Date Night at The Shops @ West End: Due Date + Rojo

Last night, our fantastic friend Z offered to hang with Gus - she loves watching him and happens to live in the coolest house in Minneapolis - the FlatPak house, where he is often babysat in style. So Jefe and I had a nice little date night at The Shops at West End in St. Louis Park. I love this place..it reminds me of the outdoor mall/movie theater/shopping/dining extravaganzas that make up The OC and get annoying there because there's not much else..but in MN its a much better alternative than huge, indoor, suburban malls. The West End theaters are my favorite to see movies in and we decided on the new Zach G/Robert Downey Jr vehicle from the makers of "The Hangover" called "Due Date." It was awesome. Hilarious, sweet, well-acted, prettymuch I loved it. Hard not to when I love Zach G and Robert Downey so much. Both are really funny, in very different ways, thus making them a perfect duo for a buddy/road trip movie.

Then we only had to walk a few steps to grab a bite at new Mexican Grill Rojo, which according to the City Pages Hot Dish blog, (where I stole a couple of the photos above) is owned by the son of the guy who owns Chi Chis. The prices were quite reasonable, and downright cheap from 9-11 pm with the late night happy hour. We got there a little before 9 pm and waited til then to put in our order - $5 for a huge, perfect margarita, $3 for Mexican beer, $2.50 for some amazing corn on the cob slathered in cotija cheese and some sort of yummy sauce, $5 for a chicken quesadilla and we paid full price ($11)) for the fish tacos w black beans and rice, but they were a little too spicy for me and probably will be for many whiteys in MN. I loved the free chips and freshly made salsa though - and growing up in SoCal I'm a bit of a Mexican food connoisseur (which should make me able to handle spice but I'm a total gringo.) It's a great place to hit before or after a movie. I'll definitely be back to Rojo, but I'm sad to see that the owners shut down Sauce next door before I even got to try one of their pizzas. I went there twice for salads that were great and cheap, and they offered diet Dr Pepper as a fountain drink which I loved, so not sure why they decided to shut her down and turn the space into a private dining room for Rojo. Lame.