Brief Notes for a Tuesday

Something Weird: I got up this morning and after heading to the bathroom went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and it was weird not seeing Tony asleep on the couch.

Something Cool: I worked a double on Mother's Day and we did more than a thousand people. Today's day off is going to be great because both Corrie and I aren't working, we're getting dressed up and going to eat at the Driskill Grill at Austin's oldest and swankiest hotel, the Driskill Hotel. "Fine dining" as it's known today around the world, is either directly stolen from the French, or indirectly stolen by using the same methods and presentations but with local fare. Of course, the tradition of eating well was brought to the Gauls by the Romans, but that's another story. But, the idea of eating out at a restaurant is much newer than you might guess, and the "restaurant experience" grew out of the older tradition of the bourgeois going on vacations and staying in hotels or pensions. Even the words "hotel", "restaurant", and "pension" are all French.

The original, classic, famous early restaurants all grew out of, and were created because of, their mother hotel. Peasants and serfs don't visit Grande Hotels, and certainly don't eat in their vast and beautiful eating chambers. And now, sorta full circle, after checking some other places, it turns out that one of Austin's finest restaurants is in one of her nicest hotels.