On Saturday night I officially celebrated my birthday with my friends. I had a really hard time finding a place to go for a couple of reasons 1) I had about 16 people coming so the place had to be able to accommodate that many without renting a room 2) I did not want to do dinner, I prefer to leave people the option to do what they want and dinner forces money on people 3) I wanted the option to go someplace else if people got bored. I originally called Coup D'etat and they took down my information but did not call me back for a few days so I had to move on. This is the second time I have attempted to go there and could not make it work so I'm a little peeved about it. In looking for another place to go my fabulous friends recommended places ranging from Chuck E Cheese and to a wine bar ( you might see another reason planning for this group is tough).  I bounced the idea of The Libertine located in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis. This newish restaurant is the fourth incarnation of this location since Figlio's left it after 20 some years there. I called them up to see if they could accomodate us as I had never been there before. To which the man on the line, Dave, responded with "absolutely." As he is taking my information down he is asking me the standard questions, time, date, etc. When he asks how many I said "Should be 15." Dave responds "Well it would be better for us if you could have 14" and I think to  myself "uh wha" he says "yea 14 works better for us so if you could call up one of your friends and just say 'yea you didn't make the list' that should work." At this point I realize he is being saracastic and he's won me over. The rest of the phone call was just like this and I realized this would be a great night.

Cue night of and we arrive and they seat us in the lounge area which is perfect. You can order everything you could in the dining room and have a total view of the entire restaurant. There is also this amazing wooden centerpiece with white candles and wax dripping all the way down.  It was sexy and romantic without being too girly. It was also decorated mostly like this light wood combined with black and white tiles. There is a long bar running almost the length of the dining area in the middle of the room. It also had some quirky pieces a Pomeranian pillow and the plates on the wall appeared to look like George Washington or that era. Overall it was relatively modern in it's style choices.

[caption id="attachment_348" align="aligncenter" width="400"]IMG_1271 Lounge centerpiece[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_357" align="aligncenter" width="400"]IMG_1299 View of the restaurant at the end of the night.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_358" align="aligncenter" width="400"]IMG_1300 Why yes, I did want this cute dog at my birthday party.[/caption]

Cool, huh? The next thing I noticed was the names of the cocktails. They included such things as: Yes please ;), Yo La Tengo, and The Shadow Knows. Not only were the names amazing, I mean who references an old comic book character and 90s movie of the same name with Alec Baldwin? I'll tell you who: my new favorite place! Not only were the names creative but they were delicious too:

[caption id="attachment_349" align="aligncenter" width="350"]IMG_1273 This is called "Life of Pear" and was probably my fav of the night[/caption]

I did order one appetizer the Tuna Poke Tacos which consisted of I believe Tuna, some greens and radish. It was so good and I don't even like seafood.

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A few minutes after we sit down, Dave comes over to us and introduces himself. He shakes my hand, asks if we need anything and wishes me a happy birthday. He blocked off half the lounge space for us which was amazing so we could spread out. He was funny in person too. Maybe about 30 minutes or into the night out comes a dessert and the waiter is asking who it's for. We all look around and then someone realizes it's a birthday dessert for me. Now I am pretty sure none of my friends ordered it, they denied it so it seems as though the Libertine ordered it for me. It was really delicious chocolate cake with  crunchy chocolate bar on top. It was sweet but not overdone, just perfect!

IMG_1276b me with bday cake

Overall it was a great night. Most of my friends were able to make it and I hope they had a good time. All I want for my birthday is to be with the people I care about, it's the best gift I can receive. I feel blessed every year that I have so many family and friends willing to brave the frigid air to be with me for a few hours. If any of my friends are reading this thank you so much! Also special shout out to my older sister who left her newborn baby for an evening and had her first drink in 10 months! She showed in a dress and heels because she's a baller.

Now onto the outfit. I bought this dress a little over a month ago at Primp so unfortunately it's not there anymore. But I searched high and low to find similar ones. I didn't realize how short it really was because the laser cut so I spent evening yanking it down, because I am a lady :)

IMG_2767bIMG_1295b

Dress: Primp (similar, similar)

Shoes: Calvin Klein: these were featured in my NYE post and are sold out. So...similar, similar.

Watch: Marc by Marc Jacobs Baker Watch

Earrings: Target 

Rings and Bracelet: Primp

Oh one more thing, this cool display was in Calhoun Square and I just thought it was neat.

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