Friday, February 18, 2011

A lovely night out

Tonight was the kind of night that makes me remember why I really love the city.

Waterfront view of the Old Town Artwalk

I went out in Old Town Scottsdale tonight. Not the bar-hopping scene filled with cougars and 30K millionaires that one generally associates with "going-out on the town" in Scottsdale. But the artsy, locally owned, fine crafted, handmade, community centered Old Town Scottsdale tucked just a few streets back behind all of the rowdy happy hour goers.

It was one of the nicest nights out that I've had in a while. It wasn't particularly fancy or special, just a laid back and relaxing kind of evening with beautiful weather and pleasant company.

The evening started off "sweetly" as I met up with some of the girls at Citizen Public House for the Cupcakes & Cocktails Event put on by the lovely ladies of Cupcake Lovein. Cupcakes & Cocktails!? Does it get any better than that? The event was great and I got to mingle and meet with some of people I have been working on websites with.

We were treated to tasty cupcake creations on the patio, all baked with liquors; cherry martini, raspberry lemondrop (with vodka) and Guinness chocolate stout cupcakes. Citizen Public House had also created 3 delicious cupcake inspired cocktails specially for the event: Butterscotch Creme, Carrot Cake, and Lemon Cream Pie. They were all amazing and I regret now, not getting photos!

After having our dessert first, we decided to walk to The Herb Box for dinner. I had forgotten that Thursdays in Old Town were the Artwalk so I was pleasantly surprised to walk out from the parking garage and into a street filled with booths and the sounds of live music.

We enjoyed the view of the waterfront outside on the patio and listened to local band Vinyl Station play beautifully. They had fabulous original songs and fantastic covers including "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons and "Falling Slowly" by Swell Season. Such beautiful, melodic acoustic songs, I could have listened to them play all night.

For dinner we tried a sampling from their appetizers which included falafel balls, hummus plate, and brown sugar pulled pork sliders. The sliders were amazing and now I want to try making something similar myself! =9

After dinner we joined the other art lovers on the waterfront bridge to look at some beautiful artwork and jewelry. There was one painting that caught my eye that I absolutely loved. Unfortunately she did not have any large prints (I couldn't afford to buy the original!) but she did have a magnet. I asked if the binary in the background spelled anything and she said indeed it did. The message spelled "Retweet". It was perfect for this bird loving, geeky girl. You can see more from the Binary Birds collection here.

There is just something about the buzz in the air of people gathered together enjoying good food, local music and art. Getting out in the crowd, chatting with new people, and being a part of that buzz really filled me up tonight and made my spirit hum with excitement and creativity.

It is moments like these when I forget about the heat, the traffic, snotty people, bad air, worse drivers, and remember the reason I fell in love with this city in the first place. It is so alive.

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