Persistence pays off!
Last Saturday my friends and I had plans that we had made a MONTH in advance to go to the new restaurant in Wakefield, Artichokes. We were all so excited and having been anticipating great things from the rave reviews, turns out they don't take reservations due to the fact that they are consistently insanely busy! So Saturday night needless to say was unreally PACKED... it was like a Stoneham High School reunion with out the DRAMA ;) The hostess told us at 8:15 that there was a 2 hr wait and that they stop taking orders for food at 10pm... so basically it was a lost cause. Everyone was ready to leave and move on to the next idea.. however I was not. I had be anxiously waiting for this and was bound and determined to get into this so called GREAT place! I was definitely disgruntled at the pessimism the hostess had portrayed but even so pushed to make it clear that we were going to eat HERE.. I told her we would go and get a drink and for her to call us when something opens up because having worked in the industry myself I knew that the ratio of tables verse people standing.. plus there no reservation policy.. she was over estimating that wait time! None of my friends believed me but I knew that we where getting in... so to hold us over we went down to Stearns & Hill Bistro in Melrose and experience a similar packed setting! We did of course finagle our way to the bar and managed to get some rather yummy martinis... mine was a dirty martini with blue cheese stuffed olives .. just fabulous. What was disappointing about the Bistro was the snooty atmosphere that Melrose just exudes between the clientele and the bartenders I really couldn't tell who was worse... they did have a super cute hostess who took our names for a back up plan in terms of dinner and just as she came over to let us know we had a table ready... guess who called... ARTICHOKES! Yup that's right a little optimism goes a long way :)
So as for Artichokes... as soon as we walked in the door everything from the service to the food was AMAZING.. OMG their breaded artichoke hearts were perfect and the bruschetta was dripping with tasty fresh tomato's.. my entree was the BOMB.. home made fusille with shiitake mushrooms and shrimp in a tomato cream sauce with a hint of some sort of sweet liquor mmmmm.. I'm drooling just thinking about it :)
Artichokes.. is WORTH THE WAIT!
xoxo
Erica Marie
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