Happy Anniversary to Us!

To celebrate our one-year anniversary, Liz and I got all fancied up and went out to a place called Geja’s. It’s a fondue place, which is something she’s been wanting to try for a while.

Walking down to the entrance.

Quick peek around the interior. A lot of my shots are like this, as the light was super low and there was a heavy red tone to everything. While I did take some photos, I didn’t want to break out the flash which, in a place as dark as this, is equivalent to “causing a scene.”

We had our choice of tables – either a nice booth that was a bit more intimate, or a fancier elevated table near the main area (where we could see the guitarist playing). The elevated table was neat, but forced us both to sit on the same side together; not only that, we would have been in such close proximity to the table in front of us… it would have felt like we were “watching” them eat the whole time.

And so – we opted for the booth.

I’ve been to a fondue place before, but that was ages ago when I was in Columbus. I remembered there was cheese and oil involved, but forgot about the particulars. This pot here has oil, and is used primarily for cooking the meats and veggies.

First up, fruits and bread. Well – first up was actually drinks (sangria and martinis). Then, we got to nibble on chunks of fruit and bread, dipping it in cheese. Mixed in to the melted cheese was wine, cherry brandy, and a bunch of other things I’m forgetting. My favorite of the bunch here was actually the grapes we had – those, covered in a bit of cheese, led to a pretty interesting sequence of flavors.

Main course. We had a mixture of seafood (lobster, scallops, Gulf shrimp) along with some beef tenderloin. These items were all cooked by us at the table, using skewers and placing each into the oil.

We both had different colored skewers, but everything got mixed around pretty quickly. Trying to keep stuff from falling off and floating around got to be a fun little challenge, each time.

And finally – ending with some dessert and coffee. We got more fruit and some poundcake, which we then dipped into some great melted chocolate.

At first, looking at the various plates, I didn’t think there was all that much food. But by the end of the night, I was pretty well stuffed.

Ah, what fun. In talking tonight, we both feel like the year has been both fast and slow. To both of us, it feels like it’s been actually more than just a year.

Guess it’s time to start looking around for where to go to dinner, next year.