Brasserie 19

Last week my husband and I decided to have a date night on a Wednesday after working around the house for a whole exhausting week trying to find new painters, hanging paintings and making sure our house becomes a home...

So my husband tells me he has read about this new place on River Oaks Shopping Center called Brasserie 19, we pull up the menu and are very impressed with it. We are excited and as a teenager I get ready 2 hours before our date to make sure everything goes perfect!

And he head out to the restaurant, our reservation was at 8:00 we get there promptly only to experience a mob of people standing around the hostess podium and looking for a place to stand while waiting, 15 mins delay on reservations. We get lucky and score a couple of seats in the bar we order some champagne and start chatting while we wait. 15 mins later we get seated, our waiter was very pleasant and attentive! Great first impression, their wine list comes in an iPad app that immediately impresses my husband!

We order stone crab claws cocktail which was so fresh that it was hard not to lick your fingers after you are done! 6 claws and a bowl of only lump crab meat with onion vinaigrette!




My husband ordered some frog legs, that were to die for! Sob well seasoned and the sauce that accompanied them was outstanding!




Our wine cane as soon as we ordered it, not with the correct temperature but oh well, my mojito kept me chilled....

Our entrees were the halibut dish that was cook to perfection paired with spring veggies sautéed in a light butter sauce. And for him the hen prepared with mashed potatoes and spinach, one word AMAZING!

We ordered a berries tart and banana bread pudding for dessert, we were not impressed.... Not that they were bad but not what we expected after such a nice meal!

The restaurant is a little pricy, but it is worth every penny! Great atmosphere, awesome vibe and very Chic and trendy! Def the place to be seen!

I will go back gladly to Brasserie 19 and I will recommend it to everyone I know!

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Vegas Adventure, Golden Nugget

My husband and I bought a package on a benefit event earlier this year that included 4 first class tickets to Vegas, a stay in the Golden Nugget, some gambling credits and food vouchers. So we are very excited and set it to go with our bffs....

We all get to the airport, very excited, get in the plane, order some bloody marys and start our adventure! We land in Vegas we are received by the hotel limo, we enjoyed some champagne on the way there. So far so good, we registered ourselves in the VIP lounge, where they meet us with food vouchers and indicate us the procedure to get our players cards and proceed to grab drinks at Grotto while we wait fr our rooms to be ready.

The food at Grotto was good, it was nothing out of this world, but the Italian flavor was very simple and quite nice; our drinks are delivered promptly and by the time we are done we need go into our rooms. The rooms have been redecorated, very modern and spacious. The only but we had was that there's no refrigerator, we were on a Suite and we had no place to put waters, or mid night soft drinks that is not worth ordering from room service at 5 am! Another thing that caught our attention is the fact that the room are extremely dark, and that the shower is extremely slippery, my husband had a near death experience the first night!

Anyways, we head down to the pool and it is not only extremely crowded, but it has empty glasses and dirty napkins flying everywhere! Of course nobody seemed to care since we had people with Styrofoam coolers with cans of beers! Smokers EVERYWHERE, and service that was nowhere to be found. We retreat ourselves to "private pool" and the service is not better, they do not have any premium alcohol, and the description of the drinks is not accurate with the labels of rum/vodka/ etc they use!

Fast forwarding to the next day in the same pool my husband gets attacked by a very loosy bone women, that after clearly being rejected by my husband and our friend keeps trying to become all touchy touchy with them... I approach the pool, asked the guys to leave and she proceeds to say my husband is a pus** for passing out on her.... DISGUSTING! Next day we were at the Mandarin Oriental's pool, classy, service was great and it was so much more fun!


We ordered room service, it clearly states on the menu that it comes with a bottle of Mumm Champagne, the food comes and we get a bottle of KORBEL! And all I can think is this for real!?!

On top of that we had so many problems with the hostess, she was not helpful at all, extremely rude and with the worst attitude I have ever seen on anyone in the industry service!

Anyways, needless to say we decided to spend as little time as possible in the hotel, and I obviously will never go back to the Golden Thugget!

Santa Monica...

A few years back my husband and I were on our way to Bora Bora and because of some visa issues we had to spend the night in Santa Monica, we went to Expedia and found a hotel to stay, we had never been here and had no clue what to expect. Well, we were pleased with our choice, the Huntley was exceptional!

It is a very contemporary hotel, small, very personable, the staff was so nice an accommodating, we felt like home immediately! The lobby provides very comfortable seats to chat after dinner or just wait for a some friends... The room are very chic and modern. Everything was extremely clean and in perfect condition, the bed and sheets made our sleep feel like heaven!
Our favorite part of the hotel is the roof top bar and restaurant, The Penthouse! It was amazing! Very hip spot for dinner, make sure to have reservations ahead of time, the service was amazing, the quality of food outstanding and they have a very broad menu, but the most important of all, the view is breathtaking.

Perfect for a romantic sunset with a nice bottle of champagne!

You can walk to so many places from this hotel! We strolled down the street and took a walk on the beach, followed by some shopping at Third Street Promenade, where you can find pretty much anything you need. Bottom line I definitely recommend anyone to stay in this hotel! it is amazing!

Ready for some Vino

When in Rome.... That was my way of thinking this past week while we celebrated my husband's birthday in Napa/San Francisco area.... We spent amazing four days in the valley and another one enjoying what the windy city has to offer... And boy it's hard to make up your mind about where to go, but we decided to visit the Embarcadero area, went to our favorite place to enjoy the view of the bridge and indulge in the thousands of organic products that San Francisco has to offer.

We were a little disappointment when we tried to find out our romantic champagne and caviar lounge, but instead we had drinks at the Wine Merchant, specialty wine retailer that specializes in wines native to the region that you would not find in any big national wine stores.




We love the set up of the store, you walk in to blocks and blocks of bottles of wine, but at your right you have a nice bistro setting, weather you would like to taste a wine before purchasing or enjoy a light lunch by the bar, the environment is filled with energy and knowledge of wine!




Of course we decided to have a bite to eat while pairing it with some local grape juice, our selection, home made pate de campagne with pickled mushrooms and pickles; accompanied by freshly grounded mustard and warm oven baked bread! It was simply perfect. The prices of their food and wines are very reasonable, we started sampling the rose champagne, followed by a Cabernet franc and sealed with a glass of Pinot noir. As we are just starting with our blog, I did not wrote the names down, of course a young mind, how is going to forget any details?.... Well, I am buying a notepad immediately to make it my traveling companion from now on!




In any case, if you are in San Francisco and want to have a chance to try lots of local wines, buy organic products and walk around, this is the right place for you! Casual, laid back and fantastic!

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"G" is for Great!

While in Napa this last week Daniel and I had an opportunity to enjoy a gourmet dinner cooked in our cottage by Chef Gary and a wine pairing hosted by Garret owner and wine maker G Wines, limited quantities of an amazing quality wine! We started our culinary adventure with the Sauvignon Blanc chilled to perfection that matched our potato croquette with pickled shrimp in a light creamy sauce... Cooked to perfection, an amazing balance between silky mashed potatoes and a shrimp lightly marinated with home made mayonnaise and green onions sauce. Of course we had to enjoy our bite in the terrace overlooking the valley, it was just too spectacular to pass! 

 

Before we got too comfy dinner started in the main dinning area, we were surprised by two main courses:

Deep fried chicken breast inside out! I know it sound very very ordinary, but I happen to able to see how it was prepared and Chef Gary had the meats in a pot filled with warm water and a pump that kept the water's temperature rising to keep the meat from spoiling and maintain the juices in a way that when cooked the temperature change will not be as shocking, I know what you are thinking: "yea, right"... but trust me it has been the juiciest chicken I have ever tried! It was served with mashed fennel and sprinkled with it's own juices, just superb!

The second entre, was a petite filet cooked to perfection! It was seared in butter over the stove and finished in the burning hot oven for a couple of minutes! Again this meat went through the same process of maintaining the temperature through the cooking progress. We had mustard puree and pickled cucumbers that were to die for! Of course nothing but the best for their gold label wine! We finished our evening with a delicate coconut demiglace topped with dried mangos, just perfect!!

If you are in Napa and you are thinking to plan a special night please give them a call, they can set something cute for you, also they are relocating their tasting room and gourmet kitchen services into the Stagg's Leap region... Their website is still under construction, but you can send them an email for information and availability, we are new members of their wine club, we can not pass the opportunity to get our hands into non-commercial wines!

Sweets Anyone?

This past week we were in San Francisco and we stopped by my favorite pastiserie ever! MIETTE!
Ladies, if you ever decide to stop by any of their stores you are in for a treat... They bake the most delicate cookies in the whole wide universe, not to mention they have amazing flavors like lemon and lavender shortbread, without leaving out the traditional peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies!

They also treat us with some amazing little bites called, Salty Licorice they also offer the Sweet Dutch Licorice, intrigued by the salty ones?... they describe them as follows:
"We import our mixture of licorice from Holland where licorice is an obsession and an art. The saltiness derives from ammonium chloride rather than sodium chloride so the taste is distinct. Some pieces taste like molasses, others are slightly salted with pepper undertones and a few are very salty and an acquired taste. "
Want more?

Well, we have saved the best for last... home made Macarons! In many many flavors, they are so delicate, you will have to be careful of not pressing them too hard! And the list goes on and on, these are only a few of their amazing delicatessen! Visit their website for online orders, I promise you, you will not be disappointed!


Gentlemen, this a wonderful present for special ladies; mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, their packaging and girly attention to detail will make the ladies smile!

Welcome Fellow Travelers!

My name is Veronica, my husband is Daniel, for years we have been talking about starting our own traveling blog, we have kept journals and cel phone notes on restaurants, wines, hotels, spas, and almost anything you can think of, and finally we are ready to share them with you!

We want to create a community that not only blogs about traveling, we want to bring style into your trips, we want to share tips, adventures, and pictures to make sure every trip you take is AMAZING!

Ladies write us about your favorite spas' and shopping sites, gentlemen tell us where the best golf courses are or where to find that perfectly cooked steaks! Questions, suggestions, anything can be email to us at:
champagneandasuitcase@gmail.com

We are eager to hear from you!
Cheers!
V