On Friday night, we celebrated my birthday with friends at one of my very favorite Charlotte restaurants, Customshop.
Customshop is a modern Roman trattoria with a neighborhood feel, located in the heart of Charlotte, NC. Our menu offers an eclectic mix of traditional and innovative American dishes inspired by Italian, French, and Spanish cuisine.
They did a great job accomodating our large party. At one end of the table were my friends Erin, Brittney, and Josh. That’s Brad on the end. We moved around a lot to make sure we got to chat with everyone.
The newlyweds, Jackie and Jason, plus the always-fun Josie sat across from me.
The other end of the table: Nate and Jenn, Gibson and Chloe.
I started out with a glass of sparkly dry Prosecco.
Thomas and Kevin (my best friend’s husband), studying the menus
Of course, I sat right beside Candace.
We entertained ourselves as we waited on our appetizers.
We ordered a cheese plate with cheddar, Cremont double cream, drunken goat, blu di bufala (blue cheese), and parmesan reggiano.
We also ordered a dried meat plate with flat bread, sopressata, cacciatori sweet sausage, and some of the best prosciutto I’ve ever had.
I would love to know where they get their prosciutto. Customshop, please do tell!
For my entree, I ordered the tuna ceviche and a butter lettuce salad with blue cheese and chives.
Kevin insisted on photographing his beautiful plate as well.
Grilled scallops, sweet potato puree, shitakes, asparagus and beet
Josie ordered a whole snapper (with the head) and couldn’t resist a photo opt. Of course, we only play with our food, after we are done eating. 😉
Thomas very generously ordered all three desserts from the menu to share with the table.
My favorite was the chocolate souflee. It was amazing — warm and gooey with vanilla ice cream.
We headed out later to Ed’s Tavern to meet up with even more friends and hang out late into the night…much later than my 28 year old body is used to being awake.
I feel so lucky to have such great friends to celebrate these little milestones of life.
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And to end the birthday festivities, the winner of the happy birthday strawberry giveaway is Nicole.
I absolutely love white cake with lots of frosting for my birthday cake.
Nicole, I’ll be in touch to get your information to send to California Giant Berry Farm so you can claim your prize.
