The New Year festivities don’t end until after my birthday in our household. We celebrated my birthday this past weekend. My day started with hugs and kisses from my girls and little handmade cards. A dear friend offered to babysit the girls overnight so my hubby and I could enjoy a leisurely dinner and time alone without the kids. Bless her heart! My favorite part of these special occasions is that my hubby and I get to go to a non-kid-friendly restaurant and indulge our palates without worrying about the food being suitable for the kids.

I would say that my hubby and I are foodies. We don’t get to try new restaurants as often as we’d like but whenever we do, we love to try new things and we’re always looking for new flavor combinations. Although on occasion, it is nice to get dressed up to go to a more formal upscale restaurant, we prefer to try all different types of cuisine in a more casual setting, whether it’s a hole-in-the-wall or the latest trendy spot.

We chose Bistro Joe’s, a restaurant that opened recently on the upper floor of a gourmet market here in Metro Detroit. The promise of fresh, high quality ingredients, and menu items that seemed to offer new twists on popular dishes, piqued our interest. To match the ambiance, I chose a more casual chic outfit which I featured on my last post. I absolutely love the amethyst-like bejeweled collar on this J.Crew sweater. And the Paige Verdugo jeans…I don’t know how else to put it. They slip on like butter.

We ended the evening by finally doing what we both have longed to do when the kids are away,…karaoke! I’m not joking. We sang our hearts out to the oldies and tried our best to keep up with the current songs. Couldn’t have thought of a better way to end a very special day.

Today’s natural high: I think it’s pretty obvious…celebrating my birthday with loved ones.

We’ve found, from experience, that small plates are more to our liking than the traditional course of appetizers followed by entrees. Since the restaurant didn’t offer small plates, we ended up ordering a good share of appetizers in addition to the entrees. The entrees were nothing to write home about. I had a lobster seafood pasta dish and my hubby had the short ribs. Their signature appetizer, “Tacushi,” a combination of spicy tuna sushi in a mini taco, didn’t disappoint but wasn’t mind-blowing. The standout by far was the beets, candied ginger and pistachio dish with a delicious dressing. I’ve always liked beets but aside from a Greek salad, I don’t remember seeing them featured on menus much until recently. It seems like beets are popping up everywhere these days. That’s a good thing.

J.Crew sweater | Paige jeans (also here) | Zara ankle boots (similar) | Cole Haan clutch

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