Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Birthday Dinner at AGR

As many as you know, I just had a birthday and boy was it a great one.  Most birthdays I hype up to be such an action-packed fun filled day, and get disappointed when they don't turn out just as expected. Instead I end up spending my special day on the couch watching documentaries on bulimia- no joke, this is how I spent my birthday last year. So, this year I decided to expect nothing special, and just be pleasantly surprised when good things happened.  Mr. T and I decided to not to gifts for each other this year, just a card and dinner.

We made reservations at American Grocery, a restaurant I've been wanting to go to for the last year.  We arrived for our reservation half an hour early so we stopped in to West End Wine to have a glass of wine (which turned into a bottle) before dinner.  We had never been to West End Wine before, but I was highly impressed.  Since it's a wine shop, their prices are unbeatable.  They have several tables inside where you can sit and enjoy your purchase, and offer complementary Gold Fish- a perfect accompaniment to any Pinot or Cab. They even offer delivery services from several restaurants around the area. GENIUS.


 After our $18 bottle of wine (that would have been at least $35 at any downtown restaurant) we walked on over to American Grocery.  The concept of American Grocery Restaurant has always intrigued me, the majority of all of their ingredients come from local farms and artisan producers-something the town of Greenville was missing downtown until AGR's arrival.

We started off with cocktails, I had the AGR Champagne Cocktail a simple mixture of champagne and St. Germain, two of my favorite things to drink combined. Then for our appetizer we tried the Charcuterie and Cheese Plate.


As for entrees, I filled up too much on gold fish so I opted for a salad.  My salad had local duck egg, duck prosciutto, frisée lettuce, blood oranges and was topped with a white balsamic and cumin vinaigrette.  It was awesome.

Mr. T really surprised me when he ordered his adventurous entree- Braised Beef Tongue. He loved it.  The flavor was amazing, but I had a really hard time getting it out of my head that I was eating tongue.  I had one bite and it was amazing, but that was all I could do.



 We opted out of dessert and instead walked down the street to meet some friends out for a few more cocktails.  A much better way to spend your calories, in my opinion. Overall the day was a complete success, low key and full of great food and drinks.  What more could a girl ask for?

 American Grocery Restaurant on Urbanspoon

2 comments:

  1. American Grocery is always great, and it's one of those places to return to (when you've saved up the money for it, haha) again and again, because their menu changes constantly.

    I have to say, I didn't know that West End Wine did delivery from local restaurants! I used to know someone who worked there (he doesn't anymore) and they definitely didn't do it a few years ago.

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  2. This looks amazing ... but I can't wrap my mind around the tongue. Props to Mr. T. for being a trooper. I don't even think I could have tasted it!

    That champagne and St. Germain cocktail is SO you!

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