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Happy New Year!


Tonight, we walked up to one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants called Circa for dinner for a special New Year's outing. We get too tired to stay up until midnight these days so going out for dinner is a special enough occasion for us.   It was just a last minute idea since we didn't have any other plans for the evening.  If we do stay up until midnight, we can see the fireworks at the Space Needle from our house, although it is far away so it's not that spectacular for us.  If we want to walk to dinner, there are several places we can walk to but Circa is our favorite.  It was very festive in the restaurant tonight. 


They even had a special New Year's menu tonight.  


I ordered the Absinthe Bubbly to start off.  Absinthe is an anise-flavoured distilled, highly alcoholic spirit similar to gin.  It is one of the alcohols in a Sazerac (along with whiskey) that is a New Orleans classic, where it originated.  Since I've been to New Orleans a few times, I'm very familiar with the Sazerac, one of the best whiskey cocktails you can order, however, it's not for the faint of heart because it is strong. The owners of Circa are from New Orleans so they always have some of their favorites on the menu and the Absinthe Bubbly was one of their choices. And it was not for the faint of heart either, a very strong bubbly drink.  I like anise-flavored and the combination with this sparkling wine from the southwest region of France was very refreshing. I actually drank it faster than Bruce drank his wine.  (ha ha ha)  One of our favorite items on their menu at Circa is their gumbo, again from New Orleans.  Bruce ordered a cup of the gumbo and we shared it.  (Portions are large at Circa)  We had eaten half of it before I remembered to get a photo. Oops.


Their gumbo is very meaty and spicy but not too spicy.  It's also not real salty, just very flavorful.  We love it.  Bruce also ordered a special off their New Year's menu, the Winter Vegetable Lasagna that came with a nice side salad with vinaigrette.


It was very rich but substantial enough that you wouldn't notice there wasn't any meat in it.   I got a meat dish, a favorite of Korean Barbecued Short Ribs.


 One short rib is enough for me, I just love slurping up the sauce mixed with the rice and vegetables.  It is so sweet and delicious. We both got boxes of leftovers and walked home highly satisfied with our meal.  Not bad for a neighborhood joint.

 Happy 2018!

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