Retail Wednesday And El Come Tacos

Two Cuties

Another early morning if 7:00 is early.  Beth and Rami were both up when I came downstairs at 6:30 and Rami has a meeting downtown at 8:00 so he's getting ready to leave while the rest of us relax.  Evie just came downstairs to join us and Marisa's up as well.  Mitch went back to Austin yesterday afternoon so there's just the five of us.  

Yesterday morning was typical until 10:00, drinking coffee, figuring out the day, what to do for dinner, and taking Kaia for a walk. Beth has to stay home because she was having workmen fix their outdoor fountain and the base for their grill.  Evie and I decided to take an excursion and Evie has wanted to go to the Container Store so off we went.  It's not my favorite kind of store but she was happy, browsing all the aisles, and ended up buying some plastic bins for storing various condiments in cupboards. We were across the street from the Mall and a new Eataly had just opened, the first one we had visited in New York a few years ago.  It's the brainchild of Lidia Bastianich and her son.  It's both a deli and a restaurant, the deli filled with expensive products from all over Italy, like canned tomatoes, cheeses, sausages, salami, wines, and Proscuitto.  We ended up buying a few slices of focaccia for Mitchell's lunch, then drove home, a fifteen-minute drive, stopping only for gas at one of the few gas stations around.

Deli At Eataly

Lunch was the leftover Manpleasing chicken and rice and everyone was hungry so we sat around the table. enjoying our chicken and our last meal with Mitch who was taking a bus back to school at 2:00. It's a neat way to go back and forth to Austin as they have six buses a day which make the trip.  I was exhausted as always from shopping, browsing stores, so I went up to read and quickly fell asleep.  Evie and Beth relaxed and started watching another episode of The Queen's Gambit.  

Around 3:30, I was bored so I decided to walk up to Highland Park Village, the posh shopping area, clearly the most high-end around, with stores with unfamiliar foreign sounded names like Baretta, Akris, Christian Louboutin, and Ermenegildo Zegna.  I have been here a couple of times, for a walk, and sometimes a coffee at  Royal Blue  Groceries.  I ordered a coffee, found a seat outside and it's fun to people watch, an eclectic group of patrons.  A few high school kids sat around on their computers but many of the rest stood out, with their two to three hundred dollar jeans, leather boots and coats, spa tans, and coiffed hair, the men often carrying multi-pocketed leather purses.  I felt a bit like a country bumpkin from Chautauqua Lake even though I thought I was dressed fine, in my Columbia slacks and cool Ariat plaid shirt. I also noticed pegged pants are in, for the young hipsters and women.  It takes me back to the 1950s when the hoods or rackies wore lowered belt loop slacks and pegged bottoms pants.  I read for a half-hour, then stopped at Bird and picked up some cupcakes and brownies for dessert.  I missed not having Kaia with me but she is not good around other dogs so I left her at home,  

Coffee At Royal Blue

Beth was having work done on the house, so she had to stay home much of the afternoon.  We were excited about dinner because we were going to our favorite taco place, El Come Taco, a small, modest place with real tacos, not a Taco Bell.  We drove there around 6:30,  a twenty-minute drive and we were one of three tables as most were ordering take-out.  

Taco Night At El Come

We ordered guacamole, margaritas, and street corn for appetizers, and everyone ordered two or three tacos for dinner.  They were as good as we hoped and we finished everything, chips, guacamole, corn, tacos, and Margaritas.  We didn't get home until 8:00 and for dessert, Beth cut up the cupcakes so we could try the various flavors,  We then watching our pottery show, the third episode until we were falling asleep, and then went up to bed.