Showing posts with label Restaurants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Restaurants. Show all posts

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Etta's Lunchbox Cafe
After two days of snow in April, we were more than ready to enjoy some more spring-like weather today! Other than a trip to buy an Easter egg coloring kit, we had nothing else on the agenda, so we decided to take roam the "hills" in search of a new place to eat. I have always wanted to check out Etta's Lunchbox Cafe, but for one reason or another, we just hadn't made it out there yet. I am so pleased that we finally discovered this little jewel!! Driving through the little town that it was closest to, I was starting to have second thoughts, but when we pulled up and saw a bunch of animals around the side of the cafe, I knew Ben would be thrilled no matter what the food tasted like!
When we walked in, Bob Marley was playing and there were all sorts of paintings and drawings on the walls (for sale). There was a large back room they called a "lunchbox museum", but it was $2.50 to enter and Ben wasn't interested, so we skipped it. In another room, they had tons of lunchboxes on the walls for sale and it was interesting to see a few familiar ones from when I was a child!
Besides the fact that the owner was a total hippie and as nice as could be, my favorite part about the little cafe was that all of their ingredients were fresh, natural and local (whenever possible). After going back and forth for what seemed like forever, we finally decided on the pepperoni pizza. The dough and the sauce were both made from scratch and it was, hands down, the best pizza I've had in the Hocking Hills! While we waited for it to cook, we went outside and checked out all of the animals. There were baby goats that were only six days old, llamas, chickens and horses. I would definitely eat there again and would recommend it to any one who is visiting or lives in the area!

Monday, December 8, 2008

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF MARCELLA'S...





Last night we went to Marcella's at Polaris for Maggie's last dinner in Columbus before she leaves for Las Vegas. It was a free-for-all ordering frenzy and we ended up stuffed to the unbutton-your-top-button extreme! Well worth it, though! We ordered lots of cheese, (taleggio being my absolute favorite, with the goat cheese and pecorino not far behind) and salami, several delicious pizzas (roasted eggplant with ricotta cheese was my favorite), chicken parmesan and meatballs. We couldn't let Maggie leave Columbus without ordering profiteroles for dessert one last time, so we all made sure to help her finish them! There isn't much I wouldn't do for the pistachio ones...they're that good!

Afterwards, Maggie and I went to my mom's to watch Deperate Housewives and we made our own version of lemon(y) martinis. I was inspired by Mitchell's Pinapple Ginger drink from Jamie's birthday dinner last week. We grated fresh giner and mixed vodka and pinapple juice together and shook with ice. We strained it into martini glasses and got a bit tipsy. We also tried another variation of fresh squeezed lemon with cheap, dry champagne and a whopping dollop of lemon sorbet all in a martini glass. I'm a lemon fan, so I could drink either one all night long...however, it only took me 2 1/2 to spill some on the carpet and pass out with my clothes from earlier still on!

Have a safe trip, Maggie! You will be greatly missed...but I promise to take you up on that vacation very soon! Go out to Vegas and blow it up girl!

Oh, the bittersweet goodbyes... Why do all the good girls move away???? ;(