Parent's Night Out at Trade Boston

Recently, I was invited to a Parent's Night Out at Trade Boston, which happened to coincide with their end-of-summer Patio Party.

Trade is located on Russia Wharf in Boston which is right at the corner of Congress Street and Atlantic Avenue in Boston. I happen to pass this location every day on my walk to and from work. I was pleased to be able to enjoy the cuisine after work one day!

As I was doing research, I realized that the Chef/Owner of Trade, Jody Adams, attended the same high school I did, the Wheeler School in Providence, Rhode Island. I was also pleased to find that for the patio party, they were service shrimp and oysters and that some of the oysters were from Cutty Hunk Island, where the owner is also one of my environmental science teachers at Wheeler. It just goes to remind me exactly how small the world is.

I arrived early and had the chance to chat with a few quite interesting people and even got to meet Jody, who was so nice and down to earth. After enjoying some of the food outside, it was time to go inside to meet the rest of my blogger friends and taste some of the great food Trade is known for.

As parents, we don't often get the time to go out as adults and enjoy delicious food and write about it. I was quite excited when I found out that Trade wanted to host a Parents Night Out to showcase some of their great eats. I think it would be a perfect place for parents to spend a nice "date night" without the kiddos in tow as the setting is relaxed and the ambiance is nice.

We sat at a table that was right near the bar, and were passed various plates of delectable delights. We even had the Giant Tank which was a lot of alcohol situated inside of a fish tank (and even had the plastic fish to go along with it). This drink was listed on the menu to have 2 people share but it was large and strong enough to have 6 people share easily.

The food was cooked perfectly and the conversation flowed like the drinks. We had such a great time, chatting, drinking, photographing and eating. It was really hard to pick out a favorite dish since they were all so great!

When dinner was over, they brought out dessert and I think my favorite thing might have been their milk and cookies which was all homemade. The "milk" consisted of a cream-based pudding and the cookies were homemade "oreo type" cookies. So unbelievably good!

Here's some photos to showcase the wonderful food:

Here are a few posts that recap the night from some of my friends who were there:

Capability Mom
DGrubs
Leah's Life
Appetite for Instruction






NOTE: I was provided with a complimentary meal to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.

Lunch at Chopps in the Burlington Marriott

I had the pleasure of enjoying a delicious lunch from Chopps American Bar and Grill at the Burlington Marriott a few weekends ago.  It was great opportunity to try a location outside of Boston with a few fellow bloggers. It's a great option if you are looking for a night out. 

We had a lot of food and it just kept coming and coming with each dish better than the next… We also had the Consulting Chef, Daniel Bruce (from the Boston Harbor Hotel) as well as the Chef de Cuisine, David Verdo and the general manager, Davide Crusoe come out and speak about each dish we were eating as we were seated at the Chef’s table, which gave us a clear view of the open air kitchen.

Enjoy the following scrumptious photos - and be sure not to miss the end of my review all of the way at the bottom!!

The amazing house-made tater tots

Chef de Cuisine, David Verdo (left), Consulting Chef Daniel Bruce (right)

Dave with the dessert

Dave's plate of food - SO DELICIOUS

The lounge entrance to Chopps

Line-caught cod with fingerlings and corn puree

Long bone veal chop - one of my favorites!

The kitchen view

A closer look at the kitchen from our table

Lamb Lollichopps

Lobster Salad

Tomahawk Ribeye Chop for 2 - sourced locally from Pineland Farms in Maine!

Melon and Prosciutto salad with Arugula, Chili Oil, Hazelnuts and Balsamic glaze

Flash fried Scallops and Shrimp with a lime tartar sauce - it was hard to not devour the entire serving!

NY Strip Steak also from Pineland Farms

Another last photo of the tater tots as they were my absolute favorite!

All in all, this restaurant aims to please - the wait staff couldn't have been nicer or more attentive and the chefs prepared such an amazing assortment of dishes and desserts, this place would be an excellent option for parents looking for a nice night out!

Since you know we like a good deal, I found out that if you like their page on Facebook, you can receive a 15% off coupon for the next time you visit!

NOTE: My meal at Chopps was complimentary with no guarantee given for a positive review. All opinions and photos are my own.

Our review of the MOPA Show 2014

It took a little while to write this post, but last month we went to the Modern Parenting show at the Hawthorne Country Club in Dartmouth, MA put on by Dennell Pepin, founder of MOPA (ModernParent).

This show was for new and expecting parents and even included brunch with your admission. When we arrived we were greeting and asked to fill out an entry form which entered us into the raffles they were holding for all of these great prizes (a deluxe crib, photography session, containers from The Container Store and others).

We were given a gift bag which contained a few advertisements along with some goodies. We had the chance to eat brunch from a buffet, walk around to the 10 or so exhibitors who had tables and we had the chance to shmooze and learn about items you should have on your baby registry (if you have one) and how to organize the nursery and decorate it easily.






We got to sample some great new products from Happy Family foods (we LOVE the yogurt minis as well as the cookies) and some great cupcakes from the Artisan Bake Shop. We also got some information from the Old Colony network of YMCA's about some membership specials they were running.




All in all this was a great way to spend a few hours of the day learning about some of the latest trends in the baby world. Dennell really has some great insight into what it means to be a parent in these modern times.

NOTE: We were given complimentary admission to the MOPA Show 2014. There was no guarantee of a positive review. However, we did enjoy ourselves (as you can see)!

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