Calling all men to shop Guys Night Out at The Boulevard at SouthEnd. Yes, I know shopping may not be high on the list of things to do BUT making it out tomorrow will help you get on top of your significant other's list (get your mind out of the gutter) AND you can drink beer while doing so! Here are the highlights for tomorrow's event: - The World of Beer will be pouring a local brew, called Lone Rider of Raleigh
- The Southern Cake Queen will be on hand with sweets and so you can order delectable desserts for your lover
- Escape Hair and Skin Studio will offer gift certificates and salon specials to help beautify your lady. Oh--and if you purchase a gift certificate for a facial your giftee will receive a free shampoo and blow out
- Fashion Florist of Charlotte will be ready and willing to take your orders for bouquets of roses and flowers
In addition, if your lady has filled out her "wish list" The Boulevard will have that on hand to make shopping a breeze.
Once you have made your selection(s), boutique staff will wrap it for you! Seriously, this is a one stop shop that makes your Valentine's Day easy peasy! Guys Night Out takes place tomorrow (Tuesday, February 11th) from 5-8pm. Details can be found here.
Maison Kayser is Eric Kayser's venture into retail bakery. He is a master French baker with over 80 stores worldwide and his products are a household name.
This is the first time I've tried Costa Coffee. They have other outlets at Chevron House and Raffles City. However, I have not noticed them till they opened at Vivocity. When I tried their latte (my 'standard' for testing barista skills) I found it bitter and ashy and the milk was not sweet and rather thin. I do hope the barista's skills improve.
This is a very nice set of menu of 4 course meal. I know you missed the January deal, of $30 for a 3-course dinner like the one I'm about to tell you how good it is. But for the entire month of February, it's Spaghetti and Meatball Fridays for $8.30 in honor of their start year of 1983. In March, they are having the return of classic dishes daily, chosen by their servers.
For start, we were greeted by Johnny Mandola, he was very hospitable and it's like welcoming people to his home. He made sure all of his guests are taken care of.
Once we sat down, we had the Mona Lisa salad. It's very unique is that it has mixed greens, feta cheese, and roasted almonds. Together with the balsamic dressing, it's a very sweet start. No, seriously, it is kinda sweet and you get that as a mix with everything in the same bite. 
Right after the salad, they brought out the Ravioli for the antipasti course. It's really well done, the only thing is that it's a sweet potato ravioli, which made me felt double starched. Personally, having been here, I think I would've selected the gnocchi instead, which has spinach and cream in a tomato sauce, much more well balanced and less likely fill you up early on in the night.
For my entree', I selected their Veal Marsala with green beans. Everything is very flavorful just I remembered them to be. Green beans were fresh and I literally wiped the plate down with them to get the very last bit of that marsala sauce. YUM!
This round I got their Kobe Burger with Swiss cheese and on gluten free buns. There's tons of decisions to be made just ordering a burger; do you want lettuce, tomato, pickle, mayo, ketchup, greens, Swiss or American or mozzarella cheese, fruit, fries, sweet potato fries, or quinoa salad. Told you, tons of decisions to make.... 
We ordered the Paleo Buffalo Chicken Wings. They battered it with almond meal and fried it. It is spicy and they do have the blue cheese dip to counter act the spiciness 
Out of curiosity, I ordered the Paleo Chicken Enchiladas. I had high hopes for it, but too bad it wasn't for me. They used coconut flour to make the tortilla, the chicken mixed with the tomato and cilantro puree very well, just that the coconut flour is sweet and it just confuses my palette. The chicken with the sauce was great, though.
The dish came with a side of veggies. As you can see, they have asparagus, grilled zucchini, carrots, broccoli, and that mashed up bit is not potato, that was cauliflower. This time it also confuses me because the spices used on it isn't what I had expected to go with the cauliflower.
Lucky for us, Flora & Muse has afternoon tea during the week. They have a tea set for 2 for $30. Of course it comes in a set. I was hoping they have some fancy tea, but instead, they came over with a box of tea to choose from... ok, Jasmine it is.
The tea set comes in 2 tiers. The top tier is dessert, which is common.
The bottom tier has all the savory sandwiches. And as you can see, they are tiny and finger size.
They have 2 of everything, on this corner they have Curry Chicken Salad sandwich (left), and Roast Beef & Cheese sandwich.
Here you have Smoked Salmon brochette (center), Turkey & Lettuce sandwich (right), and Cucumber & Tomato sandwich (back).
I got the Pistachio & Chocolate macarons. I just love that their pistachio filling has real pistachios in it. The chocolate filling is rich and full.
I took a week off from food world last week and look what happened: Maker's Mark, maker of the bourbon with the red wax top, has announced an Impending Bourbon Shortage:
