When we renovated the kitchen earlier this year, we bought a ton of extra stuff for "just in case" because I figured it would be easier to return a bunch of stuff at once than need to run to IKEA in Charlotte on a Tuesday night from Columbia. So overbuy we did, and we ended up taking a ton of stuff back. But for reasons I can no longer remember I ended up with about $900 in store credit, on top of the $1000 that I got back on my credit card.
We had vague ideas of what we might use that $900 for- mine was a couch, to replace one of our extremely ratty ones. Patrick wanted a desk. But we ended up deciding last week after finding out that our six year old dishwasher was broken with a $200+ repair cost, to use that store credit to get a new $400 machine. It sucks to get a new appliance like that every five or so years but they just don't make them to last like they used to. And we used this one a lot. A LOT. Food blogging = lots of dishes, sometimes.
To stave off some of the tediousness of driving to north Charlotte to get into a soup of people herding through IKEA, I suggested we stop and enjoy some lunch. When heading to IKEA I often stop at Amelie's French Bakery in NoDa (North Davidson, a neighborhood slightly above uptown Charlotte), but I had always wanted to go to Crepe Cellar. So to Crepe Cellar we went, right as they opened at 11:30 a.m.
I thought it was a much more breakfast oriented place, what with the name and all, but it was definitely lunch and dinner-y-er. The menu boasted that the pesto brie fries were voted the best in Charlotte, and given that I love pesto AND fries AND cheese, we got those to start.
Oh man. These things were fantastic. I'd never have thought to put pesto on fries, but it just WORKS. Probably a quarter of the deliciousness comes from the as-yet-unseen in this photo pool of olive oil that these fries are swimming in. It made for a tasty if not slightly high fat appetizer, but who cares, winter is coming!
Shortly thereafter, our entrees came out, the veggie burger for me, and the chicken cordon bleu sandwich for Patrick.
I got a side of pesto roasted brussels sprouts to accompany, he went with more fries. Everything was top notch there, and we left absolutely full to the top. The menu is inventive, full of surprises, yet still accessible for those who came in thinking they were just going to get a very thin pancake.
We each got a craft beer to enjoy with lunch, to get us ready for IKEA, but not before we wandered around NoDa a bit, something neither of us had ever done.
While Patrick hunted Pokemon, I looked around at the many murals and cute buildings in the area, which is like a bigger, artier version of Columbia's Five Points.
NoDa, you've got a lot, just like the advertisement for the entire Charlotte area declares. We'll definitely be back to explore some more, hopefully without an added IKEA trip next time though!