Taste of Adams Avenue

Yesterday Todd and I went to the Taste of Adams Avenue. I was sort of indifferent about it when Todd told me about the event, but he seemed really interested, so he got tickets and we went. Todd mentioned to his work friend Cassie last week and she and her husband Dan were interested, so we met up with them down there.

First we went to pick up our punch tickets and maps.


Then we stopped at Blind Lady Ale House for a piece of marquerite pizza.  Sorry for the blurry photo.

It was okay. The sauce was salty with no tangy-ness. I like my pizza sauce a little bit tangy.

Next was Mariposa Ice Cream. I had been looking forward to this one because I've heard such good things about this all natural homemade ice cream store.

I got coffee and coconut... both delicious! The owners were super-generous too. They didn't punch our card and said we could keep going back for more ice cream during the taste event.

Up next was Tam's Thai and Laotian Food. The owners were super-nice.

We got treated to sticky rice, egg roll, and egg-wrapped shrimp. It was yummy!

Next was DiMille's Italian Restaurant. They were very generous with their taste and we got to taste many different dishes.

There was artichoke pizza, meatball in marinara sauce, pesto pasta, tomato cream sauce pasta, rigatoni, and chicken marsala.

Next was Cafe Cabaret.

They served some sort of bean dip with cheese in it, with pita bread strips. Todd skipped it because there was cheese. It was okay.

Next was Kensington Grill. We had heard such good things about this restaurant that we were really looking forward to this!

They served lamb meatballs in kumquat chile marmalade. It was delicious!

Next was Kensington Cafe.

They served some sort of tortilla rollup with soyrizo, avocado, and potato inside.

Next was Burger Lounge! Oh I believe you've seen many Burger Lounge burgers on this blog before!

But the story turns sad here, at least for Todd.  They gave us cheeseburger sliders, good sized ones too.  But no burgers without cheese, so Todd was totally out of luck.  He had a couple of cheese-less bites off my burger, but that only made him miss the Burger Lounge even more.  Poor guy!  The restaurant should have prepared for the cheese-haters!

Next was Bleu Boheme, a French restaurant. This place had a great atmosphere, with a huge black chalkboard on one side of the wall.

The black things were escargot! This was a first for me, eating snails on top of a bed of blue cheese mashed potatoes. That is, the snails were new to me, not mashed potatoes! I was the only person in our party of four who tried the escargot. Everyone else was too chicken. But surprisingly, it did NOT taste like chicken! It was soft, a little bit chewy, like a mushroom.

Next was Ponce's Mexican Restaurant. They served a carnitas taco, which I gave to Todd because I was getting full, plus he didn't get to have a burger at Burger Lounge.


We took a break to wait for the trolley to take us down the street to the next restaurant.

But then we waited and waited and the trolley never came, so we kept walking.

After a stop at the 7-Eleven for a slurpie, next up was El Zarape. We love the other El Zarape in North Park, so we knew we'd love it here.

Mmm... carne asada and chicken asada! I gave Todd my chicken.

Next up was The Incredible Cheesecake Company! With a name like that, who could resist??

Todd doesn't eat cheese, unless it's with sugar, so he took two pieces, LOL. I had this white chocolate raspberry piece, while he had this kind plus a piece of pumpkin cheesecake. Major delish!

Next was Jayne's Gastropub. We had heard good things about this place too.

They served us traditional bangers and mash: grilled Irish pork sausage, garlic mashed potatoes with onion gravy. By now we were pretty darn full and couldn't eat it all.

Next was Senor Mangos. We got pineapple mango smoothies!


Next up was Twiggs. We love the Twiggs in North Park, so this was a no-brainer. Plus, they made our cake for our 10th wedding anniversary party on a boat and delivered the cake all the way to the boat, so they get my two thumbs WAY up! Plus, Todd used to play at the Twiggs open mic, and that's how he met up with Matt and played in the band The Northstar Session.

I had some kind of lemon cream cake.


Todd had chocolate cake with real cinnamon icing.


Next was Cafe 21. I ate half of a ravioli thing with mushrooms and egg in it. Todd skipped it!


Our last stop was Lestat's. We had some iced coffee and brownie bites here.

There's a funny story here. A couple of years ago, Todd was playing music there and took a break outside, when he was openly disparaged for being blonde by a group of vampire-looking cape-wearing people. True story!

Well, I'm exhausted just blogging about this! It was a super-fun time and one of the best "Taste Of" that I've ever attended! It was doubly fun because Cassie and Dan came with us!

After we went home and rested our tummies, we went to Miramar Lake for a workout. I mean really, we would have been kind of disgusting if we ate all that food and just sat around on the couch.

I ran for the first time since my half marathon on 6/6 and I felt great. My legs didn't hurt at all. I ran four miles in 44 minutes, taking it easy.


Todd got to ride his new (used) bike for the first time and he was super-excited! I saw him at one point and took a photo.

He went for over 13 miles. You can read how he felt about it on his blog here.

I finished running first and saw a great opportunity for a sunset photo.


Todd after his bike ride.


So today, after a six month long absence from Daily Plate, I'm back on the wagon. Need to lose a few pounds, LOL. I had planned this all along, so the Taste of Adams Avenue was sort of my last hurrah for a while. Today I started tracking calories again. It worked for me last year when I lost about 5 lbs before I fell off the wagon b/c of vacation and holidays. Wish me luck... because we all know how much I love food. :p