Category: Food Talk

Work & Class: My New Favorite Place

LaurenLeave a comment

On Saturday night, while searching Yelp for a place to take my mom for her birthday dinner on Sunday, I came across Work & Class and exclaimed “Oh yeah, I forgot I’ve been wanting to try this place!”  I let Joey peruse the menu — which offers about six meat entrées + a bunch of sides to order a la carte — and just by looking at it, he declared it his “new favorite restaurant” and wanted to know why we couldn’t go that night as well as Sunday.

Well, come Sunday night, I think it was everyone’s “new favorite restaurant.”  I’ll be honest, it’s a small place, seating is mostly community style and it’s a little on the loud side — lots of voices in a small area will do that — but the wait staff is great, the drink menu is fun and the food is just all around amazing.  In other words, the reason this place has so many glowing five star reviews, is because it delivers.

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We showed up at 5:30 and though I totally expected to wait for a table, we were sat right away and were able to order off the Happy Hour menu before it ended at 6:00.  For the record, this is not a picture of the HH menu…

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Our waiter was awesome.  Mostly because my family can be a little indecisive at restaurants (and everywhere else…) and he was totally laid back and didn’t even pressure us to get a move on with the ordering.  Also, he suggested this amazing chile cheese fry special.  It was to die for!

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We ordered a smattering (I am experiencing a lot of joy from being able to use that word in a sentence!) of stuff.  We all tasted our own, raved about it, then tasted each others’ and raved about those too!  Everything was so unpretentious — 3 Bean Salad doesn’t sound like the most exciting thing ever — but executed perfectly!  I think between the five of us we tried the jerk chicken, the ceviche, the short ribs, the goat (<–Joey, the adventurous eater), cornbread, creamy polenta, 3 bean salad and mac and cheese.

Also, are you seeing that mini loaf of cornbread??  I think we all simultaneously said “awww!” when our waiter set it down on the table.  For the record, in addition to being the cutest thing ever, it was mouthwateringly good.

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Afterwards, despite everyone claiming to be stuffed, we ordered two desserts.  Which also come in small and large sizes.  The picture above is what the chocolate bread pudding looked like by the time we were done.  De-voured.  And the butterscotch pudding — which came out in the tiniest bundt pan known to man — was equally loved.

It’s official, I’m moving in here!

P.S. I may or may not have gone again on Tuesday night…

 

 

Current Breakfast Obsession: Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie

LaurenLeave a comment

Confession: I’m finicky about smoothies.  I love how green ones make me feel and they are great as a snack, but I hate having them in place of a meal.  Mostly because the idea of being hungry an hour after breakfast is so so annoying and that’s what usually happens if I drink a smoothie.  But now that it’s all hot and summery outside, a cold refreshing smoothie sounds so appealing in the morning, when it’s already 80 degrees in our AC-less house.

I already mentioned that I’ve been eating this regularly but I thought I’d add in another warm weather breakfast option and turns out it’s a smoothie.  And turns out it’s actually filling.  Plus there’s chocolate!  Say no more.

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The night before (I know, planning ahead isn’t as fun but hear me out), combine 1/4 cup oatmeal and 1/2 cup milk (I use almond) then stick it in the fridge overnight.  I just do this step in the blender because it means just pulling it out of the fridge and fitting it into the base in the morning.  Easy peasy!

Then, in the morning all you have to do is add 1 banana, a couple handfuls of spinach (you can’t taste it, I promise!), 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter (or whatever nut butter you want), 1 teaspoon of mini chocolate chips and a bit more almond milk (1 cup-ish), blend and sip.  And then you can try to avoid the breakfast-in-the-car trap that I inevitably fall into every time I make a smoothie.  It’s like a free pass to run late in the morning because “oh yeah, I can just drink this in the car on the way to work and it’ll save so much time!”  Don’t be like me.  But do make this smoothie!

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I hope you all have clear blue skies, sunshine and fun weekend plans.  My cousin Emily is in town for a few days and I’m hell bent on showing her what patio season is like in Denver.  And I’m thinking a trip to Little Man is definitely in the cards as well.

Happy Friday!