highlands.

one of the best restaurants in birmy is highlands.

it is one of frank's {frank stitt, that is.  i would like to pretend like he & i are on a first name basis.} masterpieces.  a "french-inspired southern dinner".  an amazing-inspired southern dinner.

it is really good.

seriously.

& we got to dine at highland's this weekend!  the last of blakey's birthday gifts {thank you, dad!!!} was fabulous.  after a couple of beverages at the bar {i tried the day's libations: spicy grapefruit margarita.  very interesting & very good.}, we were seated at a lovely table next to the fireplace.

one of the long time servers greeted us & took great care of us all evening.  all 3 hours.  i love long dinners.

to start & most definitely the best part of the entire meal, we enjoyed the beef carpaccio.  shaved pamesan, arugula, & housemade hourseradish sauce.  it was absolutely the definition of simple & fresh & beautiful food.  my very favorite type of food.

blake's pork & fried oysters appetizer was quite good too.  what is not good fried, really?

for our main courses, i had pompano grenobloise.  have you ever tried or even heard of pompano?  we had not before moving here.  every adjective i am about to use to describe it does not make it sound appetizing, but it really really is.  a white fish that has much more flavor {but not fishy} & body {but not greasy} than your average fish.  so good.  it was served with wilted spinach, capers, & brown butter.

blakey had the grilled lamb chop & leg with an heirloom tomato sauce.  oh, also so very good.

& to finish off our meal & our spanish cava, we tried the butterscotch cake.  this cake was so light!  which was fabulous considering how incredibly full we were at this point.  well done.

the entire meal was divine.  a big huge, long, fabulous meal - one of our favorite things.

thank you, daddy byrd!

love love,
kjp.