Senate

My birthday (you know, that thing that happened a month ago but I was too sick to post about it until now) fell on a Thursday this year, which meant no celebrating day of with Antoine since he was still in Phoenix.  Bummer.  But no worries, this lady didn't spend her birthday sitting at home in her pjs!  Nope, my sis and brother-in-law came to the rescue and took me out to dinner.  We decided to go to one of the new-ish places downtown that was on my list to try (you may remember #9 from my list of 27 things before 28).  I decided to go with the Senate, known for their gourmet hot dogs and duck fat fries.

Now, the Senate is one of the several trendy restaurants that have popped up on Vine St (in OTR) over the last couple years.  I've always heard really good things about it and the other surrounding restaurants (A Tavola, Taste of Belgium, etc.), but I've always worried about going.  Trendy restaurants like that have a habit of being a little intimidating to types like me, making me feel out of place, like I'm not cool enough to be there. Like I'm back in school and I'm trying to sit at the "cool table" while wearing my marching band uniform (I wasn't actually in band, just choir).  But you know, I had absolutely no reason to stress!  The second we walked in, the very friendly manager/host welcomed us and was very accommodating even though there were no tables available.  We opted to sit at the bar, and the bartenders couldn't have been nicer.  And the food, well, let's get to that...

Christian opted for some duck fat fries to start.  They were quite tasty, but not as tasty as the poutine...

The poutine.  Umm, yeah, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.  It was so very delicious!  I think I made an "mmm" sound every time I took a bite!

We all decided to go for a hot dog.

Michelle went for the Trailer Park, a hot dog wrapped in bacon, topped with american cheese, coleslaw and crushed Grippo' s BBQ chips.

I think Christian had the hot dog of the day, but unfortunately I can't remember what it was.

I got the Lindsay Lohan, yeah, that's what it's called.  An all beef hot dog with goat cheese, caramelized onions and mixed greens tossed in balsamic.  I can't say YUM loud enough.  It was insanely good and insanely messy.  When I go back I'm going to have a hard time getting something besides the poutine and the Lindsay Lohan.

Even though Michelle and I were incredibly full, we thought we really should get a dessert...since it was my birthday and all!   We chose the chocolate and bourbon bread pudding, on the recommendation of one of the bartenders.  It was super rich, almost too rich.  But it was warm and drizzled with caramel sauce, so I was a happy lady in the end.

A special thanks to my awesome sister and brother-in-law for a great birthday dinner.  They're the best!