62. February 14th, 2011 Picture.

Ratty and I had technically already celebrated Valentine's Day on the Saturday before, but we felt like we still needed to hang out on the actual day, so we made plans to meet after work at Citizen's Public House and Oyster Bar over by Fenway.  This is not to be confused with either the Publick House OR Island Creek Oyster Bar - try keeping them all straight.

I got there a few minutes before Ratty and grabbed a seat at the bar.  It was the first time I'd been there, so I looked around at the decor, lighting and furniture, taking it all in.  The place was dark, really dark, with a dark wood bar that ran the length of the place, dark leather booths and really delicate lighting.  The back wall was a chalkboard where they listed out all the different Whiskey's they had in house, apparently that's one of their attractions, though I'm not really all that into whiskey.  I'd been sitting in a chair, right at the entrance of the bar, when I noticed two spots at the extreme far end of the bar propped directly against the wall.  Thought those 2 seats would be much better, no one would be walking behind us and we'd have some privacy.  Once I got down there I realized that not only was it 2 private seats, it was a leather booth!  

Now tell me that is not the best seat in the entire restaurant.  It was hands down my favorite part.  I am not sure I'll ever be able to go there and NOT sit in that seat.  It's perfect.

Ratty showed up a few minutes later, and absolutely gushed about the booth/bar.  It was so great for people watching and who DOESN'T want to nose in on others dates on V-Day.  

View from our seats.  The lighting makes me think of 1800's schoolhouses.  Random?  Maybe.

I'd gotten Ratty a little V-Day gift, nothing huge, as we agreed to not really exchange presents.  I know he loved those popcorn bowls he gave Eddie, Christine, Cassie and Abigail for Christmas, so I picked up a few at Target, and included lots of candy. Just a little something I knew he'd like.

Since we were cozied up in our booth for a while, we went through bouts of ordering food.  We'd order one appetizer, wait a little bit, order something else, taking our time and enjoying our evening.  We started with cheese crostini drizzled with honey - they were AMAZING.  So simple yet really, really delicious.  I love cheese and honey together, it's so yummy.

Then we split their meatball appetizer.  I don't even know if I like meatballs all that much, but sometimes I get a craving for them, and these definitely hit the spot.  Look at all that cheese.  Drool.

Next up were some shrimp cocktail.  I can never pass it up, I just love it too much.  They were ridiculous large, cold and delicious.  I want some right this second actually.  You probably do too.

After our rounds of appetizers, that probably spanned 2 hours, I opted for their wedge salad.  I'd already eating a lot of food, so I wanted to keep it light.  Well as 'light' as you can get when a salad is topped with homemade bleu cheese dressing, bleu cheese crumbles and maple glazed bacon.  Dear Lord, it might have been the best wedge salad I've ever had.  It was out of this world.

The second I finished it, I was immediately sad.  I desperately wanted another one, but that would have been gross.  Delicious, but definitely, definitely gross.  So we ordered bread pudding instead.

Now, it wasn't as good as Eastern Standards', but I mean what is?!  The one at ES is simply the most amazing dessert on the planet, it's that simple.  I've blogged about it, so it's totally true.

But it obviously didn't stop us from absolutely demolishing the Citizen's version.

All in all we sat in that little leather half booth/bar table for 5 hours.  FIVE!  We chatted, watched awkward Valentine's Day dates from across the bar and ate LOTS of food.  Nice lil date night, huh?