M. Henrietta

On Friday, Neal & I had a date night. I had purchased a Groupon a while ago for Pops for Champagne, an adorable champagne bar in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. I've been to Pops a few times with girlfriends, but Neal has never been. So I was excited for him to try it. We didn't want to eat at Pops, so we decided to try a new restaurant: M. Henrietta.

Some friends of ours had given a good recommendation for M. Henry, a brunch place in Andersonville, the next neighborhood south of ours. We hadn't had a chance to go there yet* and thought it was the perfect time to try it. Then we found out that M. Henry is strictly a brunch place and isn't open for dinner. But we also found they have a sister restaurant that does serve dinner.

M. Henrietta is cute and rustic with simply delicious food. Their menu is brief, but they have wonderful selections; it's BYOB, so I recommend grabbing a bottle of wine, beer or hard cider before you stop in for dinner. Neal decided on the shiraz glazed salmon served w/cous cous & sautéed herbed vegetables. I had the lovely spice crusted pork tenderloin (actual name, so cute!) with balsamic braised baby onions, brussel sprouts, leeks, pancetta and golden raisins, with rosemary and salt roasted baby yukon golds (pictured below).

We decided to skip dessert at M. Henrietta (a very hard thing to do) and head to Pops. At Pops we had a bottle of Vigneau-Chevreau Vouvray Pétillant Demi-Sec from Loire Valley, France - a sparkling wine. I don't know a lot about sparkling wines or how to choose them, so we went with a price range we were comfortable with and picked something French, instead of going with an Italian Prosecco, which I've had before. I liked it, but I didn't love it. The next time we go, we'll try something else! We also split the seasonal cobbler, which was cherry & apple that night. Scrumptious! But small. (We included the cork in the picture for size comparison.)

It was a terrific date night. And we look forward to frequenting M. Henrietta more often. And Pops occasionally!

*Neal & I actually went to M. Henry for brunch on Sunday. Look for a future post about this visit!