Monthly Newsletter

It is time to ring out the old and ring in the new.  Before doing so, we have taken a backward glance at the way we have entertained and been entertained since the beginning of 2010.  Reminiscing over the past year, we have found quite a change both in style and in spending, especially during the holiday period.  While we still note the serious state of the national and international economy, Texas has put on its bravado and celebrated the holidays with panache and with far less restraint than a year ago.  There have been some fabulous parties both small and large, both private and charity.  We know that this catch-up time has been beneficial to restaurants, caterers, florists, merchants and everyone involved in the components of entertainment.  Now, with the influx of spending for the February 6 Super Bowl at the Cowboys Stadium, there will be a continuum of festivities.  We seem to have come a distance from our July newsletter, Luxury for Less, or How to Entertain While the Market Melts, which hit the mark following the May market skids.  But, it may be prudent to keep some of those ideas in mind as long-range habits which encouraged entertaining, but with regard to the wisest use of entertaining dollars. As we all know, entertaining is important to our social well-being.  What we notice during this year is the contrast over the past year in confidence and expectations for the future, no matter the dismal media reports.

Reports from our advertisers support our personal findings, all of whom had reports of "come-back" years with full calendars of pre-2008 years.  Karen Akin, owner of Apples to Zinnias, reported "Christmas 2010 was a marked rebound from the last three years. Our clients were ready for newness in their holiday décor and wanted it to be spectacular."  Wendy Krispin of Wendy Krispin Catering reported a full calendar for the holidays in contrast to the last more subdued years.  Like Karen Akin, Wendy Krispin has her faithful regulars.  This year, they spent more and new clients filled in the calendars.  Likewise, Viki Hall of Viki Hall Staffing reports that the demand for professional staffing services saw a major increase in clients and in numbers of hours for her service professionals.  These savvy hospitality business owners are a great bellwether for Dallas and for 2011.

Venues

From a source stand-point, there have been many highlights to modify our selected sources.  We have lost at least three special restaurants this year, Sharon Hage's precious York Street, Paul Pinnell's Dali and Avner Samuel's posh Aurora.  Entertaining in Dallas, the ultimate sourcelists the best of restaurants that fit our criteria of private and special entertaining spaces.  There are several "best restaurants of 2010" which we need to add to our list.  Nosh is Avner Samuel's latest endeavor, and what a success it is!  The restaurant is packed daily for the excellent food for which Avner is known, and a small wine room is still available for parties of six to eight. Meddlesome Moth is Shannon Wynne's newest concept, "a gastropub" with great food and a place to entertain your friends for a fun lunch or dinner.  Ristorante Nicola in Preston Center has multiple private rooms for events, which are well-enjoyed from all reports.  We love the Neighborhood Services Bar & Grill, named "Best New Restaurant of 2010" by D Magazine, and we will have to explore the opportunities for private entertaining.  We must mention that Esquire Magazine has selected Stephen Pyles' popular Samar Restaurant as one of the best new restaurants nationally in 2010.  Our food scene is picking up steam, another sign of a brightening local economy.

Dinners-to-Go

Restaurants seem to be using their resources to expand catering and take-out operations.  For Thanksgiving, for example, Kent Rathbun's Blue Plate and Scott Gottlich's Bijoux offered pick-up dinners.  Fearing's, Abacus, Al Biernat's and Bijoux are only a few of the restaurants offering off-site catering.  As for take-out, eatZi's Market & Bakery is advertising its chefs to prepare meals chez vous.

One would wonder where this leaves cooking at home.  But this is quite an oxymoron considering the unbelievable crowds at Central Market in the days leading up to Christmas.  Cooking at home became an economic expediency when the 2008 downturn curtailed eating at restaurants.  People seemed to rediscover and even relish new time in the kitchen and honing their culinary skills.  Cooking classes and local foods became new-found passions.  Will the newly vibrant restaurant scene mean that Dallas will become like New York, where working couples eat out or take-out during the week, at bistros and neighborhood restaurants, and save their at-home dining and entertaining friends for the weekends?

Thinking of cooking and dining at home, there has been a plethora of new cookbooks during the year to appeal to the home chefs.  We are inveterate cookbook collectors, but we purchase and suggest only the best.  Among the top that we have suggested for Christmas gifts is Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.  Incidentally, we can recommend her website, DorieGreenspan.com for news of cookbooks and recipes.  Perhaps, our Christmas cookbook favorite was The Entrées, Remembered Favorites from the Past by Gail Monahan, which we had also recommended for a Christmas gift.  This is nostalgia cuisine at its very best.  The lore of past restaurants, chefs of famous dishes and their well-researched recipes are cultural history. We have oohed and aahed over "Le Grand Véfour's Coulibiac of Salmon," "The Russian Tearoom's Chicken Kiev" and "Alice B. Toklas's Duck à l'Orange."

Wine and Spirits

The interest in wine has been on an upward trend after a rollercoaster ride over the last two years.  The last year had especially seen a depression in the fine wine market.  Only a year ago, major Bordeaux wine growers, led by the esteemed house of Lafite Rothschild, reduced their prices.  By this November, with the blockbuster 2009 vintage to sell and enthusiastic sales in Asia, the same wine growers raised prices by staggering percentages.  Soon after, the Burgundy growers, who had held their prices in the recent vulnerable market, raised their prices by 30 percent at their annual Hospices de Beaune auction, which sets the prices for the new vintage.  This holiday period, the beverage that seemed to be served everywhere has been the Dom Pérignon Andy Warhol Tribute champagne.  We had mentioned it our mid-December newsletter on Caviar, Champagne and Cheer for the New Year and, we thought we had started a rush on the elite champagne.  Only last week, the New York wine auction house Acker Merrall & Condit, announced reaching $100 million in annual sales, establishing a milestone for wine auctions.  (We have to acknowledge that auction sales in Asia have accounted for increasingly robust sales.)  Acker has already announced a premier tasting luncheon at Daniel restaurant in New York featuring 18 vintages of the venerable La Tâche Burgundy wine with Burghound expert Allen Meadows – at the cost of $4395 per person!  What a difference a year makes!

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