This dining experience took place on Friday, October 17, 2014
We visited bluezoo lounge and Shula’s on a recent Friday night. We were both crazy hungry but trying to pace our tummies, so we started with a side order that we’ve never tried before…
Chickpea Panisse
They look like big french fries, don’t they? I had looked up Chickpea Panisse a while back, because I didn’t have any idea what it was. It’s chickpea flour cake that sliced and fried (gluten free by the way). When Ulyana brought this to our table, the scents were wonderful! Slightly oily. A bit salty. And then there was a nice undertone of garlic (most likely from the garlic aioli. We both enjoyed these and in my opinion, they should replace the bread service as our personal starter at bluezoo. (Although we also enjoyed the bread service before we had the chickpea panisse on this particular night – well, we were very hungry).
We wanted pasta and we wanted seafood. Since the menu change back last spring, there isn’t a chef’s pasta special at bluezoo. They have the English pea ravioli and that’s pretty much it. Gary went back and asked the kitchen if they could split the pasta for us and add some sort of seafood – reply, no worries.
English pea ravioli with Florida rock shrimp
The rock shrimp was a good idea to add to the pasta. I’ve liked this dish since it first appeared on the menu, Nick hasn’t been as crazy about it (mainly because it’s very pea-heavy and he’s not a natural pea-lover).
beautiful poached egg in the center
Nick’s just not too crazy about the pasta dish, not only the English peas were not pleasing, he didn’t really like the corn kernels either. I thought it was pretty good, but the peas were dry and hard – not good – I prefer my green peas very fresh and “crispy”… these weren’t that.
After we had our pasta, we decided to go upstairs to Shula’s and say “hi” to Joseph and Ariel… and grab a cocktail in the lounge. The cocktail menu has changed some since the last time we were here in early August, we decided to try two of the new cocktails.
Kick Off – Nick’s Choice
Nora’s Choice – Overtime
Overtime on left and Kickoff on right
The Overtime just wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, it seemed a bit too sweet to my tastes. Nick’s Kickoff was really great! I’m hoping we get one of these again soon! It was gingery and refreshing, the perfect drink for after dinner (ginger is calming to the tummy).
Let me tell you a story:
The lounge area at Shula’s was rather busy this particular Friday night. Nick noticed that there was a cell phone on the floor underneath a bar stool at a table near us. I offered to go over and give it to the ladies at the table, Nick said he’d do it. At that time, there were only 3 women at the table, the fourth was in another area talking to Ariel. They came back to the table just as Nick was bending over to pick up the phone. Turns out that the fourth woman had lost her cell phone (yes, there was some inebriation evident) and Ariel had been helping her try to find it. Nick was this lady’s hero. She kissed him on the hand, thanked him profusely for saving her worry and money (replacing the phone), and then she leaned over and told Ariel… “I’m buying their drinks, put it on my card.” That was pretty nice! She could have just said “thank you” and we would have been happy. It was so satisfying to be part of a double-moment (that’s what I think of it as, when someone does something simple and kind and kindness is returned).
Nice way to end our Friday night 🙂
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