Dirty Dogs and The Dirty-D

This week Katie and Elaine took Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace, joined by former guests Gillian Curcio and Anita Shankar. From this point on, our view on hot dogs has been changed forever! Dirty Frank's is part of the Liz Lessner family of restaurants in downtown Columbus. If you remember, a few weeks ago Katie and Elaine took Betty's, which is also a part of this group. Her other restaurants include: Tip Top, Surly Girl and The Jury Room.

Dirty Frank's, like Betty's, is a very small restaurant with very limited seating, and would be pretty tough to eat there with more than a group of 3 or 4. According to our sources, DF's is always packed so we were warned to get there early. Lucky for us, we had to work late and were able to sit right down. Like our trip to Betty's, as soon as we got our order in the place filled up and there was a long wait for tables. These Liz Lessner places sure are popular with the late night crowd!

The menu at Dirty Frank's was overwhelming - we had no idea there were so many ways to top a hot dog! After taking so long that our waiter may or may not have been a little annoyed, we finally ordered. Tots and fried leeks, which are onion straws without the fried batter, to start. Gillian ordered the Cowgirl Carmen: hot dog topped with meat coney sauce, cheddar, & crushed Fritos. Anita got The Classy Lady vegan style: hot dog topped with cheese sauce & crushed potato chips. After long debate, Katie went for the West Virginia Slaw Dog: hot dog topped with coney sauce with creamy slaw & onion, and I decided on the Razzle Dazzle: hot dog topped with cream cheese, grilled peppers & fresh onion.

As weird as these combination's were, we loved them all! It was a unanimous decision that Dirty Frank's is Katie and Elaine Take Columbus' favorite stop so far. The food was delicious and INSANELY CHEAP. What started out as a cold, tired Tuesday night turned into a fun night with friends out on the town.

Also, I know you all have probably been DYING to hear about our trip to UD this past weekend. Turns out we had such a good time catching up with friends and visiting our favorite hot spots from the old stomping grounds that we didn't take very many pictures. Here are a few though - enjoy!

Who Needs Jeni's when You're Friends with Brittany?

Last night Katie and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Kress/Gibson/Nilla/Reese household for wine night and homemade Jeni's ice cream. Because Brittany was serving dessert, she decided it would be the perfect night to try out ice wine - and let us tell you, it tasted like fruit juice. It was so good it might be dangerous if it weren't so expensive to buy!

Apparently, making ice wine is more expensive than regular wine because wineries wait until the very end of the season to harvest the grapes when they are literally covered in ice. Because the grapes are so hard and cold, they produce less juice when squeezed therefore making a bottle takes more grapes than normal.

Treat number 2 for the night was homemade Jeni's ice cream, made from the Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home Cookbook, prepared with love by Brittany! It was a Christmas present from Joey, thank God for you Joey - IT WAS SO GOOD, like melt-in-your-mouth good. We had the choice of Dark Chocolate, Gouda with Vodka-Plumped Cranberries, Salty Caramel and Backyard Mint. Katie and I rated them as follows: Dark Chocolate, Salty Caramel, Backyard Mint, then Gouda with Vodka-Plumped Cranberries. Basically Dark Chocolate was an obvious first, and the other three were a tie for second.

First wine night was a success! And next time we have a craving for Jeni's ice cream, who needs it? You can find us at Brittany's!

Hello Restaurant week!

Hello Restaurant week! Call us trend-setters because apparently this idea of "trying new Columbus restaurants" is catching on quick! You should have seen our 9-person entourage last night as we tackled yet another Columbus hot-spot—Martini.

What better way to kick off the night than with a round of drinks (very strong drinks might we add)! Most of the group opted for wine, but two of us ordered their signature Martinis. The Pineapple Finlandia, pineapple upside down cake in liquid form... yum, came with fresh pineapple slices, whereas the Modern Martini, Martini's take on the classic dirty martini, came with a heaping serving of gorgonzola stuffed olives. HEAVEN. Our advice - order it EXTRA dirty... otherwise it will be EXTRA strong. You have been warned.

After drinks came the bread, and who doesn't love a restaurant that offers you endless amounts of focaccia and olive oil? It even came with pesto dipping sauce which was DELICIOUS! Ok, now on to the best part... the menu alone was impressive and full of a variety of foods, but because of Restaurant Week we were also given the option to pick from their Prix Fixe Menu... a three course dinner including an appetizer with two main entrees. Between our party of 9, 3 ordered off the Restaurant Week menu.

First up, ROUND 1: Elaine opted for bruschetta, while Brittany and Gillian chose the Martini Salad. A few others went for a more traditional ceasar salad with croutons that literally tasted like little pieces of crunchy heaven.

And onto ROUND 2: Elaine decided to try the Butternut Squash Tortellini, while Brittany and Gillian went for the Veal & Spinach Ravioli. The girls said both entrees were delicious, and next time Elaine is back all she's getting the Butternut Squash Tortellini - IT WAS THAT GOOD!

Now time for ROUND 3: Melyssa, Anita and Katie all ordered the Pennette alla Vodka, while Erin went for the Chicken Carbonara. Brittany and Gillian ordered the salmon, Elaine got lasagna. Kate had Chicken Parm, and Jackie ate the Chicken Picatta.

When you get 9 girls together, 7 of which work together at Victoria's Secret, panties and push-ups are bound to enter the conversation sooner or later. After a night full of work-talk, friend-talk, school-talk, and of course boy-talk, we decided to head our separate ways. Katie and Elaine took Martini's and LOVED having so many dinner guests.

We haven't decided where we're going next week, but Dirty Franks has been thrown out as a definite possibility. Also - breaking news as of last night post Katie's martini - this weekend Katie and Elaine will be taking DAYTON! Check back for posts from our road trip!

Pin-ups and Cats

From the pin-up girls on the wall to the cat statues on top of the bar, Betty's was quite the experience. Joined this week by one of our favorite people, Gillian Curcio, Katie and Elaine took Betty's. We arrived and were seated at just the right time, because as soon as we did the place exploded with people and was jam packed!

This blog has been live for a little over a week now, and has already taken the internet like a whirlwind. Our many followers had lots of nice things to say about the Haiku post, but they wanted to hear more about the food. So here goes...

Betty's has a fairly large menu, filled with a variety of foods. They serve everything from soup and salad, to quesadillas, pasta, or sandwiches. Us girls started off the night with the Warm Three Mushroom Salad. We loved it, even Katie who just recently became ok with having mushrooms in her food. Before we could finish the salad our dinners were served! Katie got the Crab Cake Sandwich, crab cakes, shredded cabbage and carrots, red onion and jalapeno mayo in a grilled pita. Gillian ordered the Betty's Mac & Cheese, rotini pasta in a house made cheese sauce with poblano peppers, corn and red onions - it was delicious! I ordered the Chicken Tortilla Soup - Peppers, corn, tomatoes & chicken in a spicy tomato broth topped with sour cream, cheese and crispy tortilla strips. I also had a side of skillet green beans and corn. YUMMY!

After spending the night eating great food and catching up with friends, we took off for home. Betty's does not have many seats or tables, but it does have a fun bar. We decided when it comes to dinner, this is a great place for a small group of friends, but if we would have had any more than 3-4 would have been a pretty tight squeeze.  Spoiler alert - next week is restaurant week in Columbus so Katie and Elaine will be taking Martini. Check back to see how it goes!

Our First Adventure!

Outing #1 was an absolute complete success! Tonight Katie and I went to Haiku, poetic food and art, in the Short North for one of our favorite foods - sushi. Before even arriving at the restaurant we had a pleasant surprise because Miss Anita Shankar decided to join.

Katie and I both ordered wine, riesling for Kaite and a malbec for myself. Anita went for something fun and got the champagne cocktail. We all tried it - pretty tasty (but STRONG)!! After ordering we went to the usual topic of conversation, reminiscing about our glory days at the University of Dayton. We talked out former roommates, places we lived, and how mild our alcohol consumption has become. Call us old ladies - but we are now very happy with our glasses of wine.

When the food arrived it was time to DIG IN! Katie ordered the dancing eel, Anita splurged and got both the sweet potato tempura and squash tempura, and I had the specialty spider roll. It was delicious and scrumptious, so we decided Haiku is definitely a place to revisit. Haiku has a patio, so this will definitely be somewhere you can find the three of us come summertime.

Check back next week when Katie and Elaine take Betty's!