Happy Birthday Scottie

Happy Birthday Scottie!  For the big 30th, Scottie and I celebrated at Flemings Steakhouse downtown Birmingham, one of the few restaurants we haven't been to in the neighborhood. It's been on the list, but we haven't had an occasion to get all dolled up for a steak dinner.  And I'll admit, steaks are not really my number one choice when we go out to dinner.  But the birthday boy loves him some steak (and not well done like how I cook it!).

Unfortunately, we had a late start to our evening as we both wanted to hit the gym since we had been out of town for a few days straight without access to getting muscles!  By the time we arrived at Flemings Steakhouse, they were probably ready to close down, but they happily sat us.  Compared to the atmosphere over at Cameron's (which I realized I never officially reviewed in the blog), this place seemed to have a better layout, lighting, and service.

We each started by ordering a glass of wine from their list of 100 wines by the glass and a Fresh Mozzarella and Sweet Tomato salad which was drizzled with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh basil.  The salad had a little bit of a twist from other salads in this genre with the sweet tomatoes.  They blended nicely with the fresh basil and balsamic.

For dinner, I actually ordered the Petite Filet Migon, how could I not?  Scottie chose the Prime Bone-in Ribeye and we split some Grilled Asparagus and Sauteed Spinach.  I don't think either of us had a complaint about the either the meats or sides as everything had a lot of flavor to it.  While we struck out at Cameron's, I think we hit at least a double over at Flemings in terms of steak!  Our waiter even brought over a nice box of chocolates for Scottie to take home in celebration of his birthday.

Post-dinner, I finally unveiled the gift that I have been working on for a few months..er, years.  Des and I originally plotted to make corn hole boards back in Chicago, but with an unsuccessful full-day attempt, we never finished our boards.  We probably wasted at least $50/piece on the raw materials, but I think it was money well spent for some bonding time (and a whole lot of laughter at our lack of knowledge in the wood-working space).  I wonder if she has any pictures from that day?  Des, you reading?

Anyway, I did the next best thing to hand-crafting my own boards and found this guy who has a passion for wood-working in the Metro Detroit area.  Ripped Boards is his "company", which makes his own corn hole boards that can be customized, thus, I worked with him to get some Northwestern boards made. He was very easy to work with even tracking down some purple bags for us to use to match the paint color I chose.  Great work!  I'll get another post up soon once the boards get their first use!