Lunch at A Tavola

After spending an hour or so at Krohn Conservatory, feverishly taking pictures of anything and everything, Antoine and I were hungry.  We debated on what to get but finally we decided pizza sounded good, as it usually does to us (especially me!) and I suggested A Tavola.  Antoine had never been and I had only been once, a little over a year ago.  We were happily seated right away at the pizza bar, right by the beautiful brick oven...

If you haven't been it's definitely a fun place to sit.  You get to watch them not only assemble your pizza but then skillfully slide it into the big brick oven.  It's crazy how fast it goes from being raw dough with toppings to a perfectly cooked pizza with lightly charred crispy crust!

We started off with drinks, which is a totally unusual thing for us.  Antoine and I are generally not the type to get drinks when we go out (unless our purpose is to get significantly tipsy...a la margaritas at Barrio during Midpoint).  But we figured what the hell!  It was our day of fun and they had a Rhinegeist porter that Antoine was eyeing, and once I saw "house-made ginger beer" I was sold...bring on the Ginger Beer Me!

A dark and stormy with house-made ginger beer...yum!  And potent!  This was the second drink I had had at A Tavola, the first was a Flinestone Pushup for my birthday last year and it was equally tasty.

For an appetizer we got a trio of sliders, beef, chicken and eggplant (with a side of goat cheese), which they kindly cut in half so we could share.  Surprisingly enough the eggplant was my favorite and the chicken was my least favorite...totally unexpected as I love chicken and I usually only half like eggplant.  For our pizza we got the brussels sprout with caramelized onion, fontina and artichokes!  Our waiter suggested we add some bacon and boy oh boy were we glad we did, it was delicious!  The caramelized onions practically melted, the bacon was heavenly and the still crisp brussels sprouts were a nice contrast to all the other rich flavors.

After lunch we were kind of tipsy and extremely full, but since we were so close to Holtman's and we don't get down to OTR very often decided it was necessary to walk a little farther up Vine Street for a donut...for later obviously.

Holtman's not only has an absolutely adorable sign, but some kickass donuts!  This time we decided on a chocolate frosted cream cheese filled donut and a blueberry fritter to share!

A little while later, once we were back home, I made myself a cup of coffee and Antoine and I dug into our donut/fritter!  Oh my, that blueberry fritter was so good!  I'm glad Holtman's isn't right down the street from us, because those could be habit forming for sure!

I've still got one more post lined up, but not sure when it will make an appearance yet.  If I'm not back before the weekend I hope yours is wonderful.  Try to stay warm out there!!