Magical Small Town Mountain Evening

After a challenging evening last night with the kids...

(instead of doing their Saturday chores while I was out working most of the day, they elected to play instead. When evening came and I still required that they get their chores done by the end of the day, what resulted resembled a cross between a courtroom drama and back alley cat fight.)

By the time Bunni got home from work I had had more than my fill of the noise and constant whinning so as soon as she hit the door we grabbed Puddy and headed out for an impromptu date, (Puddy goes on most of our dates these days...well has been for the last 3 years.) leaving the rest of the kids to squable amongest themselves in solitude - leaving them to figure out what they will do for dinner on their own (oh and they had better have the dinner mess cleaned up by the time we get back.)

I told Bunni right away that I didn't want to go to Chili's (our standard last-minute restaurant of choice) especially since they had removed the faboulous Blue Cheese Chipolte Burger from their menu...a mistake of huge, HUGE proportions! :-) Trust me it was a great burger. Without a standard to fall back on we pointed the minivan towards downtown.

Now you should know that we live in a pretty small mountain town...when I first interviewed for a job here it reminded me of a smaller version of Cedar Falls in the mountains. Except we get the perk of being a bit of a tourist town, not like Vail or Aspen, but just enough that we get the benefit of small town living with just a touch, a light touch, of more metropolitian living which is just the way I like it. So instead of downtown being over-run with bars there's a plethora of great places to eat. I really dig that it takes only about 30 minutes of driving if you really want to get away from civilization and that you can be downtown in 5 for some great food.

Niether of us was sure where we wanted to eat, I just knew that whatever we had I wanted to have a small cup of soup with it, so soup was a basic requirement of wherever we landed. Parking the Sedona along Main street we got out of the car only about 20 feet from two great restaurants May Palace, a small and under appreciated Asian fair eatery, and Atmosphere one of our French bistros. The place is awesome! Not only does it have that old world ambiance but the food is extrememly tasty and just exotic enough to be very memorable. The goat cheese salad with candied pecans is not to be missed, and the French Onion soup is rumored to be some of the best in the West. Don't snicker until you've tried it.

Now one of the other things I really dig about our downtown is that in a 3 block radius, 3 block not 3 city block, there are dozen restaurants, not counting the bar/grills, none of which are a part of a nation-wide food chain (a BIG plus in my book) or someone's afterthought of a business venture...these are all wonderful places to eat.

The convience of tightly clustered locations is further enhanced by the fact that all but one of the establishments posts their menu on a wall or window right by the entrance, so not only do you get to decide if you have the cash to spend before entering (a couple of these places being pretty upscale with evening entrees starting at $35.00 a plate) but you can feel out if the offerings are the kind of taste that you are looking for at the moment. Considering that it's now November in the mountains the weather last night was beautiful, the temperature hovered in the mid 30s, there was just a hint of crispness in the occational wafting breeze and the sky was washed in high thin clouds backlight by a mostly full moon...the feeling was magical. With smiles on our faces we decided to make all the rounds and hit the crosswalk. (Teaching Puddy about crossing lights and letting her guide us on our way was just another nice memory to add to the evening.)

As we rounded the blocks there was cuisine of all kinds, from your basic pizzeria to an upscale sushi bar. Each menu listed great things to try, but as you might have guessed without any particular craving to steer us in any particular direction we ended up right where we started...of course Puddy occationally prodding us for Chineese food didn't have anything to do with our final selection. At May Palace the three of us split a appetizer sampler and their orange beef, and I got a cup of egg drop soup on the side...Puddy of course had to follow suit and have what "Daddy" was having. : ) She's such a sweetie. After finishing our sub-divided meal, that was just enough to satisfy and still left room for desert we paid our bill and cross the street to Atmosphere.

After some encouragement from me Bunni ordered the lavender...yes I said lavender...creme brule, I ordered mine in French vanilla, while Puddy got the chocolate moose. Watching over Puddy to make sure she didn't break or tip over the tall champaign flute that hers came in added a bit of adventure to sampling each other's selection. Both of the brule were prepared to perfection with your spoon making the slightest crackle as it broke the crust of the melted sugar. The vanilla was fabulous and while Bunni didn't quiet get into the exotic flavor of the lavender as I did what was really suprising was how much I enjoyed the chocolate moose.

When it comes to food I'm pretty picky about texture and I generally don't like whipped deserts because there's nothing there to contrast to the fluffy ball of air sitting on your tounge, not so with this moose. Not only was the chocolate they used very tastey but it was laced with chocolate syrup, chocolate shavings and ribbons of melted sugar, all of which made for a delightful treat. The gooeyness of the syrup playing against the velvety texture of the moose itself, broken up by the crispness of the sugar ribbons made this no ordinary treat.

Alas with our tummies full and the night air getting ever more the chilled we slipped back into the minivan and made our way home. Not only was the food excellent tonight, and the company simply wonderful and as an added bonus the kids had actually worked through their squabbles and we came home to a clean and quiet house....magical.