It has been a difficult year so far, at least for many people. We've dealt with a media blitz over Sarah Clampett's new book, a couple of bozos named Jon and Kate, the continuing presence of Oprah...oh, and that economy thing.
Still, there are many things to be thankful for this holiday season. The recession hit other restaurant scenes much harder than it did Dallas', for one. And local restaurateurs have responded to our financial plight, sometimes cutting entree prices from $32 to a more reasonable $28.
Anyway, I am thankful
That America's various food Nazi groups (militant raw foodists,
hardcore locavores, CSPI, anti-fat/sugar/salt people, twisted food
critics) haven't taken over completely, though they keep trying.
For good suburban restaurants with plenty of valet-free parking lots
For restaurants that still take reservations
For The Grape, Tei An, Suze, Nonna, Dali, Ava, Canary Cafe, Cadot,
Bolsa and all the other great little places that make dining in Dallas
so interesting
For pubs where they also know how to make a serious cocktail
That Cartoon Network started showing Looney Tunes again
That Oprah announced she will retire from television just before the
world ends in 2012, giving us a few months reprieve. Now if only Beck
and Fieri would do the same
For the burgers at Wingfield's
For taquerias
For douche bags, $30,000 millionaires, pretenders from the OC, Highland
Park types who flock to mediocre restaurants, narrow-minded East Dallas
types, easily satisfied suburbanites, the Izod crowd in Las Colinas,
and every other fixture on the Dallas dining scene
That Goody Goody exists
That Houston is so far away
For Scardello, Jimmy's Molto Formaggio, T.J.'s and the other great specialty markets
For DirecTV
For this green Odwalla crap I'm drinking at the moment
For Richie Whitt's Sportatorium
That companies send freebies, because I give them to the receptionist
so she'll think I'm a kind, generous guy...and so she'll fend off all
those calls from creditors
For summer sunsets viewed from Five-Sixty
For the Shops at Legacy in Plano, perhaps the best planned community in the area
That the Dallas Morning News has a hard-ass critic.
That Stephan Pyles is plugging along
For The Londoner in State-Thomas, if only because the patios are nice
For Manchester United, Colin Edwards, Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica, the Penn State Nittany Lions and the 'Boys
That my buddy Ian at The Idle Rich supports Liverpool, because it's good to have someone to laugh at
But mostly I'm thankful for bacon--as always
