Happy Birthday Jo-Anne! More aptly titled, "Look whose still alive at 65!" Yeah I know I'll hear it for that one, eh.

 

Anyhow, to celebrate the Social Security occasion on the 29th of December, I took my beautiful lady to a new place here in Grapevine called Cafe Italian; new for us, not Grapevine. Not a particularly zippy name but the food, ambiance, and service was close to perfect.

 

 

Above we started out by sharing a Tomato Caprese; tomato and mozzarella with capers and balsamic(two of the three tomato and cheeses have already been eaten); accompanied by warm bread. The restaurant doesn't have a liquor license so you bring your own wine of choice and they provide the glasses and uncork it for you. We brought a Volpolicella Ripasso Classico actually from the Vicenza area of Italy and it was excellent.

The main course was a shrimp and chicken dish for me sauteed in their classic pink vodka sauce ... soul food. The birthday girl had a veal Marsala accompanied by pasta in the same pink vodka sauce.

And we wrapped up the event with a creme brulee for me and a tiramisu for Jo ... you'll notice two sets of utensils for each dish for sharing.

Timely service, perfect food, good wine, shared with the love of my life ... nothing could be better ... and hey, $65.00 isn't a bad deal either.