Mini Adventure: Quick Weekend Getaway to Salem

Bobby has been watching Phantom Gourmet more and more frequently now, to the point where I wake up every morning to at least five links to delicious restaurants.  A few weeks ago he had sent me a video of a raw bar in Salem, MA that served their seafood in a tin bucket!  It had a whole steamed lobster, corn on the cob, clams, potatoes and sausage!  It all looked fresh and so delectable.  We had been eyeing it and talking about going, but the weather was never quite right or we had plans on the weekend...etc, etc.   Well we finally had a weekend free this week and we decided to take the plunge!  We took a quick weekend trip, as Bobby's car needed to be repaired Saturday morning and we both had work on Monday.

When Bobby's car was out of the shop, we left and headed for Salem.  I live about forty minutes outside of Boston and Salem is another half hour north of Boston.  I accidentally had my Google Maps setting on "Avoid Highways" so we ended up taking an exceedingly scenic route to the city.  Once I realized why our hour trip was suddenly scheduled to take two and a half hours, we were redirected and made it to our hotel in Revere lickety split.

We usually spring for a basic room with no fancy views, but we always request a queen or king size bed.  Bobby accuses me of hogging the bed, but he has the tendency to roll over in his sleep on top of me!  We didn't have much plans in terms of witch hunting or museum touring so we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the hotel.

Around 4pm we decided to go exploring.  We had trouble finding parking; it was beautiful weather so down by the water was very crowded.  There were parking spaces along the road a few blocks away but I didn't feel comfortable leaving our car there.  When we finally found a parking garage, it was full and we found ourselves forced to drive all the way to the top floor of the parking garage in order to turn around and leave.  We conveniently found someone leaving on the top level and squeezed ourselves into the space.

We walked right past the restaurant by accident and headed in the wrong direction.  We reached the end of the road and realized we must have made a wrong turn.  Luckily for us, the weather was beautiful and we got to get a little peek at some local attractions.

We didn't get to go into the House of Gables, but we added it to our "Adventure List" for next time we are in town!

We headed back toward the waterfront to find the restaurant.  Sea Level Oyster Bar was HOPPIN'!  It was so busy!  They told us an hour wait and we weren't starving yet so we decided to relax outside at a picnic bench to wait.  It was gorgeous out so we didn't mind the wait but they texted us about twenty minutes that our table was ready.

From the outside it seems like a very unassuming building with its tin sign and lack of parking.  However, you walk inside and immediately are confronted with an enormous raw bar.  There were two men working behind the glass enclosed counter, shucking oysters and cleaning crab legs.  Bobby and I don't find raw bars appealing but for the brave and the bold, it was definitely fresh and looked delicious!

They had large windows across from the raw bar that were open to let the breeze in.  We were seated further into the building, still next to windows that let you smell the sea and feel the gorgeous weather outside.

I ordered myself a drink (Bobby declined as he was driving and already nervous enough about the parking garage as it was).  I don't know what was in it, but I knew it was fruity and refreshing and I sucked it down like it was going out of style!

Bobby and I decided to split the fisherman's platter as our appetizer.  Little did we know, it could have been our whole meal!  It came loaded with fried clams, enormous jumbo shrimp, onion rings, fries, haddock and scallops.  It was more than enough to split between us, and we barely had room Bobby chose to be brave and order the seafood bucket we had seen in the video.  

Hahaha I love those lobster bibs!   He's too cute, I just had to take a picture of him wearing it.  In all seriousness though, they really are necessary.  Lobster gets so messy so quickly!  I was chicken and ordered my lobster already prepared in a hot buttery lobster roll.  I don't discriminate between hot lobster rolls and cold ones; all lobster rolls are fine by me!  I was already stuffed from the fisherman's platter and I really didn't have room for more but the thought of a fresh, buttery lobster roll was too much to resist!  It came on a ceramic plate that had those ridges to look like a paper plate!  Freshly fried and salty chips plus coleslaw completed the meal.  It was absolute heaven.

And then... Bobby's meal arrived.  And it was ENORMOUSE.

It didn't come in the bucket like the fisherman's platter, but it was still visually appealing.  I mean, look at the tray!  It's stuffed to the brim, and that baby fork was too funny sitting next to the lobster.  Bobby went hands in and got messy fast; at one point a piece of shell went flying and hit some gentleman in the foot! Luckily he didn't notice and Bobby and I got a chuckle out of it.

I felt the need to walk off all of that food following dinner and luckily there were two jetties right next door.  We took our time wandering along the water and Bobby patiently waiting for me to ask every passerby if I could pat their dog... I couldn't help myself, I love dogs so much!

The sunset was glorious.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  We made it back to the hotel and pretty much gorked out right away.  Full bellies and an afternoon of walking makes for an early bedtime!

The next morning we checked out and made our way to Red's Tavern in Peabody.  It was the only breakfast place nearby that had gotten decent reviews and I am a lover of all things breakfast.  We walked in to a thirty minute wait and the place was packed.  We stood by the case of goodies, our mouths salivating.

The right side is set up diner style, with multiple counters and stools.  We watched the line cooks flip pancakes and quickly whisk eggs.  Then our eyes settled on the mountain of home fries.  They had all been pushed to one side of the grill so as not to burn, and, I kid you not,  the mound was at least two feet high.  Have I mentioned that I live for homefries?  Bobby prefers hashbrowns but we all know he's wrong, haha!

We ended up seated on the left end of the building, which was set up family style with high tables near the bar, booths, and a separate event room.  I got my iced coffee and our waiter was clearly an experienced bartender who happened to be helping out.  He took our orders and always checked in, but was more than willing to let us eat in peace.  I ordered the blueberry french toast without knowing what I had gotten myself into.

Homemade, baked in-house blueberry bread that had been battered in egg and cinnamon,  then fried on the grill.  Topped with cinnamon butter and maple syrup??!!  Oh, it was practically orgasmic.  The outside was crisp, the middle was soft but not mushy.  Ugh, I start to drool just thinking about it!  It's our favorite breakfast place now, and we compare all other places to it.  (Update: As of June 2nd, we have not been back and it makes me sad).

We made our way home slowly, stopping at Walmart to get Bobby some gym shorts and pick up some shampoo.  Such exciting lives we lead, haha!

That's pretty much it for this little weekend getaway!  Quick, but oh so fun!