Date Night celebrates St. Patrick’s Day 24 hours early just up the hill from beautiful downtown Vinings. We are barely inside the perimeter at Padriac’s on a double date night. Our friends Randy and Claudia are joining us, and we haven’t had a chance to visit with them for awhile, so Date Night takes a long time, not because the service is slow (it’s quite good, in fact), but because we are talking so much. Join us for double the fun as we go to Padriacs and a special mystery destination for dessert.
We first visited Padriac’s last summer, when some friends of ours had a baby shower there. This was the best baby shower ever, because what could be better than beer at a shower? Beer at Date Night isn’t bad either, and we start off with a Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, and I have a Dark Castle, a black and tan made with Guinness and Newcastle. (Dark stout and Newcastle, Dark Castle, get it?)
Remember that it’s the day before St. Paddy’s Day, so why not drink something Irish? There are an impressive 39 beers on tap here and another 40 more available in bottles. (You hear that restaurant chains?) The beer is good and cold and the shandy tastes like carbonated lemonade, a refreshing treat on a record-hot Atlanta winter day.
Because there are four of us, we order two appetizers. First up is Gouda Tots, balls of potato and gouda that are deep fried. They tasted “Gouda”, but the kitchen probably could have left them in the oil a little longer to make them darker and crispier.
Next up is the lobster nachos, a huge plate of chips, cheese, beans, lobster, salsa, and sour cream. We get the half order and it is enough for one person to eat for a meal. The nachos are really good and the four of us polish them off quickly. You must try these if you visit Padriac’s.
After sharing two appetizers, none of us is really hungry, so each couple decides to share an entree. We both order the same thing, which is the nightly fish and chips special. We are feeling very British (hey, it’s right next door to Ireland, right?) as we consume the crunchy fish fillets and crispy fries.
The kitchen is nice enough to split our plates for us, so the photo you see is a half order, which is plenty of food. Don’t get us started on portion sizes, but we can assure you that the Padriac portions are plentiful and pleasing.
Date Night Extra! There are about eight things on the menu for dessert and they all look good, but there is a Cowlick’s yogurt store in the same shopping center as Padriacs, so we take a short walk for dessert. Cowlick’s is one of those places where you serve your own yogurt and top it with whatever you want and they charge you 45 cents an ounce. We have three similar places near our house and wonder how they all stay in business, but Cowlick’s is owned by the Moe’s chain and only has two locations so far. It’s very similar to Yogli-Mogli or Pinkberry or Yoforia, so it makes you wonder why Moe’s is coming so late to the yogurt party.
Anyway, I think I had red velvet cake, cake batter and Irish mint yogurt with a variety of toppings. You can really run up the weight, and mine came to 12 ounces or so. It was cool and refreshing on an unseasonably warm night, and fortunately, we have many bike rides planned in the next few days to work it off.
Padriacs on Google:
Friday Date Night 