December 2, 2009

Best of 2009: Restaurant Moment

I’m married to a foodie. There are many restaurant moments that come right out of my kitchen.

Also? I live in a town recently profiled in the WSJ and called “the best small city for great meals”.

So when I say it’s hard to pick the best restaurant experience of the year, I really mean it. I’m extremely fortunate to live in a place with such amazing food because I know what it’s like to live in a place where those choices don’t exist. (Hello, Wyoming…I’m looking at you…)

However, when thinking about my best restaurant meal of 2009, my thoughts leave the Boulder scene and head west. Not to the foodie capital of San Francisco, but to a certain dinner I had in Sin City. Yes, Las Vegas.

Seriously.

It’s hard for me to believe as well. My family went on many a summer vacation to Vegas and all-you-can-eat buffets were seared into my memory. It was always more about quantity than quality. Cheap food just seemed to go hand in hand with Vegas.

But, something happened on my last trip there.

Maybe it’s the fact that it was my first time with a celebrity chef?

toddenglishontopchef

Photo credit: Reality TV Magazine

Or that I was slap-happy after a long weekend working the booth at Blog World?

booth

Photo credit: Grace

Maybe it was my dinner companion? (Hello, Grace, I’m looking at you…) Or the fact that we had been reassured, on our way to dinner, by a young man going the opposite direction on the escalator, that “we looked good”?

graceandme

Photo credit: Grace

Whatever the reason, the meal that I had at Todd English’s Olives restaurant was to die for.

Okay, perhaps this had a little something to do with it?

martini

Photo credit: Grace

I did not know until that meal that free range chicken really does taste better. And don’t even get me started on the hand-rolled butternut squash tortelli. Did I mention the olives? Because there were lots of olives.

There was only one thing better than dinner. No, not the banana tiramisu, although it was phenomenal. The conversation, laughs and bonding that went on between Grace and I. Big hands and small hands “literally”, as Grace would say, came together that night. Between the tasty food and the delicious subjects of discourse, this was definitely my best restaurant moment of 2009.

See?

Gen X and Gen Y can get along.

As long as good food is involved.

October 16, 2008

What Vegas does to a man…

This is my friend Kevin and his wife Sara. Cute couple, right?

Kevin worked with me at Lijit for two weeks before his former job offered him A LOT of money to come back. I can totally understand his decision to return to that job and we have remained friends ever since.

When I was getting ready to go to Blog World in Vegas last month, Kevin emailed me, letting me know that he and Sara were going to be in Vegas at the same time. I told him that we should try to meet up, but as conferences go, Blog World was busy and didn’t leave me with much of an opportunity to see Kevin.

After I returned home from Vegas, Kevin sent me some pics from his trip. Turns out Kev had spent the months before going to Sin City growing a beard. Why, you ask? All so that he could shave and look like this while there:

While Kevin’s facial hair seems completely appropriate for the dregs of the Strip, I only hope that when we have dinner together on Sunday night, he does not look like this. Perhaps when it comes to authentic porn mustaches, what happens in Vegas should be shaved off in Vegas.

Just sayin’ Kevin.