Day 4 of Benjy Portnoy’s (SavorMyLife.com) trip to Dallas. Includes a rare Texas ice storm, cheese enchiladas, a swanky Hilton Bar, and $20 Grilled Cheese
Day 4 of Benjy Portnoy’s trip to Dallas. Includes a rare Texas ice storm, cheese enchiladas, a swanky Hilton Bar, and $20 Grilled Cheese
For some reason, the weather gods decided today that Dallas had gone too long without a crippling cold front. That equated to every street and sidewalk being encased in 2″ of solid ice and temperatures hovering around 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
I’m originally from St. Louis, MO, where that’s par for the course. That probably wouldn’t even equal a snow day for us. However, Dallas shut down. Our museum touring plans were shot for the day, but we did find warming solace in RJ’s Mexican Cuisine, a nicely-appointed downtown restaurant. We bundled into what few layers and hats we’d brought with us, hacked the ice off the windshield with a rubber mallet I had stored in my trunk, and slowly made our way the mile and a half to downtown.
Most of the city stayed home, so we had the place to ourselves. As much as she tried, our server spoke really spotty English, so specifying our vegetarian wants was a challenge. But we wound up with a nice, satisfying meal; I had enchiladas with tangy sour cream dressing and tomatillo sauce with grilled vegetables, and Kat went with the Chile Rellenos. Though the type was not specified, the cheese was a white Mexican melting cheese, landing somewhere around a Chihuahua or asadero. Good stuff. The manager even came over at one point to check that we’d were happy, which we were. Nice people, nice place.
Slip-sliding our way back to the car, we opted to spend the rest of the day near home base. Our meager Sheraton lay in the shadows of the posh behemoth, the Hilton Anatole. About five years ago I helped put on a conference there, and after a few hours of cabin fever, I was ready to brave the quickly-dropping temperatures and trudge across the street for a drink and see it again.
The mammoth Anatole is split into two disparate yet connected buildings. We walked the quarter mile through the Atrium area to the Tower, which housed the swanky Gossip Bar. Walking through the rows of rich crimson leather booth seats and dramatic lighting overhead, we were again the only ones in the place. A mini bottle of Kenwood sparkling wine at $10 each was a steal for the place, which boasted single cocktails averaging closer to $15 a piece.
We grabbed a quick bite to go from Media Grill + Bar, the hopping, dimly lit restaurant back in the center section of the complex. Mixed reactions on this end; I ordered a mozzarella/provolone grilled cheese with onion marmalade and butternut squash bisque. The seemingly simple request took about 25 minutes to make, and when we got back to the room and opened it up, they’d left out the soup. However, it was indeed one of the better $20 grilled cheeses I’ve had in my life. And to see the Anatole again was justification enough.
None of it, however, came close to measuring up to the tube of Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookie dough we’d picked up earlier in the day. Between that and the weather, sometimes you can go home again.