Hermanos - Will you be my Valentime?

Yesterday we had our Day-After Valentime’s Day Dinner. (Again, yes, I know it says Valentime’s and not Valentine’s. That’s what I call it – get over it.) Anyways, while Valentime’s day is a day filled with love, red hearts, pink cookies, sweet chocolates and $100 rose bouquets, the day AFTER Valentime’s day is when we go out to celebrate it. My husband and I eschew celebrating it on the actual day and instead go out the day after (to avoid the “love-happy” v-day crowds and over-priced entrée specials). Every year we usually go to Bistro 7 ¼ with my sister and brother in law. However, last night we decided to try out Hermano’s instead. We weren’t disappointed! (Well, I mean, after we sat down and ordered that is).  Unfortunately, the “welcome” wasn’t as welcoming as we hoped.


I had made reservations and it was really easy to make them on their website so I was happy about that. But like a blind date, it began awkwardly: When we first arrived, I went in first, as my sister parked and my brother in law and husband went to pay for parking. A server saw me and acknowledged me, but I guess since the rest of my party wasn’t there yet, he didn't actually come and talk to me. I figured he would come back when they arrived. When they did get there, unfortunately, he wasn't there and other servers were running around but either not noticing us or ignoring us, so we were left standing there for quite awhile. Finally, the same guy saw us again (almost like he'd never seen me before!) and asked how many in our party. (Um...4? Since there were only 4 of us standing there by the entrance?) Anyways, we were shown to our seats, and I decided that I wouldn't let the initial confusion ruin our night. My brother in law wasn’t able to pay for parking with the 5.00 bill he had and needed to get change, so he went back up to the bar. Unfortunately, the harried server of the lounge was apparently too busy to help him...but she did take the time to tell him so…(hm…). Finally another server saw him and was able to help him out. Thank goodness!

Finally, our "date" with Hermano could get started. We settled in, ordered our drinks and checked out the menu...

We were intrigued by what Hermano had to offer... we had all checked out the menu beforehand and had an idea of what we wanted to order. We ended up ordering a couple of what they called their “large boards” (good for 2-3 people). We were really hungry so we started with a small antipasto plate which consisted of cheeses, bread, a bit of chorizo sausage, grilled red peppers, a tomato/hearts of palm salad, pickled artichoke hearts and spicy pickled eggplant. This was really good and a small plate was perfect to share for the 4 of us. We started to relax as we "got to know" Hermano a little bit more. (We were so hungry though, we forgot to take a pic!)

The "date" got even better when the food came….The first large board was the “La Cabrera” which was a 24 oz. ribeye (yum-o) which came with roasted veggies, mashed potatoes and port reduced mushrooms and bacon. The second board was the “Tango Mixed Grill” which included rib-eye skewers, chile lime ribs, chorizo sausage, chicken skewers and lamb chops, in addition to the same fixins at the top. We also added some cachaca shrimp as well. We were charmed by Hermano's flavors...

Our Yummy Dinner "Boards"

Well the rib-eye was cooked to a perfect medium and was delicious. Also included was the famous Chimichuri salsa which we ended up calling “Jimmy Choo” sauce and we put it on everything. It was delicioso!

The aftermath

The amount of food itself was actually perfect for the four of us. We were full, but not to the point of ridiculousness. We were so charmed by dinner, Hermano was able to sweet talk us into dessert! There were 4 different desserts, so we ordered two kinds: The Tempura Banana Split with chocolate, vanilla and strawberry gelato and the “Black Gold” which was a rich, Peruvian dark chocolate cake served with Dulce de leche and chai crème anglaise. OMG. SO good. The tempura'd bananas were light and crispy and the gelatos were topped with rich chocolate ganache... The cake was good too - the 2 guys inhaled it (and these guys NEVER eat dessert!). Their only comment? They need to serve it with a tall glass of cold milk! I'm pretty sure our enthusiasm with the dessert, led the table beside us to order one too! LOL.

Our Desserts!

So after playing "hard to get" Hermanos did become our Valentime! Even though the service wasn’t as friendly at the beginning of the night (H was just getting to know us, after all), it was outweighed by the perfect steak and ended deliciously with the wonderful desserts! We've decided to give Hermanos another chance, and will be going on a second date (without the pressure of V-Day, or Day after V-day).

I love happy endings!