Monday, September 9, 2013

Eddie Cerino's

So in an effort not not make that last post super-long, I forgot to include my thoughts on the one night we dined out this weekend. Papa John's on Friday doesn't count. We all know that's some good $11 pizza.

I purchased a Groupon last week for Eddie Cerino's Casual Italian in Lakewood. They just changed the concept of the restaurant about a month ago from Eddie 'n Eddie's which was yet another burger place, and if you know Lakewood, we had so many here already that even Five Guys didn't survive (damn, damn, damn!!). The owners already have several successful Italian places (Carrie Cerino's, Pizzeria Cerino) and Lakewood really doesn't have any other than Angelo's and Player's. Angelo's has minimal seating and Player's is for being fancy. So needless to say, they made what seems to be a good change.

We showed up about 8:30 on a Saturday and there was a decent wait (about 20 minutes) and the crowd was a little different than Eddie n Eddie's in that there were still kids, but significantly less of them. Good mix of people, too. Older, families, date nights, and a big table of barely legal gals celebrating a birthday before hitting the bars.

We started with the mussels, which were in a garlic white wine broth. Oh I cannot say enough about a good bowl of mussels! The broth was so salty and delicious and we were sopping it up with the complimentary Asiago bread. Who needed entree's? Oops! We did order them though.

Tim ordered the veal piccata. As I continue to post, you'll see a trend emerge with my husband. If it's Italian, there is a 95% chance he will order veal of some kind. Either piccata or saltimbocca. All those poor baby cows, haha.

I ordered the sausage baked ziti because I was in the mood for some serious meat and red sauce. This is my go-to meal to make in the winter, too. Usually I get something with seafood (like a fruiti di marre, or alfredo), but I wanted something heftier for dinner. This came back to haunt me later when we stopped at a friends afterwards to porch drink for a few hours...

I'll be honest, it was nothing spectacular, but it was good solid homemade Italian food, which is exactly what they're offering. Nothing fancy, just quality - and definitely a better option than those chain Italian restaurants for the money.

We'll definitely go back, maybe with the in-laws for family dinner. Especially because my iPhone picked the end of dinner to crap out and I couldn't upload the Groupon onto the bill. I felt so bad because the waiter was trying to think of anything to help me out, but I decided just to use it another time rather than keep everyone waiting.

Bachelorette Becca Week 9

Full disclosure before I begin… this recap could either be awesome-good or awesome-not-so-good based on sticking around for “just one more”...