I always feel my most happy, movie-worthy romantic mood when I am pre-gaming for a date to a restaurant with my husband (by enjoying a glass of wine on the back deck on a cool, sunny evening). While the small, independent restaurant count in our new town is minuscule compared to the love of my twenties, Ghent, we have managed to find the few of which we've heard so far.
One of our first weekends here, we followed our glasses of wine on the back deck with a night of drinks and supper at The Front Porch. This restaurant will be my haven for seared, rare tuna and wasabi when I'm craving (often) that dish, but too lazy to go find the perfect tuna and actually do the searing. The two guys behind the bar were really friendly, funny, and even shared some guacamole with us. They made a mean vodka and soda, too...talented pair, they were.
While nothing will ever replace the hole in my heart that Luna Maya left when I moved away, Salsa's Mexican Cafe offers delicious, well, salsa, a hallmark of any decent Mexican restaurant...perfectly spicy and thin like I like (I can't forget to mention their mole sauce, either--perfectly sweet.). The atmosphere is average, but the waitstaff's friendliness, the huge 30-something ounce mug of Dos Equis for 4 smackers, and the fact that my husband and I get to have a bicycle race to and from the restaurant ( a mere two-minutes on two wheels around the corner) have given me a restaurant that I can sort of look forward to visiting and miss the old town a little less.
We took my parents to Blue Wind to try their daily wine tasting and enjoy some food after. While you have to know how the restaurant works and the routine, or you're admonished for seating yourself (no sign), expecting the wine tasting to be brought to your table (stand at the counter), it was my parents' first wine tasting, and the man who facilitated the tasting was knowledgeable and provided us a variety of wines to walk us from dry to sweet. Also, it was only $6 for us to conduct the tasting--what a cheap thrill! I ordered the seared tuna (of course), which came with a salad. My family ordered wraps, all healthy and delicious in appearance and taste. One of my favorite parts of this restaurant was the character of the bathroom--yes, the bathroom. Quotes about wine, beer, scotch (my favorite quote), etc were scrawled all over the glossy white brick in the room. I loved it. I will definitely go back and count myself lucky to have that place around...this restaurant would fit in well on the Colley Avenue stretch of restaurants that I miss so much.
I still miss dressing up on a weekly basis and going to nice restaurants in Norfolk and Virginia Beach (people in Leonardtown don't dress up much, I've noticed). Oh well--you can take the girl out of Virginia Beach, but you can't take the Virginia Beach out of her closet!
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