At this stage in my life, any date night is blog worthy.  But last night’s date was my Christmas gift from Marc, and was a really lovely time.  Before Rayna was born, Marc and I used to have a membership at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philly.  We loved it, because of course the shows are really fun, but also it ensured that we would actually get out and have a nice “city date” and not just eat at Bahama Breeze for the umpteenth time.

So flash forward two kids later and the theatre is just one of those nice things we used to do, and might do again in a few years.  Instead, when trying to come up with my Christmas gift, Marc went ahead and bought a membership again, to make sure that we actually went on some fun dates.  And what’s nice is that they are pretty well spaced so they’ll still be pretty special.

Last night’s, though, was extra special because the show was ‘The King and I.”  I love The King and I.  So our babysitter finally arrived and we were off to the city to try to find someplace to eat before the show.  Note to self, and any others who might want to get dinner near the theatre on a Saturday night at 6:30….make reservations more than a day in advance. I was thinking about trying a Greek restaurant nearby called Kanella, and then they were booked.  And then everything was booked.  So we decided to try Jones or El Azteca if we couldn’t get in anywhere else (both of those were suggestions from Twitter friends, I love getting immediate Twitter feedback!).

After roaming around the streets around the theatre, we started getting stressed out about getting back to the theatre on time.  So we had to go somewhere very close and eat fast.  There’s a Panera-esque place right by the theatre, there was a Chipotle-esque place, and a Chinese place.  Marc was voting for Chinese and I was getting distressed that we weren’t going somewhere nicer.  So we decided to go just a smidgen further and then we stumbled upon M.  That’s the name of the restuarant, “M.”  It was attached to a lovely courtyard of the historic Morris Hotel and was quiet and romantic-ey.  They didn’t have availablity in the dining room, but could seat us in the bar area, at one of the tables looking out of the window…score!

Then we get the menu and the choices were strange.  Almost everything was priced around $12-18 and I deduced that they must’ve been small plates.  And they were, kinda.  You could order small plates a la carte or get a sampling of 3 for $30, 4 for $40, etc.  We decided to just get 2 each, one soup and one meal.  The descriptions of the food were perplexing; it would say something like “Butternut Agnolotti. Chicken Sausage. Pickled Cantaloupe. Raspberry.”  Huh?  But we went with it, and it was definitely interesting and delicious, albeit tiny.

First, the bread came with a “burnt hay butter”, yes burnt HAY, which I didn’t care for, it was almost like someone sprinkled char from a grill on perfectly good butter, but whatever Marc liked it.  Then came the amuse bouche which was a “smoked chocolate” which tasted like crumbled bacon, very strange.  I also did not care for this, and Marc did.  Then were the soups, mine was something I never heard of like Jerusalem artichoke?  I don’t know, but it was very yummy.  Marc’s clam chowder was good, but no Jerusalem artichoke.  Then our meals came out.  I should’ve noticed that the waiter kind of asked me “what else” when I ordered the agnolotti that it was going to be miniscule.  But here it is:

that's it!

It was good, just not as good as Marc’s rib eye with cheddar crust.  That was killer.  So I guess now that you are fore warned I would recommend M as the food was really different and delicious if you know what you’re getting into.  Plus, the service was great and they were really into helping us get to the show on time.

So the show.  Was.  Fabulous.  It was really cute, just like my beloved movie edition.  No one can replace Yul Brynner, but the main actress was actually way more likeable than Deborah Kerr, who I never really cared for.  The sets were great, the extras were great, the children were just ok (one flubbed her lines and some other tiny ones seemed to have a hard time focusing), but one MAJOR distraction was one of the background dancers.  Imagine an Asian Jack Black in tights doing ballet with serious GUSTO.  The other guys dancing in the Uncle Tom’s Cabin performance were all toned and muscular, but this one guy was like Chris Farley in the Patrick Swayze Chippendales SNL sketch.  I couldn’t stop giggling, it was a riot!

I’m really looking forward to our next night out at the theatre, but it’s not until May.  It will probably seem like a lifetime til then!

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