Eat My Charlotte

To celebrate their 12 year anniversary, Cosmos Cafe will be offering a 3-course dinner for $12 during their anniversary week of Nov. 9 – 14. They will also be offering $12 featured bottles of wine. The menu is as follows:

(Choose one selection from each course.)

Starter

Cosmos Salad
Nero Salad
Hummus with Pita

Entree

Sea Scallops served with a Red Pepper Sauce, Saffron Rice and Baby Spinach
Chicken Paillard with Garlic Mashed Potatoes, a Confite of Tomato with a Sage Cream Sauce
Grilled Marinated Flank Steak accented with a Green Peppercorn Sauce and French Fries
Pork Medallions with Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus with a Dijon Cream Sauce

Dessert

Tiramisu
Apple Cobbler

The 12 year anniversary will be celebrated at both Uptown and Ballantyne Cosmos Cafe locations.

Uptown
300 N. College St.
704-372-3553

Ballantyne
8420 Rea Road
704-544-5268

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Bruegger’s Bakery-Café will open on the second floor of the EpiCentre, 210 East Trade Street, in November. From Wednesday, November 18 through Friday, November 20, the store will have raffles, giveaways and special promotions including $0.99 bagels with cream cheese, $2.99 Herby Turkey sandwiches and three bagels for the price of $1. The first 50 guests will receive a Bottomless Mug, good for free coffee, tea or soda through December 31, 2009. A portion of sales from the three-day opening event will benefit Outreach Programs of the Childress Klein YMCA in Uptown Charlotte. Hours: Monday through Friday 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Like our nightlife writer Brittney Cason has said, there is currently an Asian invasion in Charlotte.

Restaurants serving up Asian cuisine are popping up everywhere Uptown. Basil showed up earlier this year at the corner of Church and 5th Street serving up tasty Thai dishes. IndoChine Grill with Vietnamese fare opened its doors at the EpiCentre in the spring. Room 112 made a sly appearance as the summer began dishing out sushi at the corner of Trade and Tryon streets.  Then there was Enso at the EpiCentre in August. And Fiji Sushi Bar & Lounge on 5th Street opens up tonight!

For this 24-hour Blog-o-thon today, I’ll be rolling through town on a sushi sampling tour.

Stuffing my face with signature rolls from a handful sushi restaurants sounds like a fabulous day to me. If cruising through Charlotte sampling foods is your idea of fun, you should join us on our first Eat My Charlotte Foodie Tour on Nov. 7. We’ll bus you around town to sample authentic tacos at taquerias on South Boulevard. Get more info here.

And I’m off…

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Mellow Mushroom set up their mobile ovens in Uptown Charlotte today (Monday, Sept. 28) and treated everybody to a free slice. CL blogger, Mike McCray, talked with Mellow Mushroom’s Josh Weinstein about the event.

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Charlotte’s 2nd Annual Hog Jog 5K is coming up on Saturday, September 12.

As you race, inhale the scents of BBQ as your run past the competitive barbecue teams vying to win a trip to the national “Memphis in May” BBQ competition.

The race runs through uptown and finishes with live entertainment and a Bloody Mary contest at the finish line as part of the Blues, Brews, and BBQ street festival in Charlotte’s Center City.

In addition to the 5K race, they will have a “Squeel Chair” division and “Piglet Fun Run.”

The race starts bright and early at 8 am.

It costs $25 to register online prior to the event. You can register here. If you register the day of the event, the price goes up to $30. (If you are wondering why the registration price has gone up a bit, it’s because you’ll be receiving a performance tee!)

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Ruth’s Chris Steak House is celebrating their 44th anniversary. Though it’s their anniversary, you get the anniversary gift — right now you can get a $88 gift card for $44. You have a week to purchase these cards and must redeem them by Oct. 15, 2009.

To buy a gift card, go to CharlottePrimeoffers.com. Offer is good at Charlotte uptown and SouthPark locations only.

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I paid $10.95 for this plate of Pad Woon Sen from Basil.* (The $5 bill was placed in the photo for scale.)

I’ve got a bone to pick.

1.) This is from their lunch menu, which should feature lunch prices. $10.95 is too expensive for lunch, in my humble opinion. Especially for a lunch consisting of noodles — the cheapest ingredient ever.

2.) The amount of food was surprisingly tiny. I would be OK with paying $10.95 if the dish contained a bit more food. And/or included additional items such as a spring roll and a drink. Ahem, as they do at Thai Taste for less than $10.

3.) When I asked if I could get the dinner-sized portion and pay the dinner price, I was denied. They said their computers were unable to calculate the dinner price. Uh, what?

So that’s it. What was once a happy relationship, is now over. I left the restaurant feeling ripped off and, as they say, it “left a bad taste in my mouth.”

(*The food tasted good though. But not $10.95 good.)

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I’ve been living in the area for two years now and am still on the hunt for good Chinese food.

Let me clarify this though — for the first year, I was living off of exit 33 in Mooresville. If you’re ever in that neck of the woods, I highly recommend Rice Fun in the Target shopping center. I used to go there at least once a week and was never disappointed. It had the absolute best flavor of any Chinese food I’ve ever tasted.

I would usually order the “Supreme Family” which had chicken, pork, beef and shrimp, plus broccoli, baby corn, mushrooms and red peppers, rice and a spring roll (or egg roll) all for just over $5. You couldn’t beat the price, quality or flavor of it. I should say that I never ordered anything I didn’t like though, and the dumplings are fantastic.

For the last year, I’ve been living closer to town — much closer, thankfully. However, now I can’t find respectable Chinese food. Granted, I have a high standard in my mind thanks to Rice Fun, but I just haven’t found any place that I would go to for a second visit let alone something weekly. (more…)

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