Saturday Night Shenanigans

Hey friends! Sorry it has taken a little bit to get this out to you. The flu-like virus that some have been getting in Charlotte, hit the Luck household. That thing was no joke, totally zapped any energy that I had. I really don't want to know what the actual flu is like, but I feel for anybody who has had it. Anyway, I'm back and have several great blogs planned for the upcoming month, but first Ken and I's date night a couple of Saturdays ago.

We got the opportunity to celebrate the marriage of a very close friend of ours and try one of the hottest new restaurants in Charlotte. It was such a great night spent together without the girls. Our friend recently got married in Costa Rica and had a small reception with friends and family at Vivace. We both love Samantha and she is a fun story we like to share as to how we both knew her in different ways. When Ken and I first started dating one of our first dates was to a Carolina Panthers game. It was at that game that Ken introduced me to several of his friends, one of whom was Sam. At the time I remembered I knew her, but I just couldn't place her. It took me over a week for me to figure it out. I asked Ken if she taught at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) and he said yes. That was how I knew her, she taught an adjunct sociology class I had to take to get my teaching license. It was funny how small the world seemed to me in that moment. Flash forward six years and the tables turned, last year I was her son's homeroom teacher {I remember him as a little boy coming one or twice to the class that Sam taught}. I think that is one of the things I enjoy most about my job is that sometimes people, who come to mean a lot me, kids get to be apart of my small world for a little while. Ken is old friends with Sam since he moved to Charlotte. We enjoyed our time at the reception and it was great catching up with Sam and Barry as well as other friends we don't always get to see, due to life just being so busy. The restaurant has a great view of Uptown Charlotte and Sam had awesome hors d'oeuvres for the party.

After the reception, Ken and I went to this new restaurant that had just opened in Charlotte called Hawkers. This restaurant started in Florida and there are several locations there and has expanded to Atlanta and now Charlotte, I believe Ken told me that they are also planning to open a location in Nashville too. Anyway, if you have read or seen Crazy Rich Asians {cannot recommend enough that you should do both), a hawker market might be a bit familiar to you. Essentially hawker markets are places that have many different stalls where a chef may specialize in one type of food or a particular dish and you can walk through and order from the different stalls. Hawkers, has taken this concept and built a restaurant. It has a collection of small plates, soups, ramen and noodle dishes on its menu. It also has a great cocktail and beer menu. When we went they were in the middle of their soft opening and it was packed! This might be due to the fact that Charlotte Agenda recently did a review of it. {If you live in Charlotte and do not subscribe to Charlotte Agenda you really should, they have a great list for food, events and other activities in the city. Ken loves it and has a running list of all the places he wants to eat.}

Anyway I digress, when we arrived at 8 p.m. there was a two hour wait for a table, we couldn't really couldn't do that as we had to get back to the girls, so we hung around the bar for about 15 minutes and were able to get two seats. We decided to split a couple of dishes and then order a particular dish for each of us to enjoy by ourself. We split the beef skewers {This was soooooooo gooooood!!!!!}, and pork belly bao buns. I ordered the wontons for myself and Ken ordered the beef stir fry. I think it is already understood that we really enjoyed the skewers, in fact Ken commented how he could probably had about 3 more orders of them {one order is 3 skewers}. They were really tender and whatever the marinade is, it is delicious. The bao buns, weren't quite to my taste, the pork belly had an interesting rub on that I think may have had cinnamon and sugar on it. So I really wanted to try the wantons {unfortunately Ken couldn't have them due to a food allergy} and they did not disappoint. They were crispy and stuffed full of tasty shrimp and chicken and paired with a nice sweet chili sauce. Ken enjoyed the stir fry but it is heavy on mushroom and watercress so if either of things don't appeal, you might want to try something else. We will go back soon to try more items on the menu!

Side note, the weather was so nice this weekend after all the rain! I'd love to hear what everyone is doing for the spring! I'm already shopping and have my eye on lots of cute sandals and swimsuits for trips coming up. I'll share for sure with you all.