Marathon Date Night - SER, Kapnos, Water & Wall, Willow

So many restaurants have been popping up around us and I've been anxious to check them out. Date nights aren't as frequent these days so I planned a marathon date night to hit many spots and see what we like!

Our first stop was SER to watch the derby and enjoy some pre dinner apps and bevs. The food is Spanish but not tapas! They have neighborhood hh every day between 4-7pm and basically all the food and drink items are $7. Mark noticed that all the beers were either local or from Spain which we thought was interesting and I enjoyed that they offer sangria with cava, rose or white...the rose sangria was a delight! I loved it here and will absolutely come back for a date or with Mason. They had a large patio and there were several couples with babies having an early dinner. I always feel better bringing Mason to restaurants after I've seen others doing it.

I love Chef Mike Isabella so I picked his new restaurant Kapnos Taverna as our dinner spot. The menu was very similar to the 14th street location but additionally offered a raw bar. Mark and I have been getting into oysters lately so we started with those and shared 4 other dishes. The food was great but we both agreed that this was not going to be a regular date night spot. The decor felt very industrial and the dishes came out so fast we were done within 45 minutes. I think I'd come back with a group of friends or to check out the brunch menu. I'm also excited about the addition of a patio later this spring!

We headed to Water & Wall near Virginia Square metro for dessert. This restaurant has actually been around since 2013 but I only recently heard about it. I had the Peanut Butter Chocolate Tart...so good I ate nearly this whole thing myself:

This definitely seemed like a place to have a nice lingering dinner and I'd love to come back and check out the full menu.

We probably didn't need it but we stopped for a night cap at Willow which is "our spot." Pre baby and even when Mason could sleep in a carrier, we would go in frequently for the Nosh menu at the bar.  The staff even calls Mason the "Willow Baby" because I went into labor hours after having dinner there! Anyway, we caught up with the bartending staff and enjoyed our last drink.

All in all a great night and I'm excited about the expanding culinary scene in Arlington!