Food Impressions: Local Restaurant Week

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Local Restaurant Week - Oliver's Restaurant

Oliver's Local Restaurant Week Menu

Local Restaurant Week Dining Adventure #2: Oliver's Restaurant

So yesterday I enjoyed dinner with my best friends from high school; Tonight Dave and I enjoyed a spectacular dinner with 10 of our very close friends. All of the girls, Christa, Ann, Tracy, Stacey, and Rachel are my absolute dearest friends, AKA my "Spa Chick Friends." Let me explain: 12 years ago, Christa sent out an email to several of her friends asking if we were interested in going to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa for a girls weekend. After looking who she sent the email to I didn't really know anyone but I figured "Eh why not, I'm 6 months pregnant and in a few short months I probably won't be able to do anything like this again, like ever!" So I immediately replied "I'm in!" Ann, Tracy, Stacey and Rachael also replied yes. So it was the 6 of us planning a 3 day spa trip and we barely knew each other. I remember getting introduced and shaking hands with most of the girls before we hopped in our cars for the 5 hour trek to the spa. I must admit, I kept saying to myself "if this is a bust, I'm going to a spa, if this is a bust I am going to a spa." Well, it was far from a bust…within 6 hours I felt like the girls and I were lifelong friends. We clicked and bonded immediately. So much so, that we decided to make our "Spa Weekend" an annual event and we never missed a year since. Talk about things on a bucket list…mine is to be spa'ing together when we are old and gray….yep granny spa'ing! Throughout the 12 years of our friendship we get together often for various occasions but twice a year we always get together for Local Restaurant Week. Actually the spring season LRW dinner is usually when we plan our summer/fall Spa Weekend. We mentioned spa weekend but got too carried away with other conversations like "what's on our bucket list" that we forgot to discuss it. Oh well girls, we'll just have to get together again soon for a spa planning session! Ok on to our fabulous dinner at Oliver's Restaurant!

Oliver's is one of those restaurants that you walk into and feel like you are stepping back in time but still feel like you are having dinner in the hippest restaurant in New York City. The restaurant is located on a busy spot on Delaware Avenue in the city. There is a small parking lot with valet parking and there are always high end cars parked out front. Dave was hoping his black Cadillac Escalade would make it to the front to be displayed but no such luck, the Jaguar and Mercedes beat him to it. The restaurant was bustling and packed with people. It was the spot to be seen. It was just the perfect venue for our group of 12. The fact that all 12 of us made it was a minor miracle in itself. It's rare with our very busy schedules for all of us to make a scheduled event together. So it was extra special that we were all there. What a blast we all had! We started out with cocktails in the bar area and waited for everyone to get there. It was a perfect time for us spa girls to quickly catch up and of course tell each other how awesome we all looked and what super cute outfits we all had on. If I want to feel good about myself, I just surround myself around my spa chicks. Once we were all there we were seated at a table with chairs on one side and banquet seating on the other. It was hard for such a large group of us to be able to all talk and hear each other so we had to make the decision do we sit boy-girl-boy-girl, or do we sit guys on one end and girls on the other? Based on the fact we see our husbands every day we quickly opted for the girls on one end set up. They immediately brought our table 3 large baskets of their warm spinach bread. Yum! We ate the 3 baskets of bread pretty quickly because they were so good and then they brought out 3 more, bonus. It was difficult for us to choose what we wanted for dinner since everything looked so amazing, plus it didn't help that us girls kept talking and that distracted us from making a prompt entree selection. Our poor waiter, we kept telling him just a few more minutes. Luckily he never seemed to mind. When we finally decided on what we were having we placed our orders and the food and drink seemed never ending. Oliver's had a spectacular menu for LRW. For $20.14 you chose a First Course and a Main Entree. They also had $30.14 and $40.14 entrees which many of us chose from. We also ordered desserts which were out of this world scrumptious! The service was top notch, the food was of the highest quality and taste, the scene was hip, and the conversation…priceless! Salute to dining out with my dearest Spa Chick Friends and hubbies and enjoying a great meal at Oliver's during Local Restaurant Week!