The Jealous Crumpet

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Tag Archives: Huntsville restaurant week


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Blog Tour: LawLer’s Barbecue #DineHSV

Lawlers BBQOne of the main perks of being a food blogger, if not the main perk, is getting invited to restaurants to sample the fare and write about it. Sweet! Last weekend I was in food blogger heaven when I got to participate in the 2015 Food Blogger Tour with the Huntsville Visitor’s Bureau in preparation for Huntsville’s 5th Annual Restaurant Week.

This year’s restaurant week is bigger than ever, with over 60 restaurants participating.  Foodies can sample some of Huntsville’s best dishes at special prices. It will take place from August 14th to the 23rd, so make sure you mark your calendars.

Since the Alabama Tourism Department dubbed 2015 the Year of Alabama Barbecue, we appropriately started the blog tour at LawLers Barbecue in Madison.   feature7I’ve actually been to LawLers numerous times and always enjoy it, so I was very happy to see that it was part of the blog tour. feature6Upon arrival, I got to meet my fellow bloggers: half of whom I knew and half of who were new. (see what I did with the word play, knew vs new. ha ha! I’m Shakespeare reincarnated!)

Anyways, I got to meet:

Clint Cantwell with Grillocracy

Phillip Fryman with Southern FATTY

Christy Jordan with Southern Plate

Stephenie Walker with Rocket City Mom

Constance Smith with Cosmopolitan Cornbread

Katie Wright with Katie Actually

All of them are incredibly talented, so I was quite honored to be a part of the group.feature3LawLers is a decently sized restaurant that is always buzzing with customers.  It has a drive through window for the customer on-the-go, but I recommend eating inside as the restaurant is filled with fun, rustic decor and has a friendly, neighborly atmosphere. feature8feature4The staff is super friendly and quick. In fact, I ordered my food and it was brought to me so quickly I thought that it was someone else’s order, so I kept trying to give it to people standing nearby thinking it was theirs.feature10 I ordered one of LawLers Restaurant Week Specials, which was tender pulled pork, two sides (I went with green beans and mac & cheese), a roll, a large sweet tea (or unsweet for heathens) and a piece of Sara Lee pecan pie, all for only $10! It was a ton of food and it was all delicious! As a former Yankee, I am prohibited from commenting on the authenticity of the sweet tea, but several born and raised Southerner’s assured me that it was authentic and delicious.

LawLers also offers the Stuffie Tater, which is a “huge baked potato stuffed with butter, a dollop of sour cream, a layer of shredded cheese…then a hefty portion of tender juicy pork barbecue, followed by a sprinkling of more shredded cheese and some chives!” It was listed as one of the top 100 Alabama dishes to try before you die.

feature11LawLers also caters and has freeze-packed barbecue for customers that want the deliciousness available to them 24/7.feature9After you eat at LawLers, go vote for them to win the Alabama Barbecue Battle. They are neck and neck for first place so let’s help push them over the edge.

Website: Check it out, just to see the dancing pig!

http://www.lawlersbarbecue.com

Location:

544 Hughes Road Madison, AL 35758

Phone:

256-772-0590

Hours:

10:30 am to 8:00 pm Mon-Sat

Closed Sunday


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Blog Tour Grille 29 #dineHSV

feature8The city of Huntsville has a rich culinary culture combining southern fare with German and other international cuisines.

Despite this, Huntsville used to lack a restaurant culture that other cities enjoy. Sure, we had lots of franchises but if you had a yen from something other than Olive Garden or fast-food, your choices were limited. Luckily, in the last decade or so, Huntsville started having amazing restaurants that showed off its culinary potential.

For the last leg of our Food Tour for Restaurant Week, we visited one of these restaurants, Grille 29, which specializes in fine dining in a causal atmosphere.feature10Grill 29 is a sophisticated steak and seafood restaurant that was started by the Restaurant Partners, Inc. (RPI). It is located in the lovely Village of Providence Main and has a picturesque outdoor eating area, as well as stylish indoor accommodations. feature9We all assembled with cameras/phones/notebooks in hand, ready to document every aspect of each dish. Food bloggers can be a pretty annoying bunch. If you think that a friend that has to Instagram every morsel that goes into their mouth is frustrating, then try going to lunch with 7 of these people who do it professionally! Make sure you check out the other bloggers’ posts though. Everyone did a great job showing how great each restaurant is.

Clint Cantwell with Grillocracy

Phillip Fryman with Southern FATTY

Stephanie Walker with Rocket City Mom

Constance Smith with Cosmopolitan Cornbread

Katie Wright with Katie Actually

feature7We started the way every meal should begin (in my opinion) with muffins and mimosas. This is part of their brunch special, which is available every Sunday from 10am to 2pm. As an extra treat, we got to sample the super popular Chicken and Waffles, which was the perfect balance of salty and sweet. Then we enjoyed a chilly lump crab gazpacho. I’m a bit of a veggiholic, so I absolutely LOVED this dish.

Next, we had the main course: cheesy grits topped with shrimp and andouille sausage served in a cast-iron skillet. It doesn’t get much more southern than that.feature1Using a great deal of restraint, I only ate half of my meal because I knew there would be lots of desserts.  I was very glad I did.

We started with warm sour cream fudge cake. Stunning and delicious!feature5Next was the strawberry cheesecake. Each day there is a different flavor of cheesecake so you’ll never get bored. Is your mouth watering yet?feature3And last, but certainly not least, was the chocolate peanut butter truffle. Yum!!feature4

I should also mention that we all shared the desserts! We did not each eat a full meal and then three desserts in a row…

feature6See? Here we are sharing.

 This concludes a wonderful Blog Tour. Thank-you to the Huntsville Visitor’s Center for inviting me to participate, thank-you Jessica Carlton for being awesome (as usual) and making sure that everything ran smoothly, and thank-you to my fellow bloggers for making it a fun, informative and enjoyable experience. thebloggers

Website:

http://www.grille29.com

Location:

445 Providence Main Street
Huntsville, Alabama 35806

Phone:

(256) 489-9470

Hours:

Sunday Brunch – 10am
Sunday – Thursday – 11am – 9:30pm
Friday & Saturday – 11am – 10:30pm


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Blog Tour: Sady’s Bistro #dineHSV

Sadys BistroSo, recently I was asked to be part of a food blog tour for Alabama’s Restaurant Week.  I would travel to three separate restaurants with fellow food bloggers, eat, socialize and write about my experiences.  Yes, please!  Can we have an Alabama Restaurant Year, because I am all for that?

The first restaurant on the tour was Sady’s Bistro, which specializes in fresh sandwiches, soups, crepes and much more.  I’ve been there before, but I got confused about the location, so I parked super far away thinking I was actually quite close.  As I exited my car, I did a last-minute re-apply of lipstick, hair check (looking pretty good) and started walking in the humid, Alabama heat to the restaurant.  When I realized I was much farther than expected I picked up my speed to make it on time, and as I was entering the building I remembered that I left my camera in the car.  I now was sprinting back to the car (why did I wear these freakin’, uncomfortable shoes?) and could feel the sweat dripping down my face and my hair going rogue on me.

On the route back I cut through a small field, tripped in a hole and made it to the restaurant, out of breath, covered in sweat and grass with everyone waiting on me.  I’d like to say this not typical of me, but that would just be a lie.

Sady's Start

On the right is a Mango Lemonade, which I didn’t try but looked wonderful.

Despite my disheveled state, I was able to get seated and start meeting my fellow bloggers.  They are all super talented and super nice and I was kept quite entertained by Bo, Christie, Constance and Paula, who were on my end of the table.  We chatted and ate for TWO hours and I realized that this is the only way to do lunch.  Food, stories and ideas were all shared around the table and I was both enriched and rejuvenated by it. So often we get into a frantic pace of life and find ourselves eating fast food in the car thinking about our multitude of chores, rather than sitting down to a healthy meal, having a moment of joy and  gaining a new perspective on life.

Please check out the blogs posts of my fellow bloggers.  As I said, they are all talented and each blog will offer a different perspective of the experience.

Rocket City Mom: http://www.rocketcitymom.com, http://bowilliams.com

Southern Plate: http://www.southernplate.com

Foodie Army Wife: http://thefoodiearmywife.com

AKA Jane Random: http://www.akajanerandom.com

Dining Dragon: http://www.thediningdragon.com

Sady's BistroWe ordered our food, most of us opting for the restaurant week specials, which was $15 for a fresh soup or salad, a choice of entrée (either crepes or taquitos) AND a dessert.  Such a deal.  On recommendation of the super wonderful server (whom I’m sorry I don’t remember her name) I got the tomato soup with rosemary bread and then went straight for dessert with Crepes de Yogurt, drizzled with honey, chocolate and granola.  It was all wonderful.

Tomato Soup Sady's BistroI finished off with a giant cup of coffee because I have a pretty bad caffeine addiction.  The first step is admitting you have a problem. Step 1 done.

Crepes de yogurtThe staff was lovely, the food was tasty and the restaurant was a nice bright location with cheerful decor, so top stars for everything.

eI highly recommend giving Sady’s a try, and thank-you to the Huntsville-Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau for giving me the opportunity to participate in the blog tour.

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