Tag Archives: 52 restaurants in 52 weeks

52 in 52: Pueblo Viejo – Hillsborough, NC

52 in 52 is a weekly series that I publish on Friday afternoons where the hubs and I visit / try out a new restaurant in the area that either one or, preferably, both of us have never been to. Then we review the restaurant! The goal: 52 different restaurants in 52 weeks of marriage.

Pueblo Viejo | Hillsborough, North Carolina | Facebook | Website

[Shirt: Target, Skirt: Express, Boots: Thrifted, Sunnies: Target, Headband: Target (similar), Bag: Longchamp, Denim Jacket: LOFT]

This is Pueblo Viejo. Two years ago on July 15th, it was called Casa Ibarra. And it’s the place where John and I went on our first, real, non-Toby-Keith-concert date. I awkwardly asked him after work what he was doing that night and suggested we go eat Mexican food.

We ended up at Casa Ibarra.

Coincidentally, it is RIGHT NEXT to the place where we had our wedding reception. Who knew that two years ago whilst sitting at dinner at Casa Ibarra / Pueblo Viejo, we’d be married less than two years from that point RIGHT next door…?!

So, since we hadn’t been back to Casa Ibarra / Pueblo Viejo since that night, we decided to go on the two-year anniversary of that night and use the restaurant as a 52 in 52… you know cause it’s a new restaurant.

The food was the same. Delicious, traditional Mexican food. You can’t really go wrong. Is it the BEST Mexican food we’ve ever had? No. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But it is good. And nostalgic for us.

And to make matters more awesome? They just HAPPENED to sit us in the SAME EXACT BOOTH as the night we went there on our first date. We didn’t even ask them to… It was kind of awesome.

So, ~~Casa Ibarra~~ Pueblo Viejo wasn’t a let down. It was delicious, affordable, quick and easy… and honestly? That place kinda means a lot to us… even if it’s not the BEST ever. Although their Queso dip was pretty dang stellar.

Where should we go next? Have you tried any new places lately?

Overall Stillman Rating: 3 out of 5 Stillman Stars

Happy Friday! YAY OLYMPICS!! GO USA!

-all for now. molly <3

52 in 52: Russell’s Steakhouse in Hillsborough, NC

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You guysssssssss, I have a man outfit in this post. YESSSS!

You’ll see more of these pics in a coming post… but I figured since this is what we both wore to dinner, I’d include it for fun.

If you don’t know, 52 in 52 is a weekly series that I publish on Friday afternoons where the hubs and I visit / try out a new restaurant in the area that either one or, preferably, both of us have never been to. Then we review the restaurant! The goal: 52 different restaurants in 52 weeks of marriage.

Check out my hunk of a husband before dinner! Check him out in his Cody James boots c/o Boot Barn!

…And, I felt a little frumpy, but it was SUPER hot this day and I just threw this on out the door to dinner…

Seriously. How hunky is this guy?

hubs: shirt: old navy, jeans: old navy, boots: c/o boot barn, shades: ??

me: shirt: juicy couture (old), jacket: old navy, necklace: jcrew via ebay, shorts: belk, boots: ebay

Anyway, onto this week’s 52 in 52.

Ladies and gents, let me introduce you to Russell’s Steakhouse in Hillsborough, NC. Okay, I’m going to be honest with you… this place is not new to Hubs and I. Nope. It’s our favorite restaurant in the whole world (well, all of Hillsborough and the surrounding area, at least). We had our rehearsal dinner here and we hadn’t eaten here since we’ve been married… and honestly, I feel like I’d be letting Y’ALL down if I didn’t tell you about it.

Russell’s is located off of Old 86 and I-85 in the old Occoneechee Steakhouse location. The owners, Rusty and Sheila, took over the place, renovated it, and completely re-did the menu and it is now AMAZING.

Seriously.

That’s hubs probably telling me to stop taking pictures…

It’s a rustic-looking restaurant with all certified Angus beef, local chicken, and fresh fish. Honestly, the prices are really good for what you get, too.

The filet (my favorite) is only $21 for a 9oz. Yes, $21 is expensive for steak, but for THE BEST FILET EVER? $21 is not bad. At all. And their burgers and other dishes are all VERY reasonably priced. Oh and the service is great, too!

Their sides are amazing. Their shimp scampi? TO DIE FOR. All their beef. SO GOOD. Oh, and the bread? The bread! GAH! SO GOOD. …now I want Russell’s tonight.

This is the lobby of the restaurant. I didn’t get any pictures of us at dinner because it is really dark in there and my camera doesn’t do well in low lighting (dangit!) but I can assure you, Russell’s does not disappoint.

We go there a lot for dinner but like I said, they specialize in special events. They have a GORGEOUS (read: SO NICE) event room / space that we had our huge rehearsal dinner in and it was PERFECT. In fact, the place was SO nice, we had almost considered it for our wedding reception. It’s such a cool, rustic venue.

Seriously, y’all. I can’t say enough good things about Russell’s. I LOVE the people, the place, and the food. It’s such a hidden gem that I just want to scream from the rooftops how awesome it is.

So, yeah. Go. Check Russell’s out. You won’t regret it.

Here are the deets: Russell’s Steakhouse, 378 South Churton Street, Hillsborough, NC 27278 | (919) 241-4902

Website | Yelp

What restaurant should we check out next?

All for now.

Date Night Fashion + 52 in 52: The Angus Barn [@AngusBarn]

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You guys, as much as I love jeans and a comfy t-shirt, the estrogen within me loves getting fanci-fied for a date night. I mean, deep down, what girl doesn’t love feeling pretty????

Husband and I had the opportunity to go with some people from his work to The Angus Barn in Raleigh last week and we were SO excited because we’ve heard such good things about the Angus Barn AND neither of us had ever been there.

The Angus Barn is a really well known steakhouse and institution in the Triangle (aka: the area of North Carolina where we live). So it made the PERFECT 52 in 52 restaurant.

[For new readers of the blog - 52 in 52 is a post/series I, well, post on Friday afternoons reviewing a local / regional restaurant where my husband and I recently dined. The stipulations are that either ONE of us or, preferably, BOTH of us have never eaten at that establishment. Oh and the goal is 52 DIFFERENT places in 52 weeks (i.e. our first year of marriage). We also try to avoid "chain" restaurants. There are SO many locally owned restaurants in our area that we want to give them the props. Word.]

FIRST. The Date Night Outfit.

Forgive the faint blurriness… it was dusk, the sun was setting, husband was the photographer. I like to think that he had shaky hands cause he just couldn’t handle how awesome I looked. hahahahah JUST KIDDING. Jokes people, jokes.

I like to think that I am all class. I wear my jean jacket to fancy situations to keep it real. I mean heck, I wore it for part of my wedding. IDOWHATIWANT!

typical.

closeup of my Jewelmint earrings.

outside the Angus Barn. this is husband’s fancy attire. i like him like this. i mean, again, he wore jeans in our wedding. although he is wearing his “preacher” boots. those are his NICE cowboy boots!

Outfit Deets:

Dress: White House / Black Market (circa 2006/2007)
Belt: Target (old)
Shoes: Target (on sale for $8!)
Jean Jacket: LOFT (old)
Earrings: Jewelmint

What do YOU like to wear out on Date Nights?

OKAY NOW, On to…

THE ANGUS BARN. | 9401 Glenwood Avenue | Raleigh, NC 27617 | (919) 787-3505

Website | Twitter | Facebook

This is the Angus Barn. Again, it was dark out so the photo is terrible quality, but I hope you can forgive me. Recently the Angus Barn made national news cause a waiter got fired from there after tweeting a picture of a receipt with a $200 tip that Peyton Manning left him. You can bet that that was the FIRST thing my husband asked our waiter, “What happened to the guy that tweeted Peyton’s receipt?” Love it.

Love the rustic feel of the Barn.

So, we were very fancy and ate in the Wine Cellar. We had to walk THROUGH the kitchen, past the Chef’s Table (so cool!) and down the stairs into the VERY chilly wine cellar. It was so medieval looking down there… big long table, big huge chairs, old art, and tall candelabras. Needless to say it was VERY dark down there so again, poor quality photos. UGH. I need a better camera, stat.

OH, and you know the place is classy cause they came around and offered the ladies a SHAWL. WHAAAT?! Awesome.

I tried to lighten this photo as much as I could so you could get a picture of the wine cellar room. Very fancy. Very private. I loved it.

This is John’s coworker Brittany… she got a shawl, too.

You know, standard menu shot.

See that Pimento Cheese Stuffed Aged Filet Mignon? Yeah, I got that.

Bleu cheese salad!

My steak. Now it came WAY undercooked (I like my steak a solid medium and it was more on the rare to medium rare side.) I usually HATE sending things back, but I knew I wouldn’t eat it if it was undercooked, so I sent it back and they were SUPER apologetic about the steak not being done right.

Oh, and a hilarious side note, the waiter called me “SIR” – WHAT? He apologized, but I laughed. hahaha.

Once the steak came back cooked medium, I dug in. OH MAN. It was so good. I love Pimento Cheese and I love Filet Mignon, so you can bet that I was a happy woman. I didn’t LOVE the veggies – they weren’t the best, but I did LOVE the potatoes au gratin.

Even though I did NOT have room for it in my belly, this Sawdust Pie was delicious!

SO yeah, overall I thought it was a great experience. It’s definitely not a place that I think husband and I could justify going to on our own dime very often as it cost many, many dimes, but for a special occasion it’s definitely worth it. I also think a large part about The Angus Barn is the atmosphere. It’s an old restaurant, it’s been around for 50+ years, and it’s got that rustic feel to it that people love in a good steakhouse.

Also, the service is really amazing. They are quick to offer advice, get you what you need, and make you feel taken care of.

Overall Stillman Grade: 4 out of 5 Stillman Stars.

Have you ever been to The Angus Barn? Any restaurants we should check out soon? What are you doing this weekend?

xoxo, all for now.

52 in 52: Vinny’s Italian Grill + a Serious Confession

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You guys, I have a confession to make right off the bat. No pun intended. So, last night at the baseball game (see why I said no pun intended? bat? baseball game? no? bueller?) husband and I were sitting in the stands watching the game – some other of his coworkers around us – just chitchatting. We were enjoying the game and suddenly I had a craving for cotton candy. Well, a few minutes went by, and suddenly I noticed that about 10 seats down from us (which our whole row was empty other than us) there sat a BRAND NEW bag of cotton candy. Alone. In a chair. No one eating it. Just sitting there.

So, I watched the bag of cotton candy for about 5 minutes. The cotton candy sat there. Alone. No one eating it. So, my thought was, “Oh snap! Someone left their cotton candy. That cotton candy shouldn’t go to waste.” I made my husband go get the bag from the seats. We were giggling thinking the whole thing was silly. We started eating the cotton candy. I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW. SO TERRIBLE. But NO ONE WAS EATING IT! It was just there all by itself! No jackets or purses or other accoutrements to show that it was someone’s cotton candy. Well, after we ate about 1/4 of the bag (to, maybe, almost half… nah, not THAT much) AND sharing it with some of the coworkers, this wave of guilt came over me and I put the rest back in the bag and tied the bag up and put it back on the chair where we found it.

Well, needless to say, TEN MINUTES goes by from the time I set the bag back down and boom! a couple sits down in the seats where the cotton candy was and opens the bag and starts eating it. APPARENTLY IT WAS SOMEONE’S COTTON CANDY. OH NOES!

I started to feel SO bad. And all I could do was giggle awkwardly. Cause they TOTALLY didn’t realize that almost 1/4-1/3 of the bag was eaten.

Now, here’s where I feel even worse: I didn’t say anything to them. Ugh. It’s been eating me alive and I feel so bad about it. On the other hand, it might NOT have been theirs and they may have done the same thing we did and saw a lone bag of cotton candy and eaten it. But I should have said something. And I didn’t. The good, honest, loving on people, can’t lie to anyone Christian in me has felt so bad about this silly thing ever since then. So the only thing I can do is publicly confess it to my blog readers.

And if you’re reading this and you were at the Durham Bulls game last night sitting in section 124 with a half-eaten bag of cotton candy, I want to say: I AM SORRY. I am so sorry. I know it’s silly, but I’m sorry. Send me a message, tell me what you were wearing (you know, so I know it’s you), and I will personally, send you TWO baseball game’s worth of cotton candy. I’ll even deliver it to your home, personally.

Phew Okay. Sorry, I had to get that off my chest first. Do you guys forgive me? Have you ever done anything silly like that but felt totally bad about it? Have you ever needed to just confess something? Share it below. I won’t judge you. I promise.

+++

Okay, now on to the 52 in 52. Husband and I have finally discovered the TRUE beauty of 52 in 52. We’re going to a fancy dinner tonight at a place we’ve never been, but we hadn’t been on a date in over a week and I needed a restaurant for this week’s 52 in 52.

Sure, it may sound a bit superficial, but we’ve promised ourselves we would eat at 52 different restaurants in 52 weeks. Along the way, remembering to date each other AND trying new places in North Carolina.

So often I hear about married couples NOT dating. So, it’s important for us to keep each other a priority and DATE each other. YEAH! For fun!

Anywho. Well, the place we wanted to go this week ended up being closed, so we were sort of scrambling to figure out where we’d eat for dinner – especially since we’ve been to pretty much every restaurant in Hillsborough and Chapel Hill.

So we decided to drive around a find a place. We were determined. We drove up and down highway 70 and then BAM. Found an unsuspecting shopping center and a little Italian place called “Vinny’s”. We looked at each other, acknowledged that we’d both never been there and BOOM. Dinner was settled.

Vinny’s Italian Grill | 133 North Scotswood Boulevard Hillsborough, NC 27278 | (919) 732-9219

Now, it turns out Vinny’s is, in fact, a franchise-type place. But it didn’t feel like it when we went there. It felt like a little small town, down home Italian place. I found out it was a chain after the fact. Oh wells. It’s cool. It’s still a franchise in Hillsborough. We’re still supporting the little guy!