It's not ALWAYS about B and C (despite the title of the blog...)

So, we (A & D) decided that it was high time we got out more - alone. In December we decided to institute "Date Night" every other Tuesday night. We lined up sitters through March 2009 and headed out the door. Something we probably haven't done, together, sans kids, after 7pm on a weeknight in, let's see... how old is Beck now... FIVE years!

We've decided to leave it up to UrbanSpoon to decide where we go every other Tuesday night. (If we didn't, I'd likely keep us going to Salut and Broders Pasta Bar every chance I got!)

So we shook my (super-cool-new-can't-live-without-it) iPhone and UrbanSpoon landed us at:

Victor's 1959 Cafe at 37th and Grand Ave S. Cuban food. And Perfectly located! Still right within my coveted five mile radius!

Of course, my fancy new iPhone has a built in camera... Which... of course, we didn't use since it doesn't have a flash... (or video... okay, so it's not perfect. But even so, I still can't live without it). And we took these photos to share our newest dining experience with the always trusty (and pocket sized) Canon PowerShot (that Alex conveniently had in his coat pocket).

It started out like any other night out. A bottle of (cheap - but quite good) house wine. We had the Yuca Frita ANTOJITOS (an appetizer where the yuca is steamed, then fried, and served with a special garlic & lime juice mojo with lightly sautéed onions.) It was a little bland - but the mojo helped.

And the games began...

And kept going... and going... and going... (remember, this is a school night and we're not used to this whole being-out-after-7pm-on-an-empty-stomach-after-work-thing!)

Fortunately dinner arrived. Alex had some Cuban thingy with Shrimp (3 stars). And I had "old clothes" (4 stars). Who knew someone's old clothes could be so tasty! (I also had it for lunch the next day and was sad when it was finally all gone...) I'd rave more about the food... but I generally get bored reading food reviews myself, so I won't subject you to my writing about it. Your welcome.

Then the games continued...


And we debated about what to do for POSTRES (dessert). Go somewhere else? (What the ??? - no way! It was well below zero outside!) We finally settled (quite easily) on the Xango!Chango! (rich smooth cheesecake with a slightly tangy finish, rolled in a melt-in-your-mouth flaky pastry, tossed in a sugar and cinnamon blend, then served on a fresh guava puree) and a couple of Café con leches.

Oh... wow! Was that the smartest thing we did all night. (Since it looks like the cheap red wine probably wasn't...) It's worth it to go to Victor's for the Xango!Chango! alone!

And then of course, we did what every other patron that has ever visited Victor's 1959 Cafe has done... we wrote our name on the booth. Well, actually, we carved our name in it... the wood was so old that the ball point pen (given to us by the waitress... we're not complete hoodlums!) was sharp enough to actually cut through it!

All in all - Victor's was a roaring success and we'd go back in a heartbeat. I'm sure Minneapolis/St. Paul magazine will be knocking down my door for permission to reference my blog in their next review!


But more importantly, DATE NIGHT was a blast. Why didn't we think of it sooner?!