Jen Shows You How to Pamper Your Guests or Yourself with Local Area Businesses (Dave Wasn’t Invited)

Friday:

This weekend I (Jen) had 3 of my close girlfriends come for a visit from Wisconsin. They arrived on Friday and we hit the ground running. The first place I took them was for pre-dinner drinks at American Fish Company Co. The band Dave’s Not Home was playing and sounded amazing! The ladies really loved the view and charming atmosphere. When you have friends in town this is a must visit!

After American Fish Co. were able to walk on over to Edgewater 122 for dinner. I love the fact that you can make a reservation online. We had a beautiful dinner on their outdoor deck overlooking the water and the sunset! Don’t skip out on their crab dip appetizer, it’s delicious.

On the way back to my house we had to stop in at Second Wind on Oak Island for a little dancing. We were in luck, the Doorsmen were playing, we had a fun time hitting the dance floor. The ladies really liked Second Wind, they loved how open it is, and the fun beach vibe.

The Doorsmen at Secondwind

Saturday:

Beach Day! What would a visit to Oak Island from Wisconsin be without a trip to the beach? I wanted to pretend I was on vacation too so instead of loading up all my beach chairs and lugging them back and forth, I decided to give Quicksand Beach Concierge a call. We strolled up to the beach access where I told Quicksand we would be and sure enough, there were umbrellas and chairs set up for us, what could be better than that!

After freshening up we headed to Southport to a new restaurant called Fizzy Jane’s. I just knew my friends would love the cool funky vibe there and I was right! They have fun cocktails and a unique menu, everything was delicious, I tried their Fried Chicken, the ladies had salads with fresh fish, oh so good. The other thing I love about Fizzy Jane’s is that you can make a reservation online.

Sunday:

I started to see that it was looking like rain off and on on Sunday so I decided to do a few cool things, Poolside massages and a private chef, but more on that below.

Sunday morning Tracey from Hand Crafted Massage in Southport arrived right on time at my home on Oak Island. She asked me if I wanted to do table or chair massages and I chose chair massages. It was pouring down rain, but I have a nice covered area outside so she was able to setup out back and the rest of of gathered around the fire table and chatted while we took turns getting our massages. Who needs spa music when you have the sounds of the rain. It was wonderful! We all have on our matching pjs that I picked up at Coastal Cottage in Southport before they arrived and had the best girls morning ever!

As soon as our massages were done the sun came out so it was perfect timing to hop on the golf cart and do a little shopping followed by lunch at KoKo Cabana. I told the ladies we had to eat light because of the dinner coming up, so their shrimp tacos and unique fresh salads were perfect!

Before heading home for our dinner we stopped at The Grape and Ale to buy some bottles of wine for dinner and enjoyed a glass on their outdoor patio, they have a huge variety of bottles of wine to pick from, so of course everyone was able to find what they like, even if some of us (me) just picked one because the bottle was so beautiful.

Sunday evening Chef Brad arrived to my house to prepare us an amazing 5 course meal. It was so wonderful to not have to do a thing, he brought all the ingredients and everything was fresh, fresh fresh. He made himself at home in my kitchen so we continued to enjoy our evening, I’m sure chef Brad heard more than he bargained for from my crazy crew! Dinner was ready and we started with Course #1 a fresh caprese salad, with heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella and basil. Course #2 was Calabash style calamari, wow is the only word to describe it. Course #3 was homemade french onion soup, followed by course #4 our entree and sides, fresh grouper with baby belle mushroom risotto and honey Brussels sprouts. I don’t know what was our favorite, it was all so good, the best risotto I’ve ever had and the the fresh grouper I think was swimming in the ocean earlier that morning.

While we were finishing up our entree Chef Brad started on dessert, molten chocolate lava cake! DAMN! I don’t know if I’ve ever had anything that melt in your mouth amazing.

Chef Brad cleared and washed all the dishes, cleaned the kitchen and even took out the trash as he left.

The great thing about this dinner was I was able to pick from a very large list of options for each course. One of my friends doesn’t eat red meat, pork or shellfish so it really nice to be able to make selections that worked with her preferences.