Pat’s Pick
Luna Blue Cafe
San Antonio
by Patricia Sharpe
October 2003
PAT'S PICK
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MOONSTRUCK "Luna" means "moon" in Italian and Spanish, but San Antonio newcomer Luna Blue Café will be on my must-visit list way more often than once in a blue moon. To begin with, the service at this bright, light ristorante is excellent—the waiters watched our table like hawks, and the manager whipped off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders when I groused that the air conditioning had gone into overdrive. Then there's the menu: Everything on it sounds delicious and intriguing. Mild-mannered steamed mussels got a kick from Spanish chorizo and red jalapeños (several other Mediterranean-influenced dishes also have a Mexican accent). A thyme-scented roasted portobello cap came with an irresistible heap of soft polenta, a disk of pan-seared goat cheese, and a fantastic, nutty sherry vinaigrette instead of the usual boring balsamic. I loved my veal piccata with caperberries in a white wine-lemon sauce (though classy veal slices would have been nicer than tenderized cutlets), and I'll be swooning over Luna Blue's satiny chocolate-hazelnut tart for many moons.PATRICIA SHARPE
BEST FESTS
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS Forgo October's usual rowdy beer-drinking and bratwurst-eating festivities and instead treat yourself to souvlaki and spanakopita at Houston's thirty-seventh annual Original Greek Festival. To be held October 2-5 at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral, the event features—what else?—all things Greek: music, dancing, crafts, jewelry, and of course, food (sample savory dishes like dolmades and keftedes or desserts such as baklava). If you want to keep expanding your palate, head for the New World Wine and Food Festival in San Antonio October 9-12. During this four-day affair you'll get to try wines from Australia, Chile, and Argentina and take a tour of several Texas wineries. You'll also sip south-of-the-border spirits like tequila and mescal and feast on entrées created by top chefs from Mexico. And—as the kitchen-gadget commercials say—that's not all: There are related cooking classes at Central Market, luncheons at some of the city's best restaurants (like Biga on the Banks and Le Rêve), and a fabulous dinner prepared by celebrity chefs Bruce Auden, Scott Cohen, David Garrido, Tim Keating, Stephan Pyles, and Andrew Weissman. Cheers. (For information on the Original Greek Festival, call 713-526-5377 or go to greekfestival.org. For the New World Wine and Food Festival, call 210-930-3232 or go to nwwff.org.) PATRICIA BUSA MCCONNICO
BOOKSHELF
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STYLE AND SUSTENANCE Back when I was a newly minted teenager, my mother took me on a shopping expedition to the Neiman Marcus store in downtown Dallas, complete with a lunch break at the Zodiac Room. The details of the trip are fuzzy, but the lasting effects have been an appreciation for the look, feel, and smell of fine everything and a warm memory of the ultimate mother-daughter bonding experience, especially the lunch part. Since 1953, the Zodiac Room has been serving up little plates of deliciousness and sophistication, dishes that have been enjoyed by generations of shoppers, like the popovers with strawberry butter, the chicken salad sandwiches, the mandarin orange soufflé, and one of Stanley Marcus' favorites, the braised pot roast. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of a great restaurant, Neiman's has collected the recipes of more than 160 classics in the Neiman Marcus Cookbook(Clarkson Potter). They range from dishes created by Helen Corbitt, who ran the Zodiac Room from 1955 to 1969, to current best-sellers at the store's restaurants around the country—all published for the first time. The cookbook goes on sale this month at a Neiman's-like price of $45, but at least you'll be able to have your best-loved dish anytime you want. For an additional $250, you can even receive the famous chocolate-chip-cookie recipe. Just kidding; it's in the book too. JANE DURE
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