Meaty Heaven

I know that sounds pretty gross, but on Saturday night we (as in B, Kev&Suz) were not only in meaty heaven, but more like a meat coma. Saturday night we all dined together at Fogo de Chao at the corner of Pennsylvania Ave. and 11th Street. I see the advertisements for Fogo De Chao every time I pick up US Airways magazine and have wanted to try it for a long time now, but always assumed that it was a gimmicky chain restaurant that couldn't possibly be that good and definitely not worth the money. But oh was I wrong!!!

First, the bartender kicked ass. He was really knowledgeable about the wines and cocktails and definitely made a mean dirty vodka martini. Plus he actually muddled the lime in K's drink; a sign of a good bartender. And second, the place was packed! We had an 8:30 reservation and the place was hopping with guests as well as tons of wait staff. I was really surprised to see it that busy. It's not a cheap dinner what-so-ever ($50 per person for dinner), so I figured it must be good, right?

Dinner started off with a little lesson on how everything works. You start off with the salad bar. And then when you're ready for meat, you flip your "coin" to green (go), and the Brazilian cowboys just start coming with one of 15 meats! The meats are all sizzling hot on skewers, and as they cut the meat off the skewer, you pick it up with your tongs. And you can request the doneness of your meat. I'm a medium-rare person, but others are more medium to medium-well.

We took our time finishing our cocktails and then headed to the salad bar. Now, I know what you're thinking. Salad bar? Really? No, this isn't a Harris Teeter salad bar, this is an amazing, knock your socks off, I can hit just this, kind of salad bar. I can't remember everything on it, but I'll tell you I made a bibb lettuce salad with sun-dried tomatoes, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, marinated olives, and buffalo mozzarella with olive oil and balsamic dressing and had some other kind of fresh cheese with prosciutto and salami. And a taste of chicken salad. It was delicious! I could have gone back 10 times! Oh, and let's not forget the warm cheese bread! HEAVEN!! I had them during the salad course, meat course, and for dessert! :)

Then once you begin the meat course, they bring out side dishes of friend polenta (yum), mashed potatoes (yum), and fried plantains (yum)!

But the meat could not be beat. We tried bottom sirloin, top sirloin, sausage, pork ribs, beef ribs, chicken, bacon wrapped filet, filet mignon, picanha (the house specialty), ribeye, and lamp chops to name a few. My favorites were the bottom sirloin (so juicy and flavorful), pork ribs (they had some kind of amazing dry rub), and the lamb chops. But everything was so tasty.

And to top of the evening, they bring around a cart full of exotic and some not-so-exotic after dinner drinks. And the man behind the cart knew anything and everything there was about each and every one of them. Trust me, we grilled him for a good 15 minutes!!

Not only were the drinks and food amazing, but the service was fantastic! As soon as we flipped our coins from red to green, multiple waiters were at our table offering up different cuts of meat. And they were constantly offering fresh, clean plates and clearing away unused dishes.

I would definitely give Fogo De Chao 5 stars!! If you don't want to take my word for it, just read the 99 reviews on Google resulting in a 4.5 star rating.

Where In The World is Blondie?

There's no two ways about it; I've been super MIA (as far as blogging does) for a month now. Don't ask my why. I guess I've just been too lazy to post anything. And it's not like we haven't been up to anything. Because we have been up to a lot lately! Since our 1st wedding anniversary on May 31st, I feel like time has flown by! Where the hell did Summer go anyway??!! It's almost over!! :(

I won't bore you with all the details on what B&I have been up to since last, but since I love lists so much, I'll just give you a quick, brief synopsis (of what I can remember) :

• 1st Wedding Anniversary - a trip down honeymoon-memory lane, dinner at Komi, and a seafood feast in Annapolis (plus some year old wedding cake...delish!)

• Work trip to my favorite "work" destination - Aiken, SC. Met the coolest WWII veteran who told me awesome war stories. I must get my hands on a copy of the DVD of his story! Oh and got to hold an adorable miniature greyhound! :)
• Westwood Prom! Got dressed up and partied down with the "old folks" at Westwood! And when I say "old folks," I'm definitely not talking about the crew we went with!!
• Fun weekend with Carrie and Tom in VA! Friends who moved from VA to NY came to visit us for the weekend in June.
• Quick trip to York which consisted of a small amount of work and a big amount of fun. hehe1st trip to National Harbour and 1st and last time we'll dine at Rosa Mexicano (with Kev and Suz). Will def return to National Harbour though.
• Picked up our tennis rackets again.
• Haven't picked them up since. :)
• 5 days in sunny Sanibel, FL with the Noll's and Sweigarts. Had a blast shelling and entertaining my 3 year old niece NK. I just might have the two cutest nieces on the face of the planet. And no, I'm not biased. It's a well known scientific fact. Will post a picture later as evidence.
• Work trip to Houston. Enough said.
• 6 days in sunny Southport, NC with the Schwartz's (and the Noll's for two nights). Got reunited with Mabel after being apart for over a week and spent tons of time sunning myself. And loved every minute of it! Oh, and my little baby girl turned one on July 7th.

• Read 5 books on my Kindle (including 3 from the Twilight series)! And probably sold about 8 of them!

That pretty much sums it up. I'll try to keep in touch better than I have been the last month. Hope ya'll have had a great Summer as well!!