I'd love to tell you about an amazing romantic dinner and that I went to the most romantic restaurant in Cleveland or cooked a romantic homemade dinner that looked restaurant quality, but 'twas not to be.
Thanks for the kick in the snowballs, Mother Nature.
My hardworking man left around 11am to make sure other people could safely go about their plans for the day! Now is maybe a good time to mention, however, that we don't even really celebrate Valentine's Day in any big way - I work at a greeting card company - Valentine's Day lost it's magic to me 7-8 years ago. Which is a very good thing, given that 3 out of the 5 years since we started dating, he's had to work - so we usually either go out a different night like we normally do anyway, or make our own dinner/order pizza and treat it like any other day. We don't even exchange gifts or cards - again that is mostly my doing because I've read all the cards and I don't feel its fair to hold him to my "good card" standard and be all judgey.
Although, sidebar: for our anniversary this year, he got me a card that made me cry even though it was a card that I'd seen before when managing the Anniversary card program! He isn't an outwardly emotional person so I knew he thought a lot about the card.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah... so what did we do this weekend? Well it just so happens that my mother-in-law's birthday is on the 15th and knowing that we weren't big V_Day people, my father-in-law made reservations at Fratello's in Avon Lake for the family (6 including my SIL's new man-friend). Well I got the text around 3:30 that I would be going to dinner solo with my in-laws. Good thing I love them so much and that they are amazing or I'd have found some reason to suddenly have "digestive distress" or maybe Ebola to get out of going! But they ARE fantastic so I decided being a 5th wheel would be just fine since I would be eating some good classic Italian (at least as far as I knew at that point)
Fratello's isn't much to see from the outside. In fact, I passed it once not realizing it was there. I was told it used to be an old Lawson's (convenient store) that they renovated - can totally see that from the outside, but on the inside, you'd never know. But as I've learned over the years - good food can be in the most hideous looking building (that's why they're called hidden gems!)
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| Where's the restaurant? Courtesy of Google Maps - in much nicer weather than my visit |
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| mmmmm |
I ordered the veal neopolitan which was veal layered with ricotta and eggplant and a parmigiana marinara sauce. Basically it looked like lasagna - just with much fancier layers! It was delicious, classic Italian flavors. Especially on such a cold evening, it really was perfect comfort dining. I'd definitely go back again. I'd still say Bruno's on W 41st is my favorite west-side Italian, but this is pretty darn close and closer for far-west-siders!
And guess what? I HAVE to go back since my snow-man needs to experience the food as well before I can officially check it off the Dining Bucket List!
