We bought our tickets to Wicked at the Opera House in Detroit months ago and have been looking forward to the show for weeks. As the day drew near, the weather forecast continued to look more dire. And go figure, the first real blizzard of the season was destined to fall on my most anticipated night in December. And fall with a bang it did, dumping 10 inches of snow (beautiful stuff if you aren't driving) on the metro Detroit region and potentially inserting a snag into our evening downtown. But I got out of work on time and worked my way home to change clothes and let my perennial dining companion navigate downtown. The city looked festive, with holiday lights everywhere and the fresh layer of snow covering the ground.
Our first stop was Angelina's, an Italian Bistro next door to the Opera House. I had heard only good things about the restaurant and rightly so. We had a wonderful experience. The interior is modern and brick, but with an eclectic chandelier in red and yellow hanging in the corner that I asked the host about (it turns out some of the restaurant staff made the piece and it's in the style of a famous glass artist I haven't heard of). The service was very good and efficient and moved us along at exactly the right pace to arrive at the Opera House on time (we had been asked when making our reservation if we were seeing a show that night). The food was excellent. We started with the La Angelina appetizer, which was a wonderful assortment of house-made items such as a fish sausage, pickled cauliflower, cheese, balsamic-dressed greens, and smoked salmon. I had the butternut squash ravioli, which was perfect and served with rapini and coated with a beautiful almond amaretto sauce. My perennial dining companion had the linguine with little neck clams which he enjoyed as well. We ended the evening with coffee (very good) and the gelato sampler. We will be back. The bar looked like a great place to sit and enjoy an appetizer and glass of wine and I think we need to try that soon. This restaurant is worth a drive through the snow. Visit soon:
http://www.angelinadetroit.com/Angelina_Italian_Bistro/Angelina_Home_Page.html
On to Wicked! We had seen Wicked a couple years ago at the Majestic, and while we really enjoyed it, we weren't expecting the show at the Opera House to so exceed our previous experience. The Opera House is an amazing venue for this type of a show and the performers had their A game on. Glinda was performed by an understudy, but we wouldn't have known that without the program insert. She was terrific, both comically and vocally. Elphaba was tremendous as well. The songs I had heard so many times seemed fresh and new. The show was magical and I highly recommend seeing it, if tickets are still available.
http://www.nederlanderdetroit.com/engine.cfm?i=34
Great food and great entertainment in a city lit up for the holidays and covered with snow. Take a trip downtown and enjoy the season!
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