A couple weekends ago, my husband and I visited friends in Alexandria, Virginia, for the weekend. Our friends live in the city’s Del Ray neighborhood. During our visit, we spent time there and exploring Old Town.

On Friday night we stayed in for dinner. One of the local restaurants offers a “date night” takeout menu on Friday nights, with different themes each week. As Mardi Gras season was approaching, the restaurant featured a Mardi Gras-inspired menu. The four of us split gumbo, collard greens, muffuletta, dirty rice, cauliflower and cornbread, with king cake for dessert. We capped off the evening playing trivia games and enjoying our king cake.

Saturday we had a busy day in store, starting with unlimited brunch at Ambar Restaurant. The Balkan restaurant has two locations, and we visited the one in nearby Arlington, Virginia. Available on weekends, the unlimited brunch allows diners to enjoy some — or all — of the brunch dishes for one set price. Brunch cocktails were 25 cents each. We ordered a lot of small plates to share. My favorite dishes were the smoked sausage flatbread, spreads platter, fried chicken slider and kebab.

Full from our meal, we decided to walk around Old Town. We strolled up and down the popular King Street, stopping at a few shops along the way. We booked reservations to do an escape room. My husband and I did our first escape room recently and became a bit obsessed. It was the first time for our friends, and despite accidentally choosing the most challenging room, we solved the puzzle using only about half of the allotted time! To celebrate our victory, we enjoyed celebratory drinks at Sonoma Cellar. The service was slow there, but we enjoyed each other’s company and recounted our escape room victory.

Our last stop of the day was dinner at BARCA Pier & Wine Bar, located along the Potomac River. We were nervous it would be too cold for our outdoor dinner reservations. Thankfully, the restaurant had well-placed space heaters and it was partially sealed off with a clear plastic enclosure. The Mediterranean restaurant serves tapas-inspired dishes. We decided to order dishes to split, family-style. My favorite bites of the night were the patatas bravas, pan con tomate, tzatziki, crispy broccolini and croquetas. None of the desserts were tempting, so we picked up some ice cream on the way back to enjoy at our friends’ house.

We left early Sunday morning to beat the traffic. It was a great, relaxing and fun weekend with friends and a much-needed getaway!

— Katie Skrzek, vice president/digital director