Tag: boudro’s

Gayle in jail. Please send bail.

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We’ve been here before.  Friday the 13th is my birthday (surely you don’t suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia). 

I thought it would be great because, after all of this time, that is the day we finally are scheduled to upload Last Farm Standing on Buttermilk Hill: Voelcker Roots Run Deep in Hardberger Park to the printers.  Getting a 240-page book on the press should be something to celebrate, but my birthday looks more like gloom and doom.  (Click here to help me now.)

Law enforcement officers are picking me up and locking me away in The Vault on August 12 as part of the MDA (Muscular Dystrophy Association) Lock-Up.  While some of my friends have shown their generosity and compassion, others seem to have their hands stuck in their pockets, meaning I have not yet raised my required bail – $2,000.  (Click here to help me now.)

Fearing I might not be able to secure the funds to get out, I thought I better hatch a back-up plan.  Jail break.  Zinc and Boudro’s are donating a last meal to all of MDA’s prisoners.  Maybe I can find a way to surreptitiously slip my utensils under my bra (Ow!).  (Click here to donate now.)

I asked Ronnie of Zinc Bistro to show me where I would prefer to spend my sentence, next door and the floor below.  The wine cellar.  If I could just tunnel from The Vault into Zinc’s wine cellar, I would be content to stay imprisoned for life.  (If I can tunnel into the wine cellar, you don’t have to give a penny.)

But then Ronnie took me up to The Vault where I will be locked up.  He laughed cruelly as he showed me the thickness of the door on the huge safe, and said all four walls, the ceiling and, unfortunately, the floor are the same thickness.  No way I’ll be able to dig out of there with a knife and fork.   There is no escape.  (Click here to help me escape now.)

So I am back to pleading with those of you who have not yet done so to please pull your hands out of your pockets right now. 

My bail money can be your tax deduction. 

Your gift to the Muscular Dystrophy Association could help send a child to summer camp or fund life-saving research. 

Plus it’s my birthday.   So please, please, please click here to bail Gayle out of jail.

And, hey, I’ll take Friday the 13th over any Monday.

Update on August 12:  The police car came and took me away, but, thanks, thanks and more thanks to a rather philanthropic hand of followers (who did, however, make me sweat it out until the last minute, but all’s well that ends well), I served no time.  Enjoyed the bountiful spread contributed to the incarcerated by Zinc and Boudro’s, but particularly enjoyed one of “the secrets from the cellar” one of the owners shared with me:  JC Cellars 2005 The Imposter, a 92 on Wine Spectator described as:

As exotic as it is potent, with deep blackberry liqueur, sandalwood and wild game aromas and rich, ripe cassis, blueberry and licorice flavors that power on toward the bold, spicy finish. Zinfandel, Mourvedre, Petite Sirah and Syrah.

And, best of all, I will be free to drink again tomorrow on my birthday.

If Julian can hang in the powder room, then I am proud to do so

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Okay, friends, before you start dismissing my prints as “potty art”….

A number of years ago, we were gifted two small sketches by noted San Antonio painter Julian Onderdonk, 1882-1922.  We live in a loft, but these little sketches need to be viewed close up in an intimate setting.  That’s why they hang in the powder room where they are seen as frequently as our art of more humble pedigree, as most guests wind up in that room at some point.

Two series of my prints occupy two entire rooms in Zinc Champagne. Spirits. Wine. at 207 North Presa Street.  The Blue Book Series is found in what is now known as the Bawdy Blue Room, while the Frida y Diego Series resides in La Galería de Frida. 

Alright, I admit it.  The “two entire rooms” are hardly traditional, soaring gallery spaces.  They are multipurpose facilities.  You can enter them to view the art privately, with the added convenience of relieving yourself and washing your hands. 

Zinc is owned by the “Boudro Boys,” Richard Higbie and Randy Mathews.  The restaurant business takes nerves of steel, and Randy’s therapy lies in metalwork.  While I am sure he would like to exhibit his sculpture in the prestigious Bawdy Blue Room or La Galería de Frida, his artwork is simply too large in scale.  His pieces are forced out into the courtyard.

The Blue Book ~ No3, “Patent Plugs for Pifflicated People,” This collage focuses on Billy Keilman’s 1911 Blue Book advertisement for his “Patent Plugs for Pifflicated People,” claiming that “one of these, inserted anywhere in the wall, will bring things to a standstill…” The ad is headlined “Stop That Merry-Go-Round!!” The miracle claim of relief for the intoxicated is combined with a period toast on a “Greetings from San Antonio” postcard and a pair of prancing carousel horses.
Frida y Diego ~ No2, “Dieggos,” Images of Diego Rivera are superimposed on eggs. The cracked egg splits a photo of Frida Kahlo and Diego, with Frida’s bleeding heart from “The Two Fridas” on the yolk.
With the prestigious interior galleries…
occupied by my art…
these sculptures by Randy Mathews…
are displayed in the courtyard at Zinc.

While you probably are ready to zip over to Zinc immediately to see my prints, there are additional reasons to go.  Click here to view Zinc’s menu, and the following is from an earlier post exploring some of San Antonio’s food offerings:   

The name immediately lets you know the beverage side of the menu is well-stocked; yet the bartenders do not complain about making something off-menu – such as what I have christened a “tequito,” a mojito with tequila instead of rum.  Zinc is open during the week for lunch, but seems to be trying to keep that secret.  Pears, goat cheese and pecans perk up a small Zinc salad, and the portobello patty melt with spinach, nopalitos and cheese is hearty fare.  The sweet potato fries arriving on the same plate keep me from exploring the menu much farther, despite the high praise friends lavish on the Texas salmon salad with pearl couscous.

So drink at Zinc until you think about that artwork conveniently hung by the bathroom sink.

New World Wine Festival Shifts to New San Antonio

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The New World Wine and Food Festival gets underway on Wednesday, May 12, with Sip, Savor & Shop.  Shop?  Stop.  What is happening?

Only four months ago we were cruising around the river bend, courtesy of JoAnn Boone of Rio San Antonio Cruises, enjoying appetizers from Boudro’s while listening to Richard and Bunny Becker talk about their vineyard’s wines, including their best-seller, the cleverly named Iconoclast.  This was part of the 2009 version of the New World Wine and Food Festival.  

But it seems that the festival has succumbed to the strong polar pull that makes San Antonio’s growth so lopsided.  The festival is linking up with the Valero Texas Open, played on the AT&T Oaks Course, which means much of the festival occurs at the brand-spanking new JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa.

Sipping and savoring while saving on shopping at La Cantera, including the VIP Bubbles Event at Tiffany’s (sorry, no breakfast), will probably be extremely popular; as will Burgers, BBQ, Beer and Texas Spirits at the resort on May 13.  The burger event should easily be a sell out in fact.  It will appeal not only to those on retreat at the resort, but they are bringing in Robert Earl Keen, who attracts rather large numbers of rambunctious fans.  Amazingly, the price for a package, including a spectator pass for Round One of the Texas Open, the 6 p.m. burger event and the Keen concert, is $55. 

$55 also admits one to Round Three on Saturday, combined with The Best of Mexico, “celebrating all the treasures of high end Mexican haute cuisine,” and entertainment at the resort’s music pavilion.  Hopefully, JW’s kitchen will be ready to pull all of this off by May (Read Ed Tijerina’s initial review .) and somehow manage to exude the San Antonio flavor the festival advertises.

Although JW does boast of its “1200-foot lazy river”  – unlike the real thing, chlorinated – the New World Grand Tasting Friday night, May 14, takes place along the actual San Antonio River (well, technically an extension of it) in the Convention Center Lagoon.  No golf package offered that day.

This wining while winding around the river bend photo from the November 2009 New World Wine and Food Festival was plucked from SavorSA, http://www.savorsa.com.
16th hole of AT&T Oaks Course at the new JW Marriott Resort – How do they get even the clouds in the sky to revolve around the hotel?

Ever since the time of King Tut, the common folk have swilled beer while the upper crust sips wine; so I guess it only makes sense to follow the money northward.  Maybe this post is all sour grapes because I tend toward a phobia that Lynne Rosetto Kasper of Public Radio’s Splendid Table once referred to as oeno-something-phobia, defined as “fear of an empty wine glass.” 

While the road might go on forever without the party ending for Robert Earl, Texas law dictates the party has to end when one has to drive forever to get back home.  I prefer to walk into town to attend wine-centric events; no need to have a designated walker to return home. 

The New World Wine and Food Festival organizers are trying to ease the pain for commuters by reducing the price for designated deprived ones:

To ensure a fun and safe time for everyone, The NWWFF* offers a special Designated Driver Ticket. These heroes help transport their friends and family to and from the festival safely.  These guys pledge not to drink alcohol at our festival events, and are rewarded with 50% off admission special ticket!  Designated Drivers enjoy all other aspects of the festival including great food, demonstrations and lectures, but any Designated Drivers found consuming alcohol during the event will be asked to leave. NWWFF continues our partnership with taxi services to provide alternate transportation for those who may need it.

Somehow I had envisioned the evolution of the Wine Festival centering around single-proprietor restaurants and the Culinary Institute of  America at Pearl, not a Marriott Resort.  But, no double bogey here, the festival probably is hitting the financial equivalent of a hole in one and will emerge securely in the black as a result of deciding to combine with the Texas Open.  I only hope attendees get some sense of being in San Antonio.

The best way to make sure out-of-towners attending the Wine Festival experience San Antonio hospitality is to up and volunteer to extend it.  They need you. 

*The Wine Festival’s choice to use initials, not mine.  Please discontinue.  That alphabet-combo will remain meaningless for the public.