Date night – a rare and amazing species that is spotted very rarely these days.  With a two year old, an 8 week old and a 2 week old business, you have to take the bull by the horns whenever it happens to trot on by.  So with the sitter in place we happily drove out of the driveway with no plans and a few hours to kill.  Where should we go?  I had a hankering for a margarita and a patio – Lopez on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights fulfilled both the requirements.

Two big positives right off the bat were the valet parking (not a whole lot of parking on a very busy street) and the friendly hostesses.  We nabbed a table for two on the patio right before it got completely full and appreciated the attentive, helpful wait staff.  I thoroughly enjoyed my White Peach Margarita, a delicious choice on a hot evening, made from the real thing (no syrups here, folks).  Next up we split the Iron Chef Guacamole made with blue cheese, sage and bacon.  I recently met my first bacon guacamole at the Silver Spoon awards dinner a few weeks ago, and I must say; I’m in love.  Though Lopez’s version was perfectly pleasant, it really doesn’t hold a candle to the one I tried from Bac (an Asian-American bistro & bar located in Tremont).  The bacon was crumbled on top, not really infused into the flavor of the guac, and the blue cheese chunks were way too big.

The Chubby Cook ordered two small plates as his main course and I an entree.  My blue corn battered soft shell crab tacos with mango habenero salsa and lemon crema arrived on the plate looking very lonely.  No sides.  No extra salsa our crema.  Not even a lime wedge for a garnish.  Just two small soft shell tacos.  Poor little tacos.  Flavor wise they were good but nothing great to report.  On the other hand, The Chubby Cook was chowing down on some amazing shrimp’n'grits with corn and chile grits, smoked cheese, roasted pepper and scallion.  The texture of the grits was perfect and the level of heat was just right.  His second small plate, the southwest braised pork ribs with a spicy mango mop, creamy slaw and a parsnip tumbleweed, wasn’t so small.  Turns out the server was confused and put in a large plate order for the ribs.  The manager graciously accepted the mistake and only charged us for the small plate without hesitation.  Well done, Lopez, good customer service goes a long way.  The ribs were tasty but had some sort of weird spice that numbed my tongue upon first bite – not like spicy hot numb, just numb.  Kinda weird.

Though thoroughly satisfied, the server managed to sell us on an interesting sounding dessert that we just couldn’t pass up – a spicy beet chocolate truffle with strawberry preserve.  Beets and chocolate?  How could we resist?  Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much, so I was pleasantly surprised.  Man is this a good dessert.  It’s a layer of chocolate cake, then cream, then another layer of cake, then more cream with the strawberry preserves drizzled over the top.  There really is no beet flavor, but the beets do provide an incredible moisture to the cake without making it dense and heavy.  The touch of cayenne in the cake imparted a nice zing without being overpowering.  The cream was smooth and the preserves added that last touch of brightness that pulled the whole thing together.  We may have to return to Lopez sooner rather than later to dissect how they created such an interesting dessert…