Happy Birthday, Lauren!

Today is Lauren's birthday and even though she is not here, we did celebrate her birthday last week when she was in town. With all the celebrations in our family in July, (my birthday, Nick's birthday, Lauren's birthday and our wedding anniversary) we often must celebrate when we're simply able to celebrate. (Actually, we just celebrate all month!) Lauren's request to celebrate at Barbacoa was not a surprise. It's everyone's favorite Boise restaurant in our family. Lauren lives in Seattle but came to Boise with a friend to attend a wedding. They floated the Boise River that day so they had worked up an appetite for a good dinner. We were seated at a great table

outside facing a lake.

Our table allowed us to enjoy a beautiful view and to watch the natural wildlife.

We even saw a deer dart right in front of our table and run right across the lakeshore in front of us! This was near the end of our evening and we were all in awe.

Every bit of our evening at Barbacoa was spectacular. We started off with the guacamole, of course, and their delicious drinks. My favorite Huckleberry Ice drink with the ice glass.

Bruce felt like his usual on a hot day, Payette Outlaw IPA.

They do not rush you at Barbacoa so we could all relax and enjoy our drinks, guacamole and beautiful view.

We had a couple of new dishes this evening such as When Pigs Fly (I love the name)

It was a huge double cut pork chop (the Pig) with chanterelle mushrooms, apples with hibachi cherry wood smoked quail (the Fly part of the title) and house made fig jam with pesto rice. Another delicious dish was the Seafood Pasta which was linguine pasta, prawns, clams, mussels, fresh fish and scallops in a spicy tomato broth.

One of my favorite dishes is the Latin Steak which is a flat iron steak with avocado salsa and lime served with Spanish rice and beans

and you get a choice of a side and I always choose the chili relleno. Superb!

Lauren opened her presents after dinner

before they brought out the grand finale.

The complimentary birthday treat at Barbacoa is their cotton candy bundle with a candle in the middle. Glowing and beautiful! The best place to celebrate a birthday.

Happy birthday, Lauren!

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