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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Just for fun - our Irish dinner!

On Friday Joel and I had a rare kid-free night out at a place we'd never been - The Emerald Restaurant. It's a tiny little Irish restaurant, run by the sweetest family. Joel and I got to relive a little bit of our trip to Ireland back in 2005, when I was pregnant with Carter. Actually, here's a little known fact - Carter's middle name is Sean. We wanted him to have an Irish middle name, since he traveled there "with" us. :-)

The restaurant may make actual Irish people groan - the decorations were rather stereotypical with shamrocks and leprechauns and whatnot, but it was fun nonetheless. I mean just look at it, isn't it cute?


The restaurant is in a house that was built quite far from downtown Austin back in the 1920s. The family turned it into a restaurant in 1984. The interior is small and cozy, with wood beams on the ceilings and creaky floors and everything. And Irish lace. LOTS of Irish lace!

We were sitting near the harp. Would you believe we heard him play a little Metallica? ON A HARP?


Dinner was something else - the owner brought out a **ginormous** tray of food and divided it tableside onto our plates. Here's the description of our dinner from their website:

You will start out with a basket of Irish Soda Bread and strawberry butter which is followed by our creamy Irish Potato Soup. Then a fresh Garden House Salad which has our Homemade Irish Red Dressing upon it. Then your server will present your Chateaubriand Beef Tenderloin to you and your guest which is accompanied by an assortment of fresh vegetables. For your desert, you will have our Irish Whiskey Cake.

And our Chateaubriand course. Just one plate was enough for two!


Dessert was a super moist and super sweet whiskey cake.


Look how they packaged up the leftovers, too sweet!


This isn't a place we'd probably ever go more than once, it was quite expensive and we only tried it thanks to a Groupon. But it was fun to visit, and to reminisce about our trip. If you're at all curious, I did a scrapbook about our trip a while back which can be viewed here.

And before I go - a photo of me from 2005, at one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, the Cliffs of Moher, on the western coast of Ireland. **sigh**


I'm secretly hoping the next time I eat an "authentic" Irish dinner, it's in the dining room of my friend Heather's house! Hmm, I wonder if she knows that... hee hee

Thanks for stopping by today. (and humoring me!) :-)

5 comments:

  1. Looks YUMMY! And I've been to the Cliffs of Moher. OMG, so beautiful!

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  2. I loooove Ireland! Went on a gypsy caravan holiday one year. It was awesome!
    There's an Irish pub not too far from where we live(here in North Carolina) but the food is not impressive....the music was good though. :-)

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  3. HA! Yes..it's a little "too" Irish for the actual Irish LOL
    Come to Vancouver and I'll cook you dinner...better still lets meet in Ireland!
    BTW..what the heck were you doing so close to the edge of those killer cliffs? Do you know people are blown off them every year?? !!!!

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  4. Yummy, yummy, the food looks absolutely delicious! Lol Libby, I know you're a much better cook than I am but I'd be delighted to have you over for dinner - just don't expect shamrocks, leprechauns or a harpist playing Metallica (would love to have heard that!)!

    I think it's lovely that Carter's middle name is Seán! Love the photo of you at the Cliffs of Moher. That's one of my favourite places too. You're a lot braver than I am going so close to the edge. Just let me know when you're on the way and I'll put the crubeens on - only kidding, I couldn't face eating them myself!

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  5. Holy smokes! That looks so yummy! And I bet you'll never forget that harp or those take-home swans! Gorgeous photo of Ireland, too! Take me with you to Heather's house :)! LOL!

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