On a recent sweltering evening, my friend and I passed by the very cozily filled tiny front patio, through the elaborate but empty first floor dining room (stopping only briefly to jokingly to consider joining the private fiesta upstairs), and into Caroline's hidden back patio. Lit with strings of lights and lined with neatly arranged sets of considerately padded patio furniture, the atmospherically dark space surrounded by high wooden fences almost feels like miles away from the bustling city.
Having heard so much about the gluten free options (which the restaurant was known for while it was being run as Big Momma's Boy), we both opted to try a gluten free beer. Despite the menu's many tantalizing options, we were feeling nibbly and chose to share an antipasto platter. Everything looked and tasted okay, but we could have used a lot more than the three croustini that it came with. It would have also been nice to have been told the names of the artisanal cheeses.
Our Irish server was friendly enough, but seemed awfully tired. Although there was still another table left at the time that we were getting up to leave, we couldn't help but feel like we were keeping them as we watched the back door to the kitchen swing open and shut with servers and cooks making plans for the night over smokes.