Date Night in Ballston

Back in May, Mark and I checked out SER for drinks and have been anxious to get back for dinner. We've had a few sitters relocate lately so it seemed like a good time to try a new sitter and have a neighborhood date (just in case!). As a side note, I have to say that I love Urbansitter to find sitters. It's linked through Facebook and matches you with sitters in your extended network. Since I'm a member of MONA, it recommends sitters that other MONA moms have used. This indirect referral makes me feel much more comfortable about having a stranger in the house with Mason and Barney!

Anyway, on Saturday we headed to SER for dinner and were seated on the patio. I ordered the cava sangria after having a sample last time and was quite pleased with the portion!

It was just as delicious as I remembered! We shared a raw bar platter to start and I selected two appetizers - the market salad and Gambas al ajillo for dinner. The market salad was seasonal vegetables with lobster and a citrus dressing and it was the perfect refreshing summer dinner! Mark seemed "eh" about his braised pork dish and I would same the same about my shrimp dish.  I still think we'll come back and give it another whirl!

Mike Isabella opened another restaurant in Ballston - hooray!  Pepita Cantina is really more of a drinking establishment than restaurant as the name indicates.  The food menu is about a quarter of the drink menu.  It's a pretty small space and was quite busy since it just open the week prior but we decided to stay for a drink and check out the scene.  We both got the pepita margarita and Mark got a smoked salt rim, which I would describe as 'less salty tasting' salt.  The drinks were decent and the service was slow but we enjoyed this a little corn nut snack that the waiter left.

On the way out, we scoped out the outdoor seating area and decided we'd need to come back and lounge there at a non-peak time.  We also noticed that Mr. Isabella is opening ANOTHER restaurant next to Pepita!  Good for him and I love his presence in our neighborhood.

Relationships with bartenders are among the most important in life, so we stopped by Willow to say hi and enjoy dessert and a night cap! We came home to our new sitter, a sleeping baby and happy pup - thanks Urbansitter for another great referral!