This past Monday I had the opportunity to attend one of the Central Florida Lady Bloggers’ monthly meetups. This month’s event was at Marlow’s Tavern in Winter Park, FL. I hadn’t been there yet so I was excited to attend. I was looking forward to trying new food and meeting some new ladies.
We were treated to two happy hour drinks along with a variety of appetizers and mini versions of their entrees. I started with a Blueberry Buck “3.0” to drink. It had Hangar One Blueberry, Fresh Lime, Simple Syrup, Barritt’s Ginger Beer and Shaved Nutmeg. It was so good!
The first appetizer to come out was the Asparagus Fries – Crispy Thin Asparagus with a Tarragon, Citrus Aioli. Holy cow, if parents served asparagus this way to their kids they would eat it everyday. Every table was given three orders of these and they just disappeared!
Next to arrive was J.T.’s kettle chips – Crispy Potato Chips Crowned with Gorgonzola Cheese, Bacon, Roma Tomato and Scallions. This kind of reminded me of a BLT on chips instead of bread. I had to push them away from where I was sitting so that I didn’t eat them all myself.
We were also able to try the Capreese flatbread and the shrimp & crab nachos plate! Neither of these would work for the dairy free folks, but now that I’m back to eating dairy I really enjoyed these. The nachos had a bit of a kick to them, but even as someone who doesn’t like spicy food I really enjoyed these. It was such an interesting take of traditional nachos.
My favorite starter that we got to try was the Sizzlin’ Feta, which was marinated feta oven baked and topped with roasted tomato and basil pesto, served with ciabatta crostini. Sounds fancy huh? Well it was AMAZING! This starter was on their fall/winter menu which was debuting the next day. I will be back again JUST to have this dish. Yum!
For the entrees they brought out the prime rib french dip with truffle fries (which I didn’t try) and the shrimp & grits (which I did try). I love shrimp and grits so I was excited to try their version. It was a white cheddar grit cake with shrimp, spinach, roma tomato, shallots and a roast tomato beurre blanc. I LOVED that this dish had a grit cake topped with shrimp instead of the normal pile of regular grits. AND they were cheesy grits.
Thanks so much to General Manager Blake Upchurch and the Central Florida Lady Bloggers for hosting such a fun event. I really enjoyed getting to try a new restaurant and make some new blogging buddies. If you are looking for a new place to try in Winter Park, definitely look them up. Oh, and they also have happy hour from 3-6 pm… every day!
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