A Bachelorette Party

My wonderful cousin-in-law is getting married in October. This weekend, her maid of honor threw a spectacular bachelorette party that did not risk the typical hangover and regrets other parties generally entail (phallic cakes anyone?).

The invite stated we would be going on a wine tasting tour of Harvard Square and end with a dinner at Harvest, where the management very kindly extended the restaurant week menu for us. I re-read the invite to make sure I got it right. No strip clubs? No meat market dance club? This was going to be an interesting night.

The evening began outside of Om Restaurant . Here we met our wine tasting tour guide, Roz, from City Wine Tours . I knew I was going like this woman when she declared that "wine should be enjoyed and drunk." Roz demonstrated the finer points of wine tasting such as how to hold the glass, discover the legs, and what causes wines to have hints of different flavors. We tasted two very nice whites at OM. From here we headed off to Casablanca.

Casablanca is a wonderful little hidden gem. We had two really good reds and enjoyed some wonderful appetizers. The first was a platter with flat bread and three very tasty spreads: a roasted red pepper spread, an eggplant spread, and one that was similar to a hummus. The next appetizer we were served was a roasted grape flat bread pizza. You read that right - I typed roasted grape pizza. At first I was skeptical. Grapes do not belong on pizza (or so I thought). My mind was very quickly changed with the first bite. The sweetness of the grapes was offset nicely with the tangy balsamic and goat cheese. It was really a heavenly dish. After eating the last bits, we headed off to Harvest.

Harvest is another one of Harvard Square's hidden jewels. It's located in an alleyway. It's a lovely alleyway, but it's not on the beaten path of the main road. the wines at Harvest that we tasted were a nice white and a nice sparkling wine. (I really wish I remembered to bring a notepad with me to write down all the names of these wines.)

After we tasted the wines, Harvest was gracious enough to offer us their restaurant week menu which was delicious. I had a wonderful Ahi Tuna to start. Doesn't it look good?

For the main course, I had a pork tenderloin dish that had an interesting lavender sauce. I learned quickly that moderation was key with this sauce. In small doses, the sweetness played really nicely with the saltiness of the pork. Desert was a fantastic mocha semi-freddo. I think I found my new favorite dessert.

Between the great wine, the wonderful people, and the excellent conversations, this was by far one of the best bachelorette parties I every went to.