Exploring RVA: Southern Season and Southerly

I heard some strange reviews of Southern Season when it first opened - they ranged from "OMG THIS IS AWESOME" to "meh, it's for blue hairs" to "too expensive, waste of time". So we finally went to check this place out and see what could cause this broad range of reactions.

I kind of see where the confusion comes from. For a person like me who loves specialty grocery stores, kitchen gadgets, and paper goods, it's great because all that stuff is in one place. But why? It's like Sur La Table, Papyrus, and Whole Foods somehow had a baby. Identity disorder.

It would be a perfect place to just wander around looking for the perfect, random gift for someone - they have sections for wine, tea, greeting cards and adorable note pads, tea towels, small kitchen appliances, pot/pan sets, and Dave's two favorites: coffee and ginger ale! Haha.

Yes, he practically stuffed his face into the jar to smell the beans. 

This was during #nospenduary so I put back all the random things I collected while we perused the aisles. Can't remember what they were now, so they must not have been anything I really needed. :)

Once we were finished browsing Southern Season, we walked next door to their restaurant, Southerly.

There was a 45 minute wait when we first got there (before we browsed the store), which was weird because the place was practically empty. ? We got a pager that never went off, but when we wandered back over there they said our table was ready. Were you going to just wait until we decided to come back?

We were seated by the bar, which was pretty full, and the bartender was our server. This meant very slow service for us because he forgot about us a few times because he was distracted by his other customers that were sitting in front of him. He didn't write down our order, which BUGS me. We ordered the deviled eggs as an appetizer, which arrived we got our entrees and asked about them. He forgot to add them to our order that he didn't write it down.

Our entrees were really good - Dave got the salmon (sweet tea-glazed, EW) and I got the shrimp and grits because when that's on the menu, that's what I get. Every time:

We both wanted dessert but couldn't agree, so we got two. He got the peach crisp served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream - I thought it was great, but Dave didn't like the crisp part. Not sure what that means. I got the peanut butter and jelly tart, which was frozen. So that went well. What I tasted was very good, but I didn't have time to sit there until it thawed to enjoy it fully.

Needless to say, we won't be back to the restaurant, but if I need a gift for that person who is hard to shop for because they have everything, I'd go back to Southern Season to find the perfect item.