I was so incredibly touched by my two coworkers, Elizabeth (who came to the office just to wish me an happy birthday) and Adam (he and I are usually the only 2 of 4 others who go to the office nearly everyday). Without me saying anything, both knew that it was a little bit of a hard day - my first birthday without my dad. The surprised me by saying they wanted to treat me to dinner - and to a grown-up restaurant! It was dee-licious and the restaurant surprised me with a sparkler with my macarons.

The restaurant is located in Old Town Alexandria (VA) and I don’t know if you can see, but part of it is actually built in an alley using the original brickwork. The wood window shutters are reproductions (there are no windows behind them but, most likely, there used to be back in the day.