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For Emilee's 30th birthday, I took her to
The Melting Pot in Charlotte. We visited the one on King's Road on Sunday afternoon. We were both excited about it, since neither of us had been there. The word on the street was that it was great eating, but a little on the expensive side of the culinary scale.
They post their
menu online, which helped us get an idea of what we were up against. We elected to try the full four-course meal, "Fondue Fusion." It included one lobster tail, which neither of us had tried but wanted to. The price lived up to expectations. It was more than I had ever put down for a single meal. But it was my wife's birthday, so I figured she had earned it after putting up with me for five years.
The Cheddar Cheese Fondue appetizer was good. I liked it better than Emilee. It contained sharp cheddar cheese and beer, neither of which was something that Emilee consumed before that. It's a good time to say that Em and I are both "tea totallers." We don't drink any alcoholic beverages, so you might say it was curious that every course contained some sort of flavoring of the boozing variety. The alcohol burns away, but the flavor that is left doesn't always justify its use. The appetizer may have been one of those occasions. Our server displayed his knowledge of menu and cautiously disclosed that the beer used in the cheese fondue was Busch. Since I'm not a beer drinker, I could only react as I have received knowledge from those around me. I hear Busch is not the beer of choice for brewery afficionados. At any rate, there was a sharp tang to the cheese that was part cheddar and part draught. Emilee was not helped by the breads that we dipped: rye and pumpernickel. Both of those were on the pungent side. We also had apples and veggies that blended well.
The second course was a small salad. Emilee chose the House salad with Peppercorn Ranch while I had the Spinach and Mushroom salad with warm burgundy dressing. We were both pleased. The burgundy dressing was very flavorful and complemented the spinach greens perfectly. The ranch dressing was a big hit with Emilee, too. The size of the salad was reasonable, too. We had just eaten enough cheese to start feeling full, so we needed a little breather before the main course.
The entree was a smorgasbord of flavors which included filet mignon, marinated NY strip, chicken breast, shrimp, lobster, ravioli, bratwurst, veggies plus seven sauces, garlic butter lemon. These were brought to us raw along with instructions on how to cook them in the coq au vin pot at our table. I thought most of the sauces were excellent. The cream cheese based dip was ok. Em liked it on the vegetables. It was a little too plain for me. I thought the most interesting sauce was the yogurt curry sauce. It was a mild curry that probably went best with the veggies. It was not my favorite, though. There was a ginger plum sauce, a worcestershire sauce, and a honey mustard sauce that were all excellent. The honey mustard was more spicy than sweet, but it was dyn-o-mite on the bratwurst. There was a gorgonzola dip for the steak and a shrimp cocktail sauce made of chili's rather than tomatoes that were also very good. By this point in the meal we were both stuffed, but there was no way we were walking away before trying the real showstopper.
The chocolate dessert fondue was amazing. There is no other way to describe it. We requested the Flaming Turtle, because it seemed a little more interesting on paper containing pecans and caramel and because I like fire. It had the rum-incited flames that were just plain fun for me to watch, but I'm not sure how much flavor that it actually added. In this sweet fondue, we dipped strawberries, marshmellows, brownies, cheesecake, and pound cake. The strawberries were the coup-de-gras. We requested seconds of those.
I burned my tongue once, which is probably why they tell you not eat directly from the skewer. Duh. Other than that, the only thing I wish I could do over was the appetizer. It would be really neat to have a sampler that would allow us to try multiple cheeses to see which ones we like. We didn't ask for this, so I don't know that they wouldn't accommodate. At any rate, we both feel we got our money's worth and left stuffed full.
Overall, I would say it was a glorious experience, which seems to be the point of the whole fondue thing. The food was great, but it is probably intended to be more of an experiential thing. You know. It's just one of those things everyone should do at least once. Those little home fondue pots you get a Wal-Mart just don't do fondue justice, especially when you get a taste of what it can be. We would like to go back, but the heavy price tag will keep us away for at least a while, maybe until Em's 40th birthday. However, Emilee and I agreed that to go for just a dessert would definitely be a possibility. Happy 30th, babe!
Emilee and I used the afternoon to take Grant to pick out our pumpkins for the Fall. There were plenty to choose from at the Methodist church in Boger City. (Ironically, we live in the Pumpkin Center, NC area and there is not a pumpkin patch to be found. What's up with that??) At any rate, this first picture was when we first arrived. Grant started making selections right away.
We picked out four pumpkins about this size and one little one that Grant selected himself. They'll look great outside the front of our house this fall. We won't carve any this year. Hopefully that will help them last through Thanksgiving. Grant's not in to that a lot anyway. 
