Hayes Barton: Quickly Becoming a Birthday Tradition

     I recently hit the big 3-0 so to celebrate I hit some of my all time favorite special occasion restaurants. I'm of the breed that believe a birthday lasts a week, thus allowing me more than one opportunity to go out and celebrate.  For my weeknight birthday my gentleman and I went to Hayes Barton Cafe in Five Points. We went there last year for my birthday as well, because there are few better places for a slice of birthday cake. This also gave the boyfriend a chance to make up for not paying for my birthday dinner at Hayes Barton last year. (Can you believe that?!) The atmosphere of Hayes Barton is an intimate 1940s and '50s themed diner. Yes, I said diner, but upscale, not the Waffle House or burger and fry kind. The walls are filled with post WWII Hollywood kitsch and the menu even hosts dishes named after classic Hollywood movies and movie stars.

Crab Cakes

Filet and Macaroni and Cheese

  On previous visits (always special occasions) I've enjoyed the Marilyn crab cakes (very good flavor, good crab to breading ratio and funny play on words to boot!) and their filet with the mushroom demi glacé over mashed potatoes. They do this dish downright perfectly here. Even the green beans are impeccably executed. This time I mixed it up a little and got the even richer special, the filet over macaroni and cheese with a bordelaise sauce. The filet here is perfectly tender, but since we can only afford the four ounce (already 30 bucks!) it's definitely on the small side. Those with bigger wallets can afford a bigger steak.  The macaroni and cheese was sinfully creamy, not a light dish, but hey if you can't indulge on your birthday when can you?!  For dessert, because you would be amiss to go to Hayes Barton and not order dessert, if only to take one bite and get the rest to go like I did. As I child I didn't like cake, weird I know, but likely because I only got the kind from the grocery store bakery or out of a Betty Crocker box. I still don't like these for the record. In any case, I typically had  pie rather than cake on my birthday so I kept up that tradition by ordering strawberry pie. I do like the mile high cakes at Hayes Barton, particularly the lemon curd and fresh blueberry cake with cream cheese icing...although I wish the icing was a little sweeter, or the rich chocolate hazelnut ganache cake. Hayes Barton is quickly becoming my birthday tradition.