Max's Wine Dive

For the past couple of years, Colby and I have been going to some pretty fancy (read: expensive) restaurants for my birthday/Valentine's Day.  This year, though, was destined to be a bit different.  It's not that I don't love a fancy restaurant, but with my inability to eat sushi, charcuterie, and a good rare steak at the time, the options were definitely narrowed and I didn't really have anything to wear.  Enter Max's Wine Dive.  We found a reservation on Open Table, which was nice, since we knew we wouldn't have to wait.  

The menu at Max's is divided into large plates, small plates, and seasonal small plates.  We decided on a small plate, a large plate, and a special large plate.  The small plates range in size from a tapas-sized serving to something that could easily be turned into a meal with a side salad and a glass of wine.

We started with the pan borracho, a savory bread pudding made with wine, chicken stock, prosciutto, and a ton of cheese.  It was delicious, if not crazy filling.  It's definitely on the large size and something that you should split amongst friends.

pan borracho

Since it was Valentine's Day, they had a special menu from which Colby ordered the venison meatloaf.  It was served with sweet potato fries and corn bread.  Colby really enjoyed it.  I thought that the fries and corn bread were really good, but I'm not a huge fan of venison.

Venison meatloaf+sweet potato fries, surprisingly hard to get a good picture of this

I ordered the fried chicken, which is Max's specialty dish.  Believe the hype.  It was awesome.  The chicken is soaked in buttermilk and jalapenos and you can taste the heat from the jalapenos.  The skin is crispy and not too greasy and the inside is tender and flavorful.  It was served with mashed potatoes and collard greens.  Those were probably some of the best collard greens I've ever had.  Then again, my experience with collard greens is limited, but they were definitely tasty and mashed potatoes are always delicious.

fried chicken+collard greens+mashed potatoes

We ended the meal with an apple and sweet potato crisp.  It was served with  vanilla bean whipped cream.  It was good, but not nearly as spectacular as the rest of the meal.  I really enjoyed this dinner and we'll definitely be back in the future since I can, you know, enjoy the wine side of the equation  now.

sweet potato and apple crisp