I didn't blog yesterday. I blame it on getting home late...that, along with feeding my addiction to the television series, 24. If I had blogged, I would have mentioned that my wife and I met two people for dinner Sunday evening and had a great time. These two guys, who I wrote about recently, came to Dallas to meet with some clients and prospective clients. They came a couple of days early to take advantage of the trip...they went to museums in Fort Worth, wandered around Dallas, and generally got a flavor of the area. They're into architecture, so they spent a good part of their time looking at buildings.
One of the reasons they selected the hotel they stayed in was because it was designed by Charles Dilbeck. The hotel, which originally was a motor court motel, is really exceptional. Take a look at it at www.belmontdallas.com/. They showed up their room; a very attractive suite with a balcony and lots of character...plus, the room was really quiet, despite significant street noise outside. They paid $125/night; the top of the line suite, with 2 bedrooms, a jacuzzi, huge balcony, and stunning views of the downtown Dallas skyline is $255 per night, I believe.
After we got a tour of the hotel, including some of the larger suites, we had a drink at the bar, BarBelmont, which was recently written about in Conde Naste Traveler; the magazine said very nice things about the place. Our guests bought a bottle of red wine and we all shared it at a table outside on the terrace while we talked about where to eat (and politics, Texan culture, freeway behavior, and a dozen other topics). As I predicted, they were interested in one of our favorite places, La Calle Doce, which is a Mexican seafood place in an huge old rambling house in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. We had a list of 5 or 6 places that we thought they might like (and which were open on Sunday evening...I had no idea so many places are closed on Sunday).
At La Calle Doce, I had pulpo con tomate (octopus in a very nicely spiced sauce of tomatoes, onions, olives, and other odds & ends), which we fabulous. My wife had a wonderful salmon dish. I didn't pay much attention to what our guests ordered until they offered me one of the huge clam shells that had been stuffed with a wonderful mix of seafoods in a blend of very nicely spiced white cheese. Oh, I almost forgot, my wife ordered an appetizer of cheese and seafood fondue as an appetizer for the table. Everything was, as usual, wonderful. My wife and I and one of our guests had margaritas on the rocks, with salt, and the other guest had a glass of house red wine, which he said was very good. After we finished our meals, the waiter brought a tall blue-glass shot glass for each of us, filled with orange juice flavored with a dash of very smooth tequila; on the house, he said. Since our guests had bought the wine at the hotel, I picked up the dinner check...and told them they could pick up dinner when we visit them in Madison, Wisconsin (not awfully likely, but I wouldn't mind visiting Madison...my wife and I visited the city when we lived in Chicago and found it really nice).
Another topic altogether: I want to start a consulting business geared toward advising businesses on catering to the needs of aging baby boomers. Every time I walk into a restaurant, I am amazed that the lighting is dim, the menu fonts are tiny and difficult to read, the board menus (in fast food places and sandwich shops) are unreadable due to size, type style, and color, etc., etc. People with less than perfect vision have a hell of a tough time with menus, let alone the types of seating, the weight of chairs, etc., etc. Whenever I find such annoyances, I find myself making a mental note that the owner/operator is somewhat insensitive to even moderately challenged geezers like me...and is utterly insensitive to folks who have greater physical challenges. I am convinced the age-impaired young business people among us could get valuable advice from me...advice that would boost them high in the eyes of people who would happily lavish money on them if treated right. I am serious about this. I'd like any reader who has examples of such problems (or good solutions) to pass them along to me via posting to this blog (or, if you know me, via email).
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