Wanted to come back and report on my trip.

Food wise: We did Zambra, Twisted Laurel, Cucina 24, The Blackbird, and White Duck Taco.

Zambra is a tapas place, and the food was fantastic. We did easily 15 items (4 of us) and 3 bottles of wine and the bill was still very reasonable. Everything was fantastic.

Twisted Laurel was your basic regular food, which is all I was looking for. We did meatballs, a burger, and a caesar salad. All were great for just getting food into the belly after a night out.

Cucina 24 was interesting. They are only doing a 5-course fixed menu currently. The food was beautiful and unique.

We did the $40 per person wine pairing, however, and I am almost positive the girl waiting on us just.. stopped giving us the wine because we were drinking slow?

She started us each with a glass of sparkling red during the first course and then we didn't get another glass until the main course, which was a rose for me because I had fish and a red for him since he had meat.

Then.. no other wine? Very strange for $80 total. I have a feeling it was a server error and not true to the pairing. Still, I'd recommend ordering your own bottle.

The Blackbird was another interesting experience. We arrived at 12:20 for a 12:30 reservation and the place was nearly empty, but the fellow at the door asked us to wait until 12:30. So we stepped outside for 10 minutes and when we came back in, he said "I'm going to be totally honest with you.. the food is taking forever. The kitchen guy right now is new and very slow." This almost sent us back to Wicked Weed where we had been drinking, but we decided to just stay.

The food took 8 minutes to come out

The waitress was very sweet, but definitely new to the industry which I guess is a symptom of the unemployment stuff going on. She couldn't get the wine bottle open, which is no biggie, but then she halved the entire bottle between our two glasses up to the rims

Food was good though. Burger was so massive I think 3 people could have eaten it.

Finally, White Duck Taco is just a short order taco joint but it was awesome. We tried to go to the original location but it had a very long line. The downtown one was super easy to get in and out of, though, and would be where you likely are if you're walking around anyway.