Eating and Drinking in the Week that Was

Comments on last week... Kudos and Happy Anniversary to Times Ten Cellars which threw itself a great party. It was much better than last year, which was a zoo. From an owner's perspective, I don't know if the quantity of customers it takes to constitute a zoo is better than slightly fewer. The party this year definitely had a great turnout, but I think they were better prepared with lots of servers and some fun diversions (and Scalini's pizza). There were these people doing "butt sketches" - seriously. I have an awful, hideous, gigantic butt, but was goaded into participating with assurances that the artist was "very complimentary". He was kind indeed. The guys (owners of Times Ten) also brought in a Marilyn Monroe impersonator to sing Happy Birthday. She botched the name (Ten Times Cellars) but was amusing nonetheless. As always, I stayed longer than I intended.

I stopped in Veritas again on Thursday. I really like this place. The people who work there are so nice. Thank goodness I don't drive past it on the way home. I got some more info on the great stemware. It is titanium crystal by Schott Zwiesel. It breaks much less easily than lead crystal or simple glass stemware. I have found it available online for sale, but Veritas may sell it in the future, so I will wait and buy from them. (Shop local!) At a couple of sites online it is about $65 for a set of six glasses. Not bad. Veritas has some intriguing plans in the works for the future with local artists and chefs. I hope it goes well. I also discovered that they are trying to promote their business earlier in the evening. Currently they are getting a mostly late-night crowd. To this end, they are offering $2 off wines by the glass and other specials from 4:30-6:30 pm. I'm sure I will be back.

Finally, I had dinner and drinks this weekend at Bar Belmont in Oak Cliff. Beautiful view on the patio. If you like interesting cocktails, they have several. I am not an interesting cocktail drinker. Other than wine, I think drinks involving fruit are ill-advised. I do except the occasional lime in a beer (a wedge of fresh lime, not some beer with lime flavor bottled into it - ick). I drink beer, wine and Crown Royal. Through these 25 years of drinking (eek) I have learned to keep it simple. But I did like the wine list at Bar Belmont, and was glad to see they had the Sauvignon Blanc from local Times Ten Cellars. They had several bottles for $25. Other than Patrizio, I can't think of a local restaurant that groups its wines by price and features a section of affordable wines. The food was fine but nothing to write home about. At this dinner a friend and I discussed how much we liked and miss M Grill. That place was so good - food, service, wine.

Also at this dinner, I became increasingly aware of how many people are blogging. I think I will share. I have given my blog address to only two friends. If I put very personal stuff on here at some point I don't want it "out there". Hm. Maybe I could just have my food and wine blog and just "journal" in private. The Internet, blogs, MySpace, etc. are evidence of our true exhibitionist nature.

Tonight I am going to see Bottle Shock. Review to follow.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!