Adventures in Anniversary-ing

It's been a busy couple of months with not a lot of time to keep up with the blog, but we have been having fun in addition to working hard.  We're starting off our round of catch-up blog posts with our anniversary post. 

Michel:  Did you know that the fourth anniversary is the flowers and fruit anniversary?  Well, that and appliances.

Elizabeth:  Hence my beautiful tulips and orange?

Michel:  Yes.  But alas, neither the produce nor flower departments had any appliances.

Elizabeth:  That's ok.  I'll get over it. 

Elizabeth:  We have had some success finding good anniversary deals online in the past.  If you recall last year's post, we found an absolutely ridiculous deal for Fish Bar, which has become one of our very favorite restaurants here in Chicago.  This time, we found a not-quite-as-ridiculously-awesome-but-still-delicious-and-pretty-great deal for Two, a cool new restaurant on the near west side of Chicago. 

Michel:  It came down to a choice between Two and another restaurant, and I think we chose wisely.

 
Elizabeth:  Two is very interesting.  It's a cool, loft-inspired space with the wait staff dressed in sneakers, jeans, and matching t-shirts.  Yet the food is creative and the level of service is akin to the best steakhouses in the city.   

Michel:  Our special included 5 chefs-choice shared plates and a whole bottle of wine.  We chose a Cabernet from Nicklaus Vineyards in Napa, and it was very good.  Full-bodied, jammy, and economically sound.

Elizabeth:  Due to some technological glitches, I no longer have pictures of each course.  I know you are all extremely disappointed not to have an image-by-image tour of our dinner, but in the grand scheme of things, it's probably ok.

Michel:  Is it, though?

Elizabeth:  I hope so.  Our first course was a fairly straightfoward salad with the most amazing ricotta croutons ever.  Think a little fried ball of melty ricotta.  Because that's what they were.  Our second course was the only quail the restaurant got that day, grilled with sweet leeks, pepper pesto, and the most amazing polenta puree thing ever.  Our third course was grilled salmon with chanterelle mushrooms and the most amazing parsnip puree ever.  Yes, that is two most amazing _________ purees ever in a row.  They do purees well at Two.

Michel:  If they were really bold, they'd have served us quail puree.  Instead, we had to do all the chewing ourselves.  Rest assured, the chef heard of my displeasure.

Elizabeth:  Yeah, but the waitress didn't judge when we scraped the parsnip puree off the plate.  

Michel:  She might have a little when we picked it up and started licking the plate directly.

Elizabeth:  Shhh, don't tell them about that!

Elizabeth:  Our fourth course was a bacon, corn, and fried sage risotto.  It is the only risotto I've ever had that comes close to Mancuso's in Houston.  It was delicious.  And our last course was banana bread pudding with homemade caramel ice cream and caramel sauce.  Amazing.

Michel:  Two was really great.  While not the crazy deal we got last year at Fish Bar, it was still was a lot of really great food and wine for a relatively low price.  

Elizabeth:  A few weeks later, we headed to the Bank of America Theatre to see The Book of Mormon, for which I had gotten Michel tickets for our anniversary. 

Michel:  Despite its focus on heavy topics like religion, AIDS, and female circumcision, The Book of Mormon is effervescent and brilliantly funny.  It works both as a comedy and as a classic example of musical theatre.  It's great.  See it whenever you get a chance.

Good view of the stage!

Elizabeth:  I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the show: it was well-constructed, and the cast was great.  We had an awesome time, and it was a perfect way to wrap up our anniversary celebration!

Michel:  It was a great celebration of a pretty great four years.  I suppose we can stick this out for another four anyway.

Elizabeth:  Yeah, probably.  I like you, too.  :-)