Birthday Bliss - Part 1: Cleveland Pops & Michaelangelo's

Anyone that knows me, knows I LOVE my birthday. Not the getting older part of course, but the chance to have a day month just for ME. I am an only child but was never spoiled - I'm still making up for that now! Plus with a birthday of May 31st, there is always lots of fun going on and a guaranteed long weekend. 

So much fun was had this year (including a trip to Vegas) that I have to break it up into several posts - here's Part I:

We kicked off the festivities with a Cleveland Pops Memorial Day concert on Friday thanks to me winning tickets from The Intercontinental! What a great surprise! I've never seen the Pops and it was a fantastic patriotic start to the weekend. It's a yearly concert and I highly recommend it.

Instead of trying to use the hotel voucher and dinner for two with such short notice (Buffy couldn't go) we opted to save it for another time.

We instead chose to eat at Michaelangelo's in Little Italy. It's been on my list for years and I've been teased with samples at various functions including last year's Taste of Little Italy. We started out at the bottle of wine at the bar waiting for our friends to join us. We chose a fantastic Nebbiolo (Tavoleto, Tenuta Carretta, 2006) that even my one red wine hating friend enjoyed. 

The VP of E*D*C (my BF) ordered the highly recommended duck and it was delicious. We especially enjoyed the farro with dried blueberries. 

ANATRA CON ARANCIA E GRAND MARNIER
The orange was soaked with Grand Marnier  - perfect to squeeze on the duck!

But I think pasta is the real star at this restaurant! I love that you can order 1/2 portions - so much more fun being able to try several things instead of getting a giant bowl of all the same pasta. My combo was heavenly:

PAPPARDELLE ALLA BOLOGNESE

FLAT RIBBONS OF PASTA, VEAL, MUSCOVY DUCK, GUINEA FOWL AND TOMATO-BAROLO RAGÙ SACCHETTI AL TARTUFO

RICOTTA AND BLACK TRUFFLE STUFFED PASTA AND BLACK TRUFFLE CREAM SAUCE 

The sacchetti alone is worth the trip - I normally don't love cream sauces but this was creamy perfection. Not too heavy but still luscious with a kiss of truffle.

Luckily our friends like to share so we also got to try this:

AGNOLOTTI DI ZUCCA
BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND PARSNIP FILLED HALF MOON PASTA, SPAGHETTI SQUASH AND FONTINA CREAM and
TORTELLINI CON PROSCIUTTO E PISELLI
FOUR CHEESE PASTA, PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA, GREEN PEAS AND PARMIGIANO REGGIANO 

And this:

Nightly special: Pork roulade with roasted fingerlings and greens

Because we loved our meal so much, we decided to go back for coffee and dessert. Good choice!

Panna Cotta
Baked Italian Cream, Organic Berries, And Warm Balsamic  

Cannoli E Biscotti
Assorted Cookies Ricotta & Chocolate Cannoli  

Gelato Della Casa
Guava gelato with grapefruit cavier and fresh berries

What a delicious meal! Everything was great except for the cannoli. Skip those and head to one of Little Italy's bakeries instead if you are craving one of those. You can see what cannolis you should be eating here.


Lots more fun was had by this birthday girl - stay tuned!