Last night hubby and I went to the Minneapolis - St. Paul International Film Festival Opening Night event. Hubby’s work is a sponsor of the film festival so we had free tickets. It was not the sort of thing we usually do (we rarely get to the theater to see blockbusters, much less independent films), so it was a fun change. The night started at Block E to see the featured film, “The Visitor” – which is a very good film. If I was the sort of person to recommend films I would recommend it highly. Great cinematography, great acting, touching story. After the movie there was a Q&A session with the writer/director, which was very interesting, it really added a lot of depth to the movie.

Then we all headed to Bellanote for free dinner buffet and half price bottle of wine. Bellanote is one of my favorite restaurants in Minneapolis, it has a great location and is beautiful inside (International film festival crowd is not the usual Bellanote crowd). Hubby and I scored a nice table to sit at and enjoyed great Bellanote food: thin crust pizzas, cheese, salad, pasta and chicken. The wine was good to, started off with Five Rivers Pinot Noir, then had Fetzer Cabernet Sauvignon since the Five Rivers had run out. I was glad we had the Fetzer – I really enjoyed it. Rich and deep without being over powering. I have had the Five Rivers before (reviewed here, interestingly I rated it worth $20 @ restaurant - exactly what we paid) – it is light and easy to drink – not surprising it went over well.