One of my favorite things about being an adult is attending dinner parties with friends. Last night we met two other couples, our old friends Jill and Bret and our next door neighbor, Gary and his girlfriend, for dinner at Lucia. In case you have been living under a rock, Lucia is THE hot ticket dining destination in Dallas right now. Reservations are very difficult to get. You have to call the restaurant on the 1st day of the month at 9am and leave a message to get a reservation the following month (i.e., call April 1 for reservations in May) and you pretty much get whatever day and time they give you. The chef is the former chef from Lola, David Ugyur, and the menu is Italian. All pastas are made fresh in-house and all meats are also cured in-house. The food is to die for and, in my opinion, this is the best restaurant in Dallas today.
We met there last night for our 8:30pm reservations and we did it right. It's so wonderful to eat an amazing dinner with friends that love food and wine and are willing to try anything and everything. We ordered practically everything on the menu. A large salumi platter, prunes stuffed with foie gras, tagliatelle with veal and chicken liver ragu, cavatelli with artichokes, gnudi with hedgehog mushrooms, white risotto with scallops, pasta with fennel sausage and broccoli rabe, braised pork shoulder, slow cooked beef tongue, veal chops with brown butter root vegetables, roasted cauliflower soup with garlic oil and then desserts - Italian donut holes with chocolate sauce and bananas and cannolis filled with pistachio cream. Of course, we also ordered 3 bottles of Italian wine to wash it all down. Bret renamed their foie gras prunes and referred to them as "foie gras poppers" all night, much to the amusement of our waitress.
Dinner took 3 hours but it seemed like it flew by. Conversation was non-stop all night, especially for me and Jill. I talk a lot and Jill talks a lot but when you get us together and add wine, it is pretty insane. At any rate, we were the last to leave the restaurant last night. You know it was a successful dinner when (i) you close down the restaurant and (ii) the next to last table to leave stops by on their way out to let you know how much they enjoyed listening to your crazy dinner conversation all night. Even the owner's wife came by and laughed her ass off when Jill began explaining to her the "proper" way to light a person on fire (don't ask, this comes from a long and sordid tale when we were first year attorneys).
Good times, fun times, great friends. Occasionally I remember just how lucky I am to know such amazing, funny, genuine people.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
New Orleans - Mardi Gras!
Stephen and I visited New Orleans last month during the weekend before Fat Tuesday with our next door neighbor and his girlfriend. The weekend before Mardi Gras day is THE big carnival weekend with all the superkrewe parades like Endymion, Bacchus, Orpheus, etc...going on all day and night. It is a bacchanalia as only New Orleans can put on. We enjoyed several parades on Sunday, including Iris, Okeanos,Thoth and Bacchus. Of course, I got overloaded with beads. Surprisingly, Mardi Gras is a rather tame family-oriented event, at least at the parades. It resembled a neighborhood street party more than anything. The locals know how to do it right and they come prepared with fold out camp chairs, coolers full of tasty beverages, snacks and even ladders equipped with wheels and with seats on them at the top for good viewing.
While the parades may be family-time, there is still plenty of flesh to be seen in the Quarter, especially on Bourbon Street. We avoided Bourbon Street for the most part due to the frat-boy crowds. Steve, in his usual anti-social way, has a few favorite Quarter bars that are off the beaten path that he enjoys and frequents, including Molly's on Toulouse and Harry's Corner Bar. These bars tend to be low-key, cheap and have good jukeboxes, which meets his requirements. The only bar on Bourbon Street that he will make an exception for is The Old Absinthe House.
Mardi Gras is definitely something that should be experienced at least once. The parades were a sight to behold, especially a superkrewe like Bacchus. Bacchus lasted close to 3 hours and there must have been 30+ marching bands and dance crews in it. At some point I figured they were going to run out of local college and high school marching bands. Also, the floats were incredibly elaborate. These are not your average neighborhood paper maiche floats - these babies were the size of double decker buses in some cases. Will Ferrell was the King of Bacchus this year and it was great to see him banging a golden cow bell and tossing beads. Steve and Gary started a "Frank the Tank" chant when his float stopped in front of us and pretty soon we had a huge crowd doing the chant. The bead catching is a lot of fun. It's surprising how many people (myself included) will scream, shout, jump and act like a desperate fool just to catch some worthless, made in China plastic beads. I don't know why but after your first catch, you will be hooked. Bead catching quickly becomes competitive.
As you can imagine, there were plenty of interesting characters out and about in the Quarter. The people watching was pretty intense but it provided us with hours on entertainment, especially on Saturday afternoon when it poured rain. We had a great window seat at Molly's on Toulouse Bar right off of Bourbon Street. Across the street from us were the public port-o-potties the city sets up, which were ironically named "Pot-O-Gold." Judging by people's reactions and facial expressions when they opened the door to use them, I am 100% certain there was no gold inside them.
A few photos from our Mardi Gras experience:
Overall, I would definitely attend Mardi Gras again. Next time, I would be better prepared, just like the locals with my own chair and would remember to bring some kleenex wipes to use at the Pot-O-Gold Portapotties. There's absolutely nothing dignified about drip drying in a portapotty in New Orleans.
While the parades may be family-time, there is still plenty of flesh to be seen in the Quarter, especially on Bourbon Street. We avoided Bourbon Street for the most part due to the frat-boy crowds. Steve, in his usual anti-social way, has a few favorite Quarter bars that are off the beaten path that he enjoys and frequents, including Molly's on Toulouse and Harry's Corner Bar. These bars tend to be low-key, cheap and have good jukeboxes, which meets his requirements. The only bar on Bourbon Street that he will make an exception for is The Old Absinthe House.
Mardi Gras is definitely something that should be experienced at least once. The parades were a sight to behold, especially a superkrewe like Bacchus. Bacchus lasted close to 3 hours and there must have been 30+ marching bands and dance crews in it. At some point I figured they were going to run out of local college and high school marching bands. Also, the floats were incredibly elaborate. These are not your average neighborhood paper maiche floats - these babies were the size of double decker buses in some cases. Will Ferrell was the King of Bacchus this year and it was great to see him banging a golden cow bell and tossing beads. Steve and Gary started a "Frank the Tank" chant when his float stopped in front of us and pretty soon we had a huge crowd doing the chant. The bead catching is a lot of fun. It's surprising how many people (myself included) will scream, shout, jump and act like a desperate fool just to catch some worthless, made in China plastic beads. I don't know why but after your first catch, you will be hooked. Bead catching quickly becomes competitive.
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| Steve and me waiting for Bacchus to Start |
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| Tanya and I with our beads and plastic scepter |
A few photos from our Mardi Gras experience:
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| Queen of Okeanos Parade |
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| Bacchus Float |
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| Bacchus Float |
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