Tasty Tuesday: The Matador

I was BEYOND excited to find out last week that The Matador is coming to Boise this month! [EDIT: they open this Friday, August 20, 2010] There's even an official Matador Boise Twitter! The Matador serves gourmet Tex-Mex cuisine and the Northwest's premier tequila bar with over 95 varieties. They have an amazing atmosphere, with extraordinary woodworking, custom ironwork, antique light fixtures and an open fireplace. They currently have locations in Ballard, West Seattle, Redmond, Tacoma, Northwest Portland, and East Portland. Boise will be their 7th location.

When I lived in Seattle, The Matador became my favorite place (after I turned 21), especially because we lived within walking distance to the Ballard location. I went to their West Seattle location for the second time in May, with my girls.

They have great cocktails, I love their long islands (one of the best I've ever had), Matador margaritas, and their mojitos. Their nachos are my absolute favorite!! I must admit I haven't tried much else because I love them so.

[Mojito]

Besides their delicious food and amazing atmosphere, one thing I love the most about going to The Matador is who I go with. I love spending time with friends. Even though most of my friends are in Seattle and it will be a completely different experience here in Boise, I'm excited to take my local friends and share The Matador experience with them.

Jenny, Janelle, Caitlin

Heather and Aimee

Me and Megan

Tasty Tuesday: The Matador - Part 2

I guess I think The Matador is so amazing that it needs another Tasty Tuesday post. You may have seen my post from two weeks ago. I tweeted about the post and got a message from The Matador inviting me to their launch party the Thursday before they opened. I was surprised and excited!

Heather and I got off work that Thursday, rushed home, got ready and headed downtown. The place was packed when we got there a little before 7pm. The wait for a table was 45 minutes, but we found a place at the fireplace.

We had Matador Margaritas, Tex-mex Spring Rolls and their AMAZING nachos.

Everyone was so incredibly friendly and not just the servers. There was a man who accidentally hit me in the back pretty hard when he went to hug his friend. He apologized quickly right after it happened, but then came over a little later and apologized again. Besides that, we had so much fun!! It felt like home! The atmosphere and decor was fabulous like their other locations. I love their huge mirrors with the ornate frames. The bathrooms are awesome, especially the sinks. Haha, I'm a nerd.

I'd like to thank The Matador for inviting me! We had such a great time. Since then we've been there two more times with friends. I'm already dreaming of going there again. I want to try the crab cakes and grilled stuffed jalapenos.

I figured, I'd also share the outfit I wore this night.

Top: Forever21

Shorts: Mossimo at Target

Shoes: Report Signature

Black Bangle: Forever21

Other Bangles: JCrew

Bag: Forever21

Roadtrip - Day 1: Nashville

We're on our way to Nashville today! We'll be making a pit stop in Atlanta for some Pinkberry. YUM!

We'll be staying with Carlos Whittaker of Ragamuffin Soul and family tonight. Heather and I met him last month when he was in Idaho and had dinner at The Matador. See Heather's blog post HERE about it.

We can't wait to meet the rest of his family. You may recognize them from the video posted below.



Stay tuned for updates from the road!

5 Things I Love: Seattle Restaurants

I went to Seattle last weekend to visit some friends. Although I only went to one of these places, I was inspired to post some of my favorite places to eat in Seattle.

1. Matador: This place has Tex-Mex gourment food and a tequila bar. I think it was one of the first places I went after I turned 21. We loved going to the happy hour there and getting their famous nachos and drinks! They also have the best long island ice teas I've ever had. I've had some fabulous times with my friends here. It's one of the places I miss the most!

2. Wasabi Bistro: Caitlin introduced us to this place. It was my first sushi experience. Although, I usually only order their Seattle Tempura roll. It's salmon, cream cheese, avacado and teriyaki sauce! Love it!!!

3. Elliot Bay Pizza Company: Okay, so I couldn't find a picture of the front the the restaurant, but it's not pretty so it's all good. Heather and I randomly found this place freshman year of college. I'm in love with their turkey, bacon, ranch sandwich! I think it's the only thing I've ever ordered. SOOOOO GOOD!

4. Greenlake Bar & Grill: If there's a wait to be seated, this is the best place to be. It's right by Greenlake so you can just go for a walk while you wait! Janelle and I went to happy hour here while I was visiting last weekend. Love their wedge salad and bbq chicken quesadillas!

5. Orrapin Thai Cusine: I haven't found better Thai food anywhere else! It's on Queen Anne hill across the street from Starbucks and Tully's. I'm obsessed with their chicken pad thai! Mine and Heather's car caught on fire right before we had dinner there once. Oh the memories...

Music Monday: Barcelona

To summarize, last Wednesday night was awesome! Heather and I got to see our friends Barcelona play a show in Boise. It's probably been a year and a half since we'd seen them last. We got the the venue early and ran into Brian and Chris. They weren't going on for a while so Heather and I headed over to The Matador. As soon as Heather and I walked through the door the owner said, "Hey! It's our two biggest fans!" We got seated and he brought us over complimentary shots. So sweet! The Barcelona guys showed up right after that and we had a great time catching up.

After some drinks, chips and guacamole we headed back over to the venue. The guys were fabulous! They played some of my favorite songs and a couple new ones. They were down in Los Angeles recently recording their new album which will come out in the next couple months. I can't wait for it!

Keep up to date with Barcelona on Twitter and Facebook.

Here are two songs from their album Absolutes that they played at the show.

Wardrobe Wednesday

I apologize for the kind of lame pictures. It was almost 11:00 pm and it was the only place I could think of to take pictures. So, I wore this outfit out on Friday night. Heather and I met up with some friends at The Matador. I wanted to dress up a bit, but also keep it simple and fairly warm because it was pretty chilly. I ended up throwing a black short sleeve cardigan over this when we left.

Top: Express

Leggings: Target

Shoes: Jeffery Campbell

Ring: Forever21

Black Bangle: Forever21

Michael, Daniel, Heather, Ashlee, Justin, Andy, Jessica, Brian

HOME

First of all I just have to say, it's so nice to be home! Right as we were crawling into bed last night Heather said, "Maybe we should just pack up and go home right now." We were all so tempted, but also so tired.

As I've said during the whole trip we've been getting up every morning at 6:00 am and leaving at 7:00 am. This morning we were all so ready to get out of there and get home that we didn't eat breakfast and ran out of the hotel at 6:45 am. We looked up the closest Starbucks, but it ended up being in a strange outdoor mall. There were a bunch of homeless people wandering around and we walked forever and up some stairs before we found it.

We finally got out out Salt Lake and on the road around 7:15 am. It was nice to finally see Boise on the road signs!

We got to the Idaho border around 9:00 am or so and stopped to take a picture. Right after that it started to rain pretty hard. We made it to Burley around 10:00 am and stopped for fuel and a snack. We ended up getting french fries at the A&W connected to the Sinclair. Then I took over driving for the rest of the time. We finally made it home around 12:45 pm. It was so nice to be greeted by my mom (my dad got sent to Texas yesterday on a fire assignment) and see our kitty babies! We talked for a little while and then mom took us out to lunch. We came back home and just relaxed for the afternoon, watching Better Off Ted.

This evening we went to Boise Fry Company for dinner. From 6:00 - 9:00 pm tonight Boise Fry Company is donating 20% of their sales to my uncle's non-profit Wish Granters. Wish Granters is an Idaho non-profit that grants wishes to adults 18+ with terminal illness, currently serving Ada and Canyon counties. If you feel called, you can donate to Wish Granters HERE.

We had a great dinner and a fun time. Right now we're back home and we'll be relaxing for the rest of the night. Heather and Jenny are sitting next to me with wash clothes on their faces. They're trying an oil cleansing method, which I'm going to partake in once I'm done with this post. It's something they wanted to do earlier on the roadtrip, but we didn't have the oil. From what they've said it feels amazing. I'll let you know how it goes.

Anyway, Jenny is going to be staying with us tomorrow and then leaving on Thursday to head up to Seattle/Arlington. I think we might go see Bridesmaids tomorrow and maybe go to The Matador for dinner. I'm so NOT ready to get back to real life. I'm working Thursday and Friday and then will be going out of town for the weekend to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday.

I'm hoping to have some fun blog posts over the next couple days and in the next week. Maybe some roadtrip recaps and some other fun stuff. I can't wait to get my film developed from my HOLGA. Keep a lookout because I'll definitely be posting some of those photos.

Okay, time to oil my face, pour myself a marg and enjoy The Voice. Goodnight!

Seattle Trip

I did the same thing with these Seattle pictures as I did with the Whistler pictures, forgot to post them until a month after the trip. My mom had a convention in Seattle in February and so the whole family tagged along. We were there from February 19-24th. We stayed with my mom's aunt and uncle Friday and Saturday and then moved to The Camlin downtown Sunday-Wednesday.

Monday the family went out and had a wonderful day in Seattle. We went to the Olympic Sculpture Park for the first time, had lunch at Elliot Bay Pizza Company, went to the Locks in Ballard and stopped at Pike Place Market. That night we had dinner at Mexico with Jenny and her family. Jenny stayed the night with us and we hit up the hot tub and watched The Hangover with my mom.

Tuesday, Heather, Jenny and I hung out with Caitlin, visited a little with Janelle and then met Megan and Aimee for dinner at The Matador. It was such a great trip! I love Seattle and miss my girls so much!! Sorry this is such a long post! I took so many pictures and it was too much work to think about making it two posts.