This week, we celebrated the 30th birthday of a dear college friend, Grams (or Ashile, but I prefer her college nickname). We’re at that stage where we’ll be celebrating the big 3-0 many, many times over the span of the next year or so…. and while we’ve been celebrating older friends’ 30th birthdays for a while now, Grams is the first friend my age (meaning we were in the same grade in school) that has hit this milestone birthday. It’s sort of unbelievable that we’re already at this point in our lives — old enough to be married, own a home, have kids (for some people), and to have been working several years longer than the amount of time we were in college (even with a super senior year included).

To celebrate Grams’ special day, she gathered some of her closest girlfriends who live in town for a delicious dinner at Rosebud in Morningside/VA Highlands. I’ve been here several times before, and they have an amazing brunch menu (with funny bfast sandwiches like The Big Nasty). They even have Monday Night Brunch, where one of their specialties is Chicken & Waffles — my fave.

We were there on a Wednesday, and their nightly specials were Big Salads. I was tempted by the “Dude, it’s a Salad” dish that came with bacon and a big Kobe beef patty on top, but I went for the slightly lighter option. I chose the Crab Cake Salad — two perfectly-cooked peekytoe crab cakes on top of romaine with fresh GA peaches, goat cheese, and radishes. The only part I would have changed was the lettuce — I’m a big spinach fan. But the peaches were so juicy and sweet, and the goat cheese….. oh how I love goat cheese. It’s always so much better in restaurants than it is from the grocery store. Maybe that’s because I usually shop at the Kroger near our house, and I don’t think they’re known for their extensive cheese selection….

For appetizers, we split the housemade pimiento cheese w/housemade spicy saltines, mushroom potato skins, and blue cheese & bacon stuffed dates. All three were excellent! How can you go wrong with lots of cheese and bacon? We didn’t try any desserts because we brought our own cookie cake. After 5-10 minutes of the wait staff thinking they’d lost our cake (it was sitting on our table the whole time), they were even nice enough to slice and serve it for us. Cookie cake is the perfect ending to a meal in my book. I’d eat it for breakfast.

Grams, I wish you the happiest of birthdays! I know your 30s are going to bring you so many wonderful things!