Fun Date Night with the Hubby

Fun Date night with the Hubby

It’s the weekend and you’re ready for date night!!! You’ve got the cute dress on, your hair done, and you’re ready to hit the town. 30 minutes later after checking reviews on Yelp, trying to find a different place to go to dinner, you’re now starving and you and the hubby end up choosing a restaurant that you always go to. This would definitely describe mine and Dave’s way of going out. We always seem to go to the same restaurants or places, even though we comment about exploring other places in Springfield. While we want to try new things, we are also horrible at making decisions on where to go, hence the 30 minutes spent on Yelp. Wanting to explore some new places in Springfield and not have to think too hard, I came up with a fun date night where Dave got to select the places blindly. I found a lot of restaurants and bars we had never visited, wrote them down on a piece of paper and then proceeded to cut them into small strips, and placed them in a bag.

I chose 3 places for Cocktails, Appetizers, and Deserts for Dave to draw, and a choice of a movie to watch at our place! I didn’t choose a restaurant for dinner because Dave had mentioned he was going to make dinner at home, and had already laid the items out. But next time I will have add a main course to the categories. We didn’t leave our home as early as I had expected, so we were pretty hungry as we were exploring the new spots.

Our first stop was Missouri Spirits for Cocktails. This is a really interesting bar with lots of character, and a great place to go for some unique cocktails. Dave got the “Ye Olde Horse of a Feather” drink which was made with Missouri Spirits’ Bourbon, house made ginger beer, bitters, and lemon squeeze. Unfortunately they were out of their house made ginger beer, so they used a store bought ginger beer. I decided to get a warm cocktail since it was freezing outside. I chose the “ Mama’s Drink” cocktail which was a mulled red wine with Missouri Spirits bourbon, tawny port, orange liqueur and spices- it was delicious!

Our second stop was Druff’s, a really cute, retro looking sandwich shop on the corner of walnut in downtown Springfield. I had been wanting to go to Druff’s for some time now, but I realized once we walked in and checked the menu, that it wasn’t really the place for appetizers. I would definitely suggest going to Druff’s for lunch or even grabbing a vintage drink- The food and drinks looked incredible! By this time, Dave and I were pretty hungry, but knowing he had sausage out at home, we decided to just get spinach artichoke dip instead of a sandwich. I’m sure the waitress was like, “ What the heck? You’re going to come in and only get waters and spinach dip…?” – It was pretty funny. I most certainly want to go back for sandwiches and soup during the day.. it is such a cool diner!

I mean look at this picture by – sure makes me wanna go to Druff’s!! It looks so cute!

Our third stop was to Hurts Donuts, a donut shop in downtown Springfield with the most amazing, fun and creative donuts. While this was not a place that we had never visited, it had been a while since we grabbed a donut. I got the Peanut butter and Oreo donut, a chocolate and peanut butter cake donut with Oreo frosting and cookies on top- It was delicious!!! Dave chose the Simpsons donut, which was a chocolate cake donut with a crushed Butterfinger chocolate bar on top. They were so good and rich!!! It’s hard to only pick 1 donut when you’re standing in front of that beautiful glass case surrounded by delicious looking donuts, but we good and only got 1 each.

Our last stop before going home to make dinner was to pick up a movie from red box. I put 3 different options of movies in the bag; a comedy, a Sci-Fi fantasy movie, and a thriller/suspense movie. Dave ended up choosing the comedy – “The House” -an outrageous comedy about a married couple attempting to pay their daughter’s college tuition by running an illegal casino in their friend’s home. Will Ferrell and Amy Polar will absolutely hilarious in this movie- totally recommend it!

I had so much fun planning this outing for me and Dave! Definitely gonna add on a main course category for next time, we still have a ton of places to explore together. If you’re looking for something fun to do on a weekend out or a date night, or maybe even for Valentine’s Day, try exploring your town one new place at a time!

Can’t not wait to hear about fun date nights you’ve created! Tell me below!

– til next time, Erin Ruscel