Yesterday was a rough day. We've all had those days where nothing goes right, and what most of us do is just hurry up and get back to bed as quickly as possible and hope for a better tomorrow. While I'm a huge proponent of a good night's rest, there's something else you can do to help you recover from a terrible, horrible, no good day, and it doesn't involve traveling to some exotic locale or spending hundreds of dollars on a day at the spa.
Right here in Lexington, Kentucky, is a beautiful oasis set smack dab on the busiest road in town...The Summit at Fritz Farm. This shopping center just opened a year ago and it really has become one of my favorite places to visit. Leigh and I had arranged to meet there at 5 pm on Tuesday night to talk with some people about future KY Taste Buds events. What we didn't know is we were going to both have rotten days. How perfect when divine appointments come your way and you end up with a lot more than you had anticipated. Rushing to get across town in 5 o'clock traffic in Lexington is not for the faint of heart. New Circle Road is a maddening experience on even the best of days, but especially so on a day like yesterday. Arriving late, of course, I was lucky enough to snag a really good parking place close to our meeting place (another reason to visit The Summit during the week, not the weekend). Things were starting to take a turn for me and I was so thankful!
Our place to meet was Cru Food and Wine Bar, a cozy and inviting little place to enjoy some really terrific food and fantastic wine. The manager at Cru, Eddie Walter, and the really talented Chef Ben, know just how to take you from feeling like you've been run through the ringer to feeling like you've been transported to the dining room of some super rich family member. The staff is extremely accommodating and will guide you in choosing the right wine for your palate if you are like us and not really sure what to order. For someone wanting to try a few wines at one time, they offer wine flights with cool names like Sexy Reds. The food is the perfect accompaniment to the wine. Or should it be the other way around? I'm not sure. I went with the first thing on the menu, the shrimp and lobster potstickers with roasted fresno chilis (they're hot!) and spicy lemon sauce. Beautifully presented, this little app was just what I needed to feed my belly. Leigh and I start laughing and talking and suddenly the day just got infinitely better! To top things off we had the chocolate fondue, which could be the cure for just about anything in my opinion. There's something so fun about putting bite-sized morsels on a stick and dipping it in ooey-gooey chocolate. It was the perfect way to end the meal!
Walking back to my car, I passed people milling about the fountain, eating popsicles from Steel City Pops, and people strolling along the sidewalks doing some window shopping, and I had to remind myself that no, I was not in some beachside town, I was right here in my beautiful hometown, Lexington, Kentucky, and that the cure for a terrible day is something as simple as a good meal with a good friend.