Zio's Casual Italian

Chicken Piccata served with homemade pasta and vegetables.

Zio's Casual Italian is one of my new Charlotte finds. A friend recommended that we meet here for dinner several weeks ago and I am so glad that I now know about this place! Zio's has a pleasant yet casual atmosphere, good service, and most importantly - delicious food. You enter by going down a short staircase and the restaurant is welcoming to families as well as to groups and couples. The food is truly worth coming back for - especially the grilled pizza (loved the pear and Gorgonzola pie) and the house made pasta. I also really enjoyed the Caesar salad. I look forward to returning here again soon to try more menu items.

Baby Arugula Salad with Asparagus.



Caesar Salad.



Grilled pizza: half Margarita and half Pear & Gorgonzola.

Knife & Fork - Spruce Pine, NC

Daylily tempura with daylily tubers.

Back in July I finally had the chance to dine at Knife & Fork in Spruce Pine, NC. My mom and stepfather have been raving about this place ever since it opened and it is definitely the closest destination from our mountain cabin for a fine meal. The best part is that it is not that expensive for what you get and the creativity and freshness of the menu would be remarkable even in a big city. The restaurant is located on Spruce Pine's lower street in an airy, comfortable space with a small bar and two small dining rooms. Reservations are highly recommended. The menu changes frequently and can be found both on a large chalkboard inside and on printed sheets. Vegetables are prominent and most if not all are made without meat products. Local produce, meat and fish is used whenever possible. My favorite dishes included the greens with breadcrumbs, the daylily tempura - definitely different and delicious, the sauteed squash and the seared rabbit. The bread they bring out is also excellent and I enjoyed the bread pudding with homemade nectarine ice cream as well. I look forward to returning to Knife & Fork again soon for dinner and also trying the lunch and brunch menus.

Delicious bread and butter.









Delice de Bourgogne, roasted carrots, rosemary.



Slow cooked greens with breadcrumbs.



Sauteed squash with onions and parmagiano.



Mashed Kinnebec potatoes with shiitake gravy.



Red Quinoa with duck confit, baby basil and green onion.



Seared rabbit loin with blueberries, carrots and baby squash.



Grilled NC Tilefish with fingerling potatoes and fairytale eggplant.



Grilled Cinnamon Spice Bread Pudding with nectarine and vanilla ice creams.



Chocolate Pot de Creme.

Sweet Lorraine's Bakery

Sweet Lorraine's Bakery opened in Dilworth on East Boulevard last month. This is a very welcome addition to my neighborhood! I attended the Grand Opening and enjoyed tasting lots of the pastry and bread offerings. My favorites include the prosciutto bread, the pecan sticky bun and the cannoli as well as the signature Sweet Lorraine bar - a brownie and blondie stacked together - what could be better? I look forward to returning to try the cupcakes, scones and muffins as well as the cookies. Coffee is available and there are several tables so you can enjoy right there in the store. Chocolates from Courtney Paul Chocolates are also for sale, including a luscious passion fruit ganache in dark chocolate. Welcome to the neighborhood, Sweet Lorraine's!

Cupcakes!







Samples of sweets!



The Sweet Lorraine's team in the kitchen including owner Christine Guerriero (2nd from left)!



Chocolate display.



Palet Or (left): creamy dark chocolate ganache topped with gold leaf and Almond Hazelnut: creamy ganache with puffed cereal.



Passion Fruit Ganache enrobed in dark chocolate - my favorite of Courtney Paul's chocolates.

Empire State South - Atlanta

Super Food with hangar steak.

For my farewell lunch in Atlanta my Atlanta office dined at Hugh Acheson's Empire State South in Midtown Atlanta. I am so glad I had the chance to try this place before we left because it was great and it was a really fun place for a group lunch. The highlights for me included the Super Food salad plate - available with the standard hangar steak, chicken or fish. The farro and radishes on the plate particularly shined but everything really worked together well. The pimento cheese with bacon marmalade was truly out of this world also - a must-try starter. Everyone enjoyed their meal and we enjoyed sharing several desserts to top it off. The brownie ice cream sandwich was a bit too sweet for me but I like how they have baked goods available in the center of the restaurant for eating in or take-out. Several in our party also tried the specialty sourced coffee, which proved to be tasty. The atmosphere here is versatile with an airy, inviting dining space suitable for business, friends or family. I hope to have the chance to have dinner here when I am back in town visiting. Breakfast is also served.

Pimento Cheese with bacon marmalade - delicious!



The bar.



Fish po-boy.



Super Food with Tilapia.



Bratwurst with chips.



Phatty cakes, strawberry cupcake and chess pie.



Ice cream sandwich on brownies!

Libretto's Pizzeria & Italian Kitchen

Eggplant Parmesan lunch special.

Soon after arriving in Charlotte I dined at Libretto's Pizzeria & Italian Kitchen for lunch with a family friend who works in a similar field. There are two area Libretto's: this one is in Ballantyne and the second one is uptown at the EpiCentre. Additionally, there is a NYC location and a fourth location in Jacksonville, Florida.

Libretto's serves a full Italian menu with specialty pizzas, salads, soups, traditional entrees and pastas as well as heros, wings, calzones and desserts. For lunch there are some great specials including the eggplant parm special that I tried. To start, we shared some of the delicious, buttery, garlic knots served with tomato sauce for dipping. These are truly worth the carbs and were great with the salad that comes with the lunch special (salad not pictured). The eggplant parmesan includes choice of pasta with sauce and it's a huge portion! I took half home for later. The dish itself was quite pleasing, with a well-balanced tomato sauce, lots of cheese and plenty of eggplant goodness. The pasta was also tasty with that same great tomato sauce.

I had one odd thing happen when I went to the restroom - I won't go into great detail but let's just say that the restroom needed some real attention! I mention this mainly because as soon as I told our waiter about the problem we noticed that the staff shut down the restroom for cleaning - a good sign that they actually checked out the issue when I brought it to their attention. Service was actually quite good overall, which is always welcome.

I really enjoyed my visit to Libretto's and I look forward to trying them out again soon for another lunch or for dinner. They are also prepared for folks who want takeout also as you can order pizza near the door and take it to-go. I will be back!

Garlic knots.

Madras Chettinaad

Chicken tikka masala (left) and saag (spinach) paneer.

After hearing about Madras Chettinaad for years from my former yoga instructor in Atlanta, two of us from the office went with Elizabeth, our fabulous yogini, for dinner just before I moved to Charlotte. After the hour plus drive I was ravenous and luckily, Madras Chettinaad came through in a big way. We started with samosas, which I always love - but here they were truly outstanding, flaky, not at all greasy and filled with spiced potato goodness. I adore the tamarind and mint sauces served on the side - so delicious!

For the main course we shared a special dosa, chicken tikka masala and saag paneer along with an order of garlic naan. I really like how Madras Chettinaad serves great veggie and meat dishes. Their focus is on Chettinaad cuisine, which originates from a region of the Tamil Nadu state in India. This means there are tons of great vegetarian curries and dosas as well as meat dishes, all perfectly spiced. Everything we tried was fantastic, with good flavor, but not so spicy that the taste was overpowered. The chicken tikka masala was a particularly tasty rendition. I'm told that the weekend buffet here is something to behold. Although I'm not likely to be in Alpharetta again anytime soon since our move to NC, it is definitely worth an extra special trek to try this place. Thank you Elizabeth for introducing me to this great Indian restaurant!

Samosas - perfectly fried with very little grease.

Special Dosa with chutneys and dipping sauce.

Garlic Naan. Buttery, garlicky and delicious!