As this past weekend was the Easter Holiday, I had the fabulous privilege of enjoying a four day weekend.
We had family events both on Saturday and Sunday, but after work on Thursday night, while I complained in the kitchen about having to clean up after dinner...my husband drops the bomb that he is looking for hotel deals. This is of course not an inexpensive way of getting out of doing the dishes, but mighty effective!
I feel pretty fortunate to live across the border from a bigger city with a variety of places to stay, visit and eat. I know that the City of Detroit has a reputation for being rough around the edges, but it is where I decided to do my Masters, and where I find "diamonds in the rough" so to speak.
In my past posts about Dates in Detroit, I have given you some idea about the culinary adventures to the north of our border (go figure, Detroit is NORTH of Windsor). Its also a nice place to spend a day or two or even three if you have the time to drive to surrounding communities and the willingness to seek out the little treasures that Greater Detroit has to offer.
We ended up getting a Priceline deal for a 4 star hotel, which if you decide to go away on a whim, is a great money-saving idea! Another website that we love is Hotwire for travel and hotel deals.
Friday morning we headed to Birmingham which is an affluent suburb of Detroit, located just down the road from Troy, Michigan. Birmingham has a lovely downtown with unique shops and restaurants, and on the right Spring day is a fun place to visit.
We stopped in a bustling place called Toast for lunch...and let me tell you, it was so good! Here's a little tour of this eclectic restaurant with pictures:
Can I just say that I loved the decor. Old vintage charm mixed with eclectic art and contemporary colours and lines. It was well done!
Matthew enjoyed a "Make Your Own" Omelette complete with bacon, homemade smoked chicken and apple sausage and cheddar cheese. On the side you see homefries with a light herb seasoning and cinnamon challah toast!
I enjoyed one of their many french toast options. This one was called the Granola Mountain French Toast. It consisted of challah bread (I opted for cinnamon) topped with vanilla yogurt, granola, fresh berries and drizzled honey. MMmmmmm!
We then walked the downtown and popped into any store which caught our eye. Downtown Birmingham is home to some great coffee shops, eateries, ice cream parlors, boutiques and The Cupcake Station (Have you ever had a salted caramel cupcake? My sisters are addicted to this place!) They also have a place where I could spend an entire afternoon: Anthropologie Its a shop that is hard to describe, its relaxed, colourful, creative, bright and makes me want one of everything.
Here's a little glimpse of inside:
We headed back to the hotel in the late afternoon for some R&R and then dressed up for a nice night on the town. After browsing some restaurant review websites, we settled on a new restaurant in Novi Township called The Toasted Oak Grill &Market. As a side note, Detroit has a wonderful publication called Hour Detroit which keeps up on the pulse of Detroit and the surrounding areas. Each year they award different local business with "Best of.." and Toasted Oak were awarded in 2011 for : Best for General Excellence and Best Ambiance! Check out their website for more "Bests", but be aware that parts of the website is restricted to those who are subscribers.
Anyways, back to the Toasted Oak. Its situated on the main strip on Novi Road and is actually attached to the Baronette Renaissance Hotel. When you walk in the doors, it looks like you are entering a deli market/cafe with a wide variety of local and specialty wines, baked goods, sausages, meats and cheeses to purchase or sit and enjoy. Many of the offerings are made in-house or are local Michigan specialties.
Past the market is the the sit down restaurant complete with fireplace, warm tones and plum velvet chairs. When we informed our waiter that it was our first visit, he provided us with a thorough tour of the menu and offered several suggestions on popular menu items and some of his favorites. I love when waitstaff are open to discussing the menu and demonstrate a real grasp of the food that they serve. The menu highlights local farms and seasonally offered food.
I started with some sparkling rose wine and we enjoyed a started of some fresh warm cornbread with homemade butter and a house salad. Yum!
For dinner I ordered their Steak and Frites! It was a Grilled Creekstone Farms Bistro Beef Tender with shallot butter and red wine sauce. I order my steaks medium well, and although the steak was pre-cut, it was still tender and juicy! Delicious!
Matthew ordered the king of meals, I had to include two pictures so you can grasp the size of the bone. Wow. What you see is the Faygo Braised Beef Short Rib with whipped potatoes and rootbeer demi-glace. His meal was absolutely fantastic. He loves Root Beer and you could really taste the subtle sweetness with notes of the spices that make it fantastic. The meat was cooked to perfection, it was so tender that he didn't even need a knife to cut, it just fell apart with a fork!
Toasted Oak is definitely a place to revisit. We were so stuffed and so we could not try the amazing dessert that they had to offer. I think that's a pretty good reason to go back, don't you?!
Back at our hotel, we enjoyed a restful night's sleep, or at least I did. Matthew admittedly watched a show about ghosts late into the night, which he didn't recommend to do again. I must say that being out of the house, even if its just a few miles drive across the border, was worth its weight in gold. Its always nice to get away, regroup, shut off from life and the responsibility of home, and spend time with the one you love.
The following day we had to head back for Easter celebrations with family, but we did make sure to stop for some Panera Bread breakfast and a little retail therapy for some bargain hunting.
I'm always up for new ideas, so how about some audience participation: have you been somewhere that's a driving distance away which you would recommend for a little getaway? Hit up my facebook page or post in the comments of this blog. I would love to hear from you!
