El Gaucho

As many of you probably know, Erik and I *love* El Gaucho!  It’s always our go-to restaurant, whether we’re celebrating a special occasion or we’re just looking for a great spot for dinner out without the kiddos :) 

Back in December, a good friend of mine organized a wonderful auction and dinner to benefit the families of the four police officers killed in Lakewood, WA on November 29th.  As we sat at the benefit enjoying a yummy dinner and great music we were excited to see that one of the live auction items was a private dinner for 6 at El Gaucho Tacoma.  I’ve never even been to a live auction, not to mention participating in one, but when the time came to bid on the private dinner Erik gave me our number and told me to start bidding!

The bidding went back and forth for a while between me and another gal in the back of the room…and let me just say that these live auctioneers were GOOD at their jobs!!  I’m happy to say that after all the heart-pounding excitement of the bidding ‘war’, we were the proud winners of the dinner! 

This past Saturday we headed off to El Gaucho with the girls, my parents, and my sister & David.  We were shown to the beautiful Vineyard room and got set up for a fun (and delicious) evening! 

Addison was thrilled to be wearing a ‘pretty dress’ and to be drinking out of a fancy big girl glass :)

Rather than ordering her standard milk we decided to get her first Shirley Temple, which was always a favorite of mine when I was growing up!  Since Addison has never had soda she’s not a big fan of carbonation…and unfortunately she did NOT like her drink!!  

Although she was a huge fan of the maraschino cherries!

We started out with some great appetizers (Dungeness crab cakes and Wicked Shrimp)…and then enjoyed the famous El Gaucho Tableside Caesar.  Before our main course we were able to take a few more pictures :)

   The Bagleys

  Sophie hanging out with Grandpa 

Pretty soon they brought out our main course which included:
Chateaubriand with grilled portobello mushrooms, Gaucho baked potatoes,  asparagus, broiled tomatoes topped with parmesan cheese, and wild mushroom risotto.  Oh, can’t forget the Gaucho mac and cheese for Miss Addison :)  As you can imagine, we were way too busy enjoying all that food to take any pictures!

After dinner they started to set up for dessert…bananas foster which is flambéed tableside. 

David was just fascinated with the fire…haha :)

For a special treat, Addison got some vanilla ice cream topped with some more of her new favorite…maraschino cherries!

Even Sophie got to try some ice cream!
    

It was a really fun night and we’re so glad we were able to enjoy it as a family.  Although many people thought we were nuts for bringing the girls, I have to say that they were both amazingly well-behaved, especially considering the fact that it was a 2 1/2 hour dinner.  

We were so honored to do our small part to help out the families of the officers lost on November 29th.