Luce Bar & Kitchen

Some girlfriends and I were attending the Pentatonix concert in Sports Arena and decided to have dinner nearby at Luce Bar & Kitchen first. We found parking a street away and headed into a trendy looking bar, complete with intimate stools around the bartender and wooden tables near "garage door" windows, perfect for that cool outside breeze. After being seated, we decided to share a couple of dishes between the four of us.

As a starter, we got the Charcuterie Board. I don’t know what kind of meat was on here but it was tasty and fresh for pairing with the crostini bread or alone. There were also some pickled vegetables and slices of granny smith apples with some sauce. I can't really remember what the sauce trail was or tasted like though. I was most interested in the roasted garlic cloves and had some trouble figuring out how to get the soft rich garlic out with a fork. It was only AFTER I finished did another girl show me a more effective way, squeezing it out with a knife.

We also ordered their Sweet Pizza, which was one of my favorites. I was intrigued by the basalmic drizzle pairing with the thinly sliced pears, proscuitto and abundance of arugula. Luckily, the gorgonzala cheese wasn't that strong. I hungrily ate two of the six slices.

We ordered one plate of the Braised Lamb Tacos. I tried to cut the corn tortillas in half using a butter knife, which was almost a complete fail, but I managed with some effort. I grabbed my half and gave it a try. I thought the lamb meat was a little tough and not to my taste with the cabbage shreds but a few of the others did like the flavor.

The second plate was the Carnitas Tacos, which were an improvement over the first set, as agreed upon by the group. This one was a lot juicier too and quite filling with its extra creamy avocado and roasted corn! It wasn't until this second taco that someone suggested using one corn tortilla for each person and splitting the toppings. Of course, that sounds a LOT better than my method of using a dull butter knife!

To end the night, the waiter began describing the dessert selections written on the menu board behind him, not listed in the paper menus, and I heard something about "ice cream sandwich". Say what? Explain that to me again? I began dreaming of the Starlite ice cream sandwich from a few months ago as he explained their version. Of course, we had to order that for comparison!

Ice cream is always ice cream (and boy do I love it) but what makes this Ice Cream Sandwich special is the COOKIE portion! It was super chocolately, moist and definitely different enough taste from the Starlite one. I think a chocolate lover would really enjoy this one but personally, toffee wins in my book! Another girl also ordered the hazelnut gelato. This one came with three scoops and was refreshingly cold and a bit sweet but I returned to my dessert after sampling hers!

Me being the big eater I am thought no way this was enough food, but it turns out we were completely stuffed! Or maybe I helped with someone else's portions so it all balanced out in the end! Along with my new "lessons learned," we were all very happy with the food here, and equally as excited to pay up and get to the concert! I haven't heard Pentatonix before but wow, what an amazing acapella group! It’s not usually my thing, but I especially loved hearing the deep voice base guy! <3 And the amazing beatboxing with a cello! <3 <3