though, it was cornichon and pickled onions), green apples, and we paid more for cherry tomatoes and meatballs.    We struggled in the beginning getting our flame the right spot, it went out, and then by the end the pot was so hot the bottom was starting to burn.  #rookies.

I think initially we feel like we didn't quite get our monies worth, at first glance anyway, but we realize after we've eaten it all that we could have asked for more bread.  That made up for a bit of the feeling I was having, but we also realized it was the perfect amount of food.   We still had another activity to get to and I didn't want to be gross full.   The meatballs I think were the tastiest part, however I didn't like them too much in the cheese.  It's not something I would normally put cheese on I guess, so I ate them on their own.  The green apples added an awesome fresh texture and lightened the heaviness of the cheese.   To both of our surprise we finished the food right as the cheese ran out! What's that saying my mom used to say?  "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach"; I'm very glad we didn't order the bigger size, or the dessert one, there's no way we would have had the room to finish it.   We did however save room for glitter truffle balls.   About the size of a quarter these locally made truffles are rich and creamy, and for someone like myself who doesn't really like chocolate, they're the perfect size. And they are covered in glitter, therefore so are we, fingers and lips.   We go for a walk and I'm quite sure in the dusk lighting I can see glitter on M's lips.  Breaking the silence of sitting on a bench watching the traffic is the phone ringing.  The dreaded phone call.  Baby girl is having a rough go at Grammas house and misses us (specifically daddy.  Jerk.)   We calm her down after a few minutes and pray that she lasts through the night.  Walking back to the car we pass by the restaurant again and I am certain we will be back, maybe for New Years?!  I think we should go there for dessert after getting the babies to bed.  At least I'll be able to try some champagne then!