Wine Weekend Part Deux

This weekend's wine adventure continued on Sunday night with a dinner with girlfriends at a wine bar in old Ellicott City, MD, called Pure Wine Cafe. I had initially wanted to try one of two wine bars at home in Westminster, but both were closed on Sundays so on to Plan B. What a great Plan B it was.

Pure Wine Cafe is located in a historic house on Ellicott City's Main Street and has 2 small dining rooms, a bar, and an outdoor patio. On a Sunday night it wasn't too terribly busy but still pretty popular, so if you go on a Friday or Saturday I would recommend making a reservation. They only accept reservations for the dining room, the outdoor patio is first come first serve. We chose to sit in the dining room.

Their menu is largely tapas with three entree options and three taco selections. I opted for tapas because I wanted to try a little bit of everything and usually the portions are big enough that if you get two or three you're satisfied as if you ordered an entree.

I chose the Meatball Sliders, made with beef, roasted red peppers, a smoked paprika aioli, and fontina cheese. There was an option to add prosciutto bacon which of course I did. You get two, which is more than enough. These were well-seasoned and moist and the bacon was nice and crispy. I also loved the aioli.

My second choice were the Truffle Fries, served with a truffled black pepper aioli. You can never go wrong with truffle fries, they're always crispy and usually seasoned to perfection and these were no different. Caroline and Monica both ordered the truffle fries, and Monica also had the meatball sliders. Caroline chose the Pulled Pork tacos and Lauren a squash pasta entree in which the noodles were made of the squash. Both had good things to say about their choices.

I hardly ever order dessert at restaurants but this place had a signature popsicle on the menu, with the option to have it served with sparkling red or white wine. I was intrigued and opted to have mine served with sparkling white wine. This was so good! The popsicle had a fruity taste and paired well with the wine. It was the perfect refreshing summer dessert!

Caroline and Monica both chose the cheesecake parfait, pictured above, which I was told was amazing. Another hit to add to the restaurant circuit!