Girls trip to Texas.... got food and wine? Second Day ~

Before the trip I did a bit of research for restaurants to try while on the trip.  My friend Nick from SFO had texted me to let me know that the May issue of Travel and Leisure Magazine was a foodie issue and that there was a 5 Ultimate Foodie Getaway article.  I had a couple weeks before my trip so I went and got the issue and then saw the new Bon Appetit ~ well, I just had to get them both!  ~ lol

It just so happens that No. 3 was U.S.A ~ Texas BBQ Drive.  And Sugar and Smoke was mentioned and it was in Fredricksburg!

When Chrisie and I were walking to Lincoln St. Market the night before, I happen to see a sign that mention crepes ~ and you know me and French food!

But we couldn't find the hours so we walked towards a gate and saw a courtyard with tables and chairs for outdoor dining.





What we then realized was there was another restaurant there too ~ Sugar and Smoke.

We found it!! We also found their hours and their menu. Sounded prefect and they opened earlier than the crepe place.  So, for breakfast we decided to go to Sugar and Smoke.

We had gotten there about an hour after they were open. We didn't know if we just sat down or go inside to be seated, so we went inside to see the hostess.




She told us we could sit any where we wanted.  It was sunny though a bit breezy, but we decided we wanted to sit outside.

We must have sat there for about 10 minutes before the server came over.  When she did, she was a bit short (I'm hoping that she was just having a bad day), but put a damper on our morning.  :(

We placed our order and hoped that our food was better than our servers attitude. (fingers crossed)

While waiting for our breakfast I decided to wander inside to check it out.  It's really cute and cozy. There's about ten tables inside with about five of them being a chair/booth combo.

I also browsed the baked goods counter to see what they had.  It all looked so good ~ coconut cream pie, lemon bar pie, key lime pie, chocolate cream pie......of course I was hungry.  lol

When I got back to the table breakfast still had not arrived.  :(    It wasn't that busy.  I joked with Chrisie and told her one of us should go to the restroom.  Food always shows up when someone gets up to leave.... lol






I think within a few minutes after having made that comment our food had arrived!  YAY!!!

We were hungry girls!  But we didn't want to eat too much and we wanted to eat a early breakfast as we were going to a luncheon at Becker Vineyards.  (EXCITED!!!!!)

I hoped that our wait was not going to be for nothing. Please, please let the food be good to make up for the server having a bad day!!







Chrisie had a spinach and goat cheese omelette with a side of fruit, a biscuit and some bacon.

She liked the omelette, plenty of spinach, nice tang of the goat cheese and good seasoning.

But she really liked the biscuit.  She shared a bit of it with me and it was VERY good.  Wasn't super flakey and wasn't like a rock ~ it was perfect and the flavor was really great.









I ordered the spinach and goat cheese quiche with a side of bacon.

It was like a deep dish quiche rather than a traditional quiche.  The flavor of the quiche was really good but it lacked the goat cheese and had a lot of potatoes in it, which made me wonder if I was given the wrong quiche. But I was given the right one.

In fact I barely could see, let alone taste the goat cheese and was bummed about that.  But the quiche still tasted good.






Now that we were done with breakfast, I wanted to put that behind us as I wanted to enjoy the rest of the day.  Chrisie and I took a stroll in town for a bit to work up our appetite for the luncheon.  Back to the hotel really quick to drop off a few things, grab our tickets and off to the luncheon!  Woohoo!!

.......... link to Becker Vineyard post


After we got back to the hotel, we changed into a bit more casual clothes and wanted to figure out where to go for dinner.  Yes.....dinner.  WHAT??!!  It had been several hours since we ate.  :)-

Looking at my list, we decided we that we would go to Cabernet Grill.  We went down stairs to ask Brad how to get there.  He gave us directions that were simple enough.  Go out the hotel entrance, turn right on South Washington Street to Friendship Lane and turn right to Adams Street and you'll see it in a bit on the left hand side.

Simple enough right?  LOL...  We were fine till Adams Street.  According to the blue dot on the gps on my iPhone we were going the wrong way..  We turned around and though the blue dot told us we were closer we still didn't see it , then....we were going away from it again.  OK...last ditch effort.  We turned left on US16 and to see what would happens and if we STILL couldn't find it, then we would go back to the hotel and figure something else out.
We found it!

At first we weren't too sure what to think of the place. But when we turned the corner and walked in, just loved the charm and the quaintness.

We went to find the hostess station so we could be seated.  She asked if we had a reservation, which we did not, but gladly sat us out on the patio.

It was a nice evening to sit on the patio and they also have ceiling fans if the breeze isn't enough.  Lucky for us there was a light breeze ~ so it was perfect.





We had such an amazing day at Becker Vineyards and we were ready to sit back and relax and enjoy our dinner.

We had a really nice server, Megan.

We ordered our drinks and told Megan that we would need a bit to look at the menu.  She told us the specials before she left us.

There were SO many choices and EVERYTHING sounded SO good!!




Megan came back and we had a few questions for her (so we could decide what to order) which she happily answered.

After we placed our order, we sat back and enjoyed the ambiance.

It felt like we were at a rustic cabin instead of a restaurant.  There was a "water fall" with a koi pond. That was actually funny ~ when ever someone would walk by- all the koi's rushed to one side to get fed.





While waiting for dinner, I noticed a path and told Chrisie I was going to walk and take pictures.

What I discovered were about 7 cabins on the  property. It's pretty cool.  There are quiet sitting areas near each cabin for out door dining and each cabin has a porch.  SO cute!!

I also noticed as I turn the corner and behind the water feature that there was a large al fresco dining area with a fire place.




I told Chrisie that she should take a look and of course our appetizer arrived.  ~ lol

We ordered the warm Texas goat cheese crock ~ mmmm...it was SO good.

Had roasted garlic and some olives on it.  We were worried that it might be a little rich but it was so creamy and light... loved that the garlic and olives balanced the cheese.






We also ordered the pecan crusted crab cake.

This was amazing!  Fresh blue crab in a nice crunchy pecan crust with a serrano pico de gallo and a mango mayo.

Don't let this little crab cake fool you....the sauce and the mango mayo has a bit of heat to it but it was perfect in every way.

We thought we'd have a bit of a breather before dinner arrived cause I could tell that Chrisie was starting to get a bit full.

Sadly....no.   :)-  Our dinner arrived just as we finished the crab cake but still had a bit of the goat cheese left.

But dinner smelled and looked OH SO YUMMY!!

Chrisie got the pan seared rainbow trout ~ it was stuffed with roasted tomatoes, asiago cheese, with fresh herbs and applewood smoked bacon and topped with a pecan brown butter sauce.  Came with a side of veggie and she got the whipped sweet potato.

She had me try a bite (she literally got everything on the fork) with the forked loaded.  It was r..e..a..l..l..y.......goooood.

For me, I had ordered the oak smoked pork tenderloin ~ it was topped with small chunks of granny smith apples, cranberries, dates - compote and had candied pecans on it with a bourbon demi glace.

OMG!!  It was AMAZING!!!  I love how the entire topping balanced the salt in the pork.

I had a side of veggies and mashed potatoes with mine.

Dinner was perfect for our last night in Fredricksburg.  Of course dinner would not have been complete with out dessert!





I think Megan was a bit shocked that we asked for a dessert menu but come on ~ it's like when you go to the movies ~ doesn't matter if you're full, you always get popcorn.

We kinda had to laugh when she ran through the dessert list from her least favorite to her favorite. ~lol.

And her favorite was the least of our favorite and her least favorite happened to be one of our favorite BUT we decided to get the "special" dessert that was in season ~ the fruit crisp.

It was filled with peaches and apples topped with vanilla bean ice cream and some berries and a dollop of whipped cream.





It was the prefect ending to an amazing day spent with my pea.

It had been a long and fun filled day and after the dinner we had ~ we were two spent girls.

We had decided to call it a night and drove back to the hotel.  We didn't have any real plans for Saturday, but we had talked about spending a few hours in Fredricksburg before our drive to San Antonio for our flight home.  

We figured we'd see what time we got up and about and that would determine our final plan.


 

AND SO DOES WINE!!!