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.
