Went to the Melting Pot over the weekend at the Galleria. We had a really good time. I had signed up for their club at their website (www.meltingpot.com) and received a coupon for a free dessert, so my husband and I were able to order their three course dinner for two and still get the complete four-course plan.

We did the traditional swiss fondue, salad, the "signature selection" (steak, chicken, shrimp and salmon) in a coq au vin fondue and followed it with milk chocolate fondue (that came with brownie, rice krispie, pound cake, cheese cake and marshmallow bites to dip into the chocolate).

The whole meal took two hours... so it is a leisurely event. And as there is only one cooktop per table for two, a couple has to agree on each fondue pot, but it was a lot of fun. Larger tables have multiple cooking spots, so you can try more than one option for each course. We had a great server and met both owners and the general manager. They are really working hard at good customer service. I'm not sure I'd take my kids for the whole dinner thing, but I am sensing a trip for "cheese and chocolate" at some point in the future.

If you decide to go for dinner, make reservations. They just opened, so they are pretty busy, but I give them credit for not rushing us to turn our table again. And read the menu online before you go... there is a lot of information on it and it helped that I had a sense of it before we got there.

Well, I guess I'm missing info in my posts! Gotta get better at this blogging thing!

Yes, I liked the company (State Air Heating, Cooling and Fireplaces) I will be honest, I/we did NOT shop all over the place. We had gotten some prices at the fair, I'd done some homework online and really thought it was going to cost us more to get what we wanted. So, when we met with them, got everything I wanted for less than I planned and the staff were nice, we just went with it. And usually I am a major comparison shopper!

They sent out one person to confirm the size and location of what we ordered and then they placed the order. We had our unit four weeks later. They needed six hours to work on it. Three different guys came out, they were polite, draped cloths across my carpet, did not leave a major mess (just the box) and let me know when my gas was off and back on again.

I don't know anyone else who used them. This was the most gut purchase I've ever made! But so far, we are happy. Still waiting for the first gas bill... should be soon. We'll know how much more or less we'll like it then!

My husband did some follow-up calls with them... we were surprised at how warm the pilot light left the glass... and he learned how to adjust that, plus turn it off and on. I guess I should have asked a few more questions when they were here, but we had no trouble getting the follow-up support.

It's also nice to have a mantel again as we start to decorate for Christmas!

And to answer Drew about the cost.... it cost about $2900 for the whole install and parts.

OK, lots of qustions about my new fireplace. So here's the info:

We used State Air Heating, Cooling and Fireplaces on Transit Rd in Williamsville. They carry the Napoleon inserts. We bought the smallest direct vent fireplace that they offered. It uses gas, so the pilot light is always on and there is always some heat radiating from the glass. We will probably get a screen to keep little ones from touching the warm glass when we have visitors. In the summer we'll turn off the pilot.

The way that an insert works is that a small hole is put into the wall of the house for the vent (no chimmney needed) and the insert is a box set inside the house. It is placed into a cabinet. We put ours in a corner, so it filled up an empty spot. It is also possible to put the entire insert into the wall to have it be flat on the wall, but I didn't want to do that much construction, pay that much money, or limit the options of a future homeowner if they don't like where we put this fireplace.

You can see more details here at the Napoleon website. The picture at the top is a corner cabinet.

The website does show electric fireplaces for apartments, but I never looked at those!

Last year our fireplace died... partly due to bad construction and partly due to the October storm that trashed my roof... last winter was so depressing without a fireplace. So, we saved and put in a gas insert... and we love it. We've had a fire every evening since it was installed. The only thing I'm missing is the crackling of the wood, but it is far more efficient at heating our living room than the old wood burning one was. And, if we lose power, it will still light (gas pilot) and we can plug our generator into the blower to push heat out. Much happier