Local restaurant: The UxLocale

We went out to celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend at a nearby restaurant: The UxLocale. We really liked it! It has a great brewery vibe (Sean thoroughly enjoyed their beer selections), fun games to play while you wait (because the wait is long), and live music (which sounded great). They use local farms to get a lot of their meat and dairy ingredients and change up their menu items frequently. They have a great outdoor area, of course, it’s February so that wasn’t an option but it’s still nice and I’m sure it’d be really fun in nice weather.

They don’t take reservations but Sean emailed the owner a few days ago and she ended up putting a reserved sign on a table for us at 6PM on Saturday. It was such a good thing because the line was out the door and it seemed people waited for hours to get inside. But it’s worth the wait!

When we sat down they served us warm bread with marinara sauce. I always think it’s the best when they give you food right away. It’s almost like they know you’re starving.

We started with appetizers: Smashed Crater Taters & the Caprese salad. I could have done without the Black Truffle salt on the taters but Sean assured me they were truly delicious. I can’t quite place the taste of truffles but for me it’s somewhere between the cheese from the fancy part of the grocery store and what I imagine dirty feet taste like.

But the Caprese Salad was super fresh and I loved the flavor of the Balsamic. The basil wasn’t wilted and the tomatoes were super crisp.

We shared the UX House salad and I loved the banana peppers on it. Not enough places give you banana peppers.

Sean got the Mussels Marinara as his main meal. He said it was amazing but his one compliant was that they didn’t give him another plate to discard all the shells. Since they were busy and the waitress didn’t come around for some time, he ended up just tossing the shells into the Smashed Crater Taters container but he was still eating those! So, it was a waste.

I got the Alfredo which I liked but could have done without the nutmeg flavor. I appreciate when dishes are different than a typical meal but also don’t enjoy when all the menu options are on point but then there’s that one ingredient in each dish that’s a bit of an outlier. Like, why? The other pasta dish I had my eye on, had peas in it. I just couldn’t.

But I will say, the pasta was cooked to perfection! And I ate most of it despite not being a total fan of the nutmeg flavor.

We opted out of dessert only because we were so full. But it’s such a cute place and we had a great time. We’d definitely go back and I’d definitely get pizza next time (it seemed to be super popular!).