The Dandelion Market and teen angst

On the recommendation of my sister-in-law we made plans for last evening with some friends to see Spring Awakening. It is here, in Charlotte, on its national tour. We made these plans with Mr. and Mrs. Whiskey, so obviously dinner was of grave concern for all parties.

We decided to try the new restaurant from the Tyber Creek/Connolly's group. The concept is vaguely Irish Tapas/gastropub. Gastropub being the new buzzword in our town. The interior is pub all the way, lots of wood and brick, very cozy. It is fairly small and a little loud but not overly so. This is a new restaurant so I will not hold some of the small gaffs against them this time and as you will learn there will be another visit.

We sat immediately with the Whiskeys right on our heels. Giving the menu a quick glance we realized the beer and cocktail menu was no where to be found. On his first visit the waiter quickly got us one and we asked for a couple of minuets. They have four or five specialty cocktails, 24 beers on tap, 4 wines by the glass and a good selection of wine by the bottle; each bottle costing twenty five dollars. I went with the Blue Point toasted lager since it was new to me. It was very good, lager crisp with a hint of caramel. The food menu is a great expanse of everything from fried sage leaves to lamb "lollypops". Their true contribution to Charlotte food culture, however, is the idea that you can order everything on the menu for $200.00. There are 32 items so a very good value indeed if you can round up a couple of friends to go with. We, unfortunately had neither the time or the requisite numbers to pull off this feat. So the Mrs. and I started with a coarse of potato croquettes and sausage bites. Both were delicious. The Croquettes were grilled perfectly with hidden bits of bacon inside and the sausage came in a crock full of kielbasa pieces in their own juices and a dollop of mustard floating in the center. This was all very tasty but staring across the table at the duck confit flatbread made up our minds as to what our next round would be. So we put in the order. When Mr. and Mrs. Whiskey got there beer cheese fondue we figured our pizza was right behind it. We were wrong. Luckily they were kind enough to share and it was very tasty. As our waiter came back around we politely asked the whereabouts of our pizza; he politely excused himself and quickly returned with the obligatory "It will be right out". It had obviously gotten lost in the melee. It showed up fairly quickly though and it was totally worth the wait. Duck bits, Brie, rosemary, yum. To finish we had a rhubarb crisp with buttermilk ice cream. The ice cream seemed homemade and was very tasty but I have a real soft spot for rhubarb anything. It was the perfect end to our meal. So we got our check and dashed across the street for the show.

My basic conclusion is that Dandelion market will only get better as the staff, especially the kitchen, gets used to the small plates concept. The menu is perfect and the staff was very friendly and eager to please. Go support a great new restaurant.

The second part of our evening was the broadway touring show of Spring Awakening. It is a re-telling of a banned play from the late 1800's told in a mash up of then and now with a soundtrack that was obviously written by someone who owns every Dashboard Confessional record and comes out of the late nineties, early two thousands emo scene. It is a very well told coming of age story with nudity and cursing and emo hair. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was nice to see something edgy come around again. The sad thing is we have plenty of great alternative theater all over the city but few people see it. Unless it has the broadway stamp of approval most Charlotteans won't give it a chance. Oh well, their loss.

until next time.