A Pleasant Surprise

On Wednesday night, I got a phone call from my friend Mary (which was odd, because I was JUST thinking about how we hadn’t talked in a while) and after a short chat as I made my healthy brownies we figured out that we would both be “husbandless” the following night. Her husband was away on business, and mine was at class until 9:30 p.m. so we decided to get together.

Since she works near Downtown Chicago, and I live a good hour from there, we found a place that was near the midpoint of the two places. (Hey Bender, seriously amazing places to eat on the same street, we should try them all!) There’s this odd little neighborhood on the far north side of Chicago called Edison Park. One side of the street is Chicago and the other is a suburb, and the way to tell is that the color of the street lights are different. The suburb uses standard “white” lights, whereas Chicago uses yellow sodium lights. Nonno Pino’s Italian kitchen came recommended by another friend, and I’m quite glad we decided to go there. I was immediately drawn in by their cute logo.

Since it was Chicago, parking was a little bit of a pain, but once we were both inside, it was worth it!

We sat down to peruse the menu, and immediately noticed that it was $4 martini night. While we decided which ones to get, we were pleasantly surprised by the warm, crusty Italian bread and olive oil, parmesan, and olive mixture that was placed in front of us.

We decided on a martini to drink. I got a French Martini (vodka, chambord, pineapple juice) which was as delicious as any I’ve ever had, and Mary had a mango martini which was also as fantastic as it was pretty

More bread eating ensued as we decided on entrees and caught up on the last couple months happenings. We ordered our entree after much deliberation, and soon a family-style Italian house salad arrived with two homemade dressings: creamy garlic and House italian

The entree decision for me was easy: risotto made with white wine, featuring spinach, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and shrimp.

Mary opted for a veal tortellini with Italian sausage that had one of the most hearty tomato sauces I’ve ever had outside of my own house

Now, let me tell you a little bit about Mary and my friendship: we’ve been friends for nearly 25 years (how am I old enough to have a friend for 25 years?!) since we met in Kindergarten. As long as I can remember, she and I cooked and baked together, and every single time we gone out to eat, we get dessert. It was just our luck that the dessert menu at Nonno Pino’s had what they called “Chocolate Delight”. It was a decadent chocolate cake with layers of ganache between each one. It was a good thing we shared because I could’ve eaten a lot more of it!

Soon after polishing this off, we called it a night, since well…we had to work today! I was really glad to get to spend time with Mary, and since we could’ve had a good time at McDonalds, it was even nicer that the restaurant was fantastic! Unfortunately, any alcohol at all makes me quite sleepy, so I crashed as soon as I got home at 8:45, only to be awakened at 9:20 when Adam got out of class. I do finally feel rested though, after a week of being exhausted.

Don’t forget to enter the iHerb.com $50 shopping spree giveaway (ends Sunday) and the Tropical Traditions Organic Flaxseed giveaway (ENDS TONIGHT!)

P.S. Sorry if the formatting on this post is odd… I had to use the web-based editor, and it was misbehaving. I should give it a detention!

Tagged as: dinner out, friends, fun, Italian, pasta