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So, you know it's beach week. It's also our first anniversary on Sunday! Whoa. Time flies. You'll be hearing about this first year, doncha worry.
First, though, I need to tell you about our anniversary plans! We THINK we're going to go to this fabulous place, Salt, on the island where we're staying, because I'm fully obsessed with it. We've been twice before, and every time it's really incredible.
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And food in Hawaii.
We miss it.
While we were on Kauai a few weeks ago, we mostly shopped at the grocery store nearby and cooked in our fabulous rental house. It was a blast, and we all loved cooking together and eating family dinners and playing games every night. We DID, though, go to a few restaurants, and loved every place we got to try.
On our very first morning on the island, before we had any groceries, we had breakfast here, The Garden Cafe at Common Ground. It was recommended to our friends, and we are SO glad we got to go there. We love Love LOVED it.
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It's the end of summer, y'all.
Anyone going to the beach this weekend? I'm not, but I'm SO TOTALLY STOKED for a 3 day weekend. You don't even know. We're making sushi tonight for our supper club, and I'm basically just counting down the hours until I can GET. ON. THAT.
Making sushi is my favorite.
But, since it's the last weekend of summer and all that I thought it might be fun to tell you about a beach restaurant! Sound good?
I ate at Quigley's Pint and Plate wayyyyyy back in June when I was there for a bachelorette weekend with my sister and 3 bffs. We are on Pawley's Island in SC, and it was basically the best weekend ever. For our last meal before heading home we ate at this fun little pub!
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We went to the beach last weekend.
From Wednesday night - Sunday morning, and it was probably the best time we've had all year.
Not really, we've had a pretty great year. This trip, though...it was kind of our last do-nothing-hurrah before 5 weeks of very intense class/work/yoga/wedding planning. We have a LOT to do in the next month, so escaping it all for a few days was exactly what we needed.
We went to Sullivan's Island, SC, and, naturally, ate a lot. I know - shocking.
We love Sullivan's - it's right outside of Charleston, only three hours away from home, and is quiet without being boring. We were SUPER bummed to leave on Sunday, so I'm spending the week filtering through pictures of all the food we ate to show you! FUN, and it also means that around 9:30 in the morning I get ready for lunch. Excellent.
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I went to a famous person's restaurant!
I'm pretty sure it was my first one.
Allow me to introduce you to Marc Murphy's Landmarc (the one in the Time Warner Building). I went a few months ago when I was in New York for music work I do. I didn't know where we were going in advance, just had a name and address in my inbox and told the cab where I needed to be.
Then, THREE MONTHS LATER, I realized one of my favorite CHOPPED judges owned the place.
Whatever, I'm slow.
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Oh, this place.
Jay and I ate here when we were in Baltimore a few months ago for work, and we met my college roommate, Jenny here. Hi Jenny! This place came to us as a recommendation from another work friend, who, to be fair, had never been there.
First, our experience was decent because we were with an old friend and drinking margaritas.
If those two things had not been in place, though....meh, at best. The interwebz seems to agree with me - this isn't the worst place on earth, but I definitely didn't feel great the morning after eating here. Yuck.
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Oh guys.
I waited to tell you about this because the pictures just made me so wistful for everything about this place.
This is Gyu-Kaku, a Korean BBQ chain that calls itself a Japanese BBQ chain that has a location 2 blocks from where we stayed a few weeks ago.
In Japan, this style of eating is called Korean BBQ. In America, it's called Japanese. I with I knew why, really. I think maybe something to do with politics? Really and truly - the owner of the sushi restaurant I used to work at told me one time that so many Chinese restaurants have Tokyo/Japan/Hibachi in the name because Americans currently are more favorable towards Japan compared to other Asian countries.
Fascinating? Boring? Wrong? We can all make up our own minds about that.
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I ate at this place.
It was slightly controversial - I loved parts of it, I didn't love parts of it, and the interwebz seems to agree with me.
Ellendale's in Nashville is not for everyone - that is what I have deduced from my experience there.
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We super duper like this place.
Mac's Speedshop - the non-naked-waitress's answer to Hooters.
Or something.
It's a biker bar, but one that people go to after church with their children to drink sweet tea. Kind of like how people take whole soccer teams to Hooters, which has baffled me for years.
See the similarity? Maybe not.
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I love this place SO much.
You know that we go to the beach every year at Oak Island, NC. You do know, we talked about it. See?
You also know that one of my BFFs from high school, Jessica, goes there a ton because her parents live there, and I try to tag along whenever I can.
So, I love this place. We've been going to the beach since I was six, and we discovered this restaurant, Turtle Island, just a few years ago. I've been there three or four times now, and it never lets me down.
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Last year my 3 BFFs and I went to Charleston for the weekend. We were lucky enough to be able to use a friend's condo, and we NEEDED to leave this here town we live in.
Sometimes you just need to leave, right? On that same trip, we ate at Poe's Tavern, which I told you about here.
On our first night there, though, we went out for dinner to celebrate my friend Addie's birthday. We went here, to Water's Edge. It was delicious! It was warm enough that we were able to sit outside, the food was lovely, and the service was great.
That's enough for a whole review, right?
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Monday. It's here!
Sigh.
So, you remember last year when I went to Nashville with my BFF Heather for a singing tournament that I direct? Of course you do. I wrote about it here.
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A new restaurant is in town.
It's a chain, but only kind of.
The Local Taco started alllllll the way in Tennessee (not really), and just opened a location in Greenville! I've been there three times now, and I LIKE IT A LOT. Also, I ate leftovers from dinner last weekend yesterday for lunch and I LIKED THEM A LOT.
Seriously. This place is great. A manager, Kris, emailed and asked if we'd like to come write a review and duh, we did. I had already been and wanted to take Jay, so we went for an early dinner last week before we went to see my sister sing the national anthem at a hockey game. Because you care about things like that.
Local Taco is a Mexican-fusian restaurant, if I had to call it anything. Their menus are different at each of their locations based on local favorites. They use local ingredients, too, which I love.
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When we decided to get married, we also decided that we should eat a $200 dinner and pretend we were those type of people who could, like, totally spend $200 on a meal and not think twice about it.
Not really, but that's what happened anyways.
High Cotton in Greenville, SC, is wonderful. REALLY wonderful. We've been there several times for different occasions, and I don't think we've EVER had anything we don't like.
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Over Labor Day weekend we went to Boone, NC with some friends Jay knows from his old life in DC. We had a blast, we ate, we drank, we cooked, and we heard lots of stories about what a terrible comedian Jay was.
More on that later, though.
Also while we were there, our friends requested that we find a great BBQ place since there aren't tons of great places to get pulled pork where they live.
Or, any, according to them.
So, we found this place. Bandana's Bar B Que and Grill.
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It's a waterway. With boats parked.
It's breezy. There are seagulls.
It's a building. With a really big porch.
It's a restaurant.
It's a bar.
It's Dead End Saloon in Oak Island NC and MAN, did we love this place. My friend Jessica's parents live near Southport NC, about 15 minutes away, and my family has been vacationing on Oak Island for years and years. I doubt we'll ever go anywhere else.
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