Night on the Town

Last weekend the long-anticipated day finally arrived...the day we were to use those Jim Gaffigan tickets Matt gave me for my birthday last month! Our show started at 7:00 at the Borgata in Atlantic City, so my mom and sister came early to take Riker for the night so we could head down to cruise around the casino before the show.

The Borgata is gorgeous, but orange! ;-)

Matt's family joined us for the evening, and we had made a dinner reservation for the 7 of us at the casino's modern Italian restaurant, Fornelletto. The reservation process was a little nuts - they actually charge you $25 per person if you cancel or don't show up! - but it was totally worth it. The whole restaurant is set inside a wine "cellar", so you're eating among racks of aging wine bottles. Check out the wine list - it's made of cork! It's the little things. :)

The appetizers all sounded delicious, so our group decided to order a bunch of things and share. Starting with their calamari, covered in toasted pine nuts and fried basil. We are all suckers for calamari and pretty much have to order it wherever we go.

We also tried the wild mushroom and fontina crostini, which was earthy and delicious.

The shrimp scampi was also awesome - it was set over Israeli couscous, and the broth had a light tomato and white wine flavor. It was really different, but so good.

My favorite app, though, was the stuffed squash blossoms. I saw these things on Food Network a while ago (Jamie Oliver amazes me!), and have been intrigued ever since, so when I saw them on the menu I knew I had to try them. To make them, they take the flower off a blooming zucchini plant (which actually means the zucchini itself will never grow), then they stuff it with homemade burrata cheese (a softer, creamier version of mozzarella), dip it in tempura batter and fry it golden brown. Helllooo grease fest, but it was oh so worth it.

Three little blossoms split between a large group isn't that bad. ;-) We also all shared a salad with blackberries, avocados, oranges and other yummy things, but it went fast and unpictured. Can you tell we are appetizer fanatics?!

For my entree I wanted something light, so I skipped the brown butter gnocchi I was seriously eyeing, and went with a basil encrusted halibut with spring veggies.

It was a very good choice. The fish was perfectly cooked and the spring peas and asparagus were super flavorful. 

For dessert, we all split the cheesecake with Meyer lemon and the apple crostada with homemade gelato. I only had a small nibble of each since I was stuffed, but both were delicious.

Once our bellies were full, it was show time! 

This was seriously one of the funniest stand-ups I've ever seen. We were all cracking up with tears running down our faces. I can't wait to watch it again when it comes on TV!

We contemplated staying a while after the show to wander around and hang out, but our good friends Heather & Kevin were having a BBQ at their place and we wanted to stop by to see everyone, so we headed out right after the show. Which worked in our favor, because we were greeted by the most beautiful sunset!

I love wind turbines (call me crazy), so I loved this view.

It was such a great night, I was sad to see it end!

Off to do that work thang - only two more days until the weekend again!