Our Anniversary Dinner!

It’s hard to believe that Laurie and met only 37 years ago this past April… Time does fly!  She put up with/survived my extra-long hours and travel during my working life and now she and I have been retired for almost 6 years!  Life is good here in East Tennessee…

We recently marked our 36^th wedding anniversary!  We usually don’t do anything fancy but we do try to go out and have a nice dinner somewhere just to celebrate our years together…

We like Bonefish Grill.  It is a chain but the food is reliable, the cost is reasonable and service is always competent.  This restaurant is located in Knoxville’s Turkey Creek Shopping Area.

Slightly dimmed lighting, a candle on the table, tablecloths and a cloth napkin!  What more could one ask for to celebrate an anniversary? 

Bonefish Grill is owned by Bloomin’ Brands in Tampa Florida.  There are at least 194 Bonefish Grill locations, mostly in the south and southeast USA.  Bloomin’ Brands also owns Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Flemings Prime Steakhouse and Outback Steakhouse. 

For our libations, Laurie went with one of her favorites, a Dirty Martini made with Absolute Vodka. ($8.85) I stuck with my usual, a Miller Lite. ($3.70)

We decided to break tradition and try something a little different for an appetizer.  Our standard is the spicy and satisfying Bang Bang Shrimp! ($10.50) We did stick with the shrimp theme, ordering the Thai Coconut Shrimp, 6 jumbo shrimp in a sweet and spicy sauce.  They were very good!

Our server brought us this loaf of bread with some slightly spicy and tasty dipping sauce.  We’ve been avoiding bread lately but, what the heck…it was our anniversary.  The dipping sauce was very nice and the bread was a bit above the norm for local restaurants in East Tennessee.

I just didn’t feel like having seafood for my entrée.  So I ordered Lily’s Chicken with goat cheese, spinach, artichoke hearts and lemon basil sauce.  For my sides I ordered the sugar snap peas and an upgraded second side of the White Truffle Mac n’ Cheese. ($15.30 plus $4.50) 

The chicken was very nice and the sugar snap peas were fine.  Truffles mixed in mac n’ cheese is not my cup of tea!  The truffles strong earthy flavor totally overwhelmed the rest of the dish.  In summary, I thought that $19.80 for my meal was a bit steep for what I received…

On the other hand, Laurie ordered exactly what she wanted from the start and she loved her dinner! (Happy wife, happy life!) She had these 2 lobster tails with the sugar snap peas and a scoop of potatoes au gratin. ($28.50) In my opinion, a few more sugar snaps and a half scoop more of the potatoes would have been nice…

We generally avoid desserts and we don’t keep sweets, baked goods or ice cream at home.  However, in keeping with our celebration we decided to share a dessert.  This is the Macadamia Nut Brownie, a flourless brownie, raspberry sauce, whipped cream and vanilla ice cream, sprinkled with macadamia nuts. ($6.50) It was scrumptious! 

All in all, it was a very nice dinner to cap off our big day!  Bonefish Grill in Knoxville at the Turkey Creek Shopping Area is located at 11395 Parkside Drive.  Phone: 865-966-9777.  This specific location can be found on the Web at https://www.bonefishgrill.com/locations/tn/turkey-creek.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what we’ve been up to!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave