Today's Word of Mouth: Breath of Death at Teatro Dallas. October 15-November 7
This production is adapted from Lafcadio Hearn's Ghostly Japan, a collaboration of Japanese Folk Tales. Celebrate the Day of the Dead with six poetic and deadly souls of the stage and commemorate the 65th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For more information visit http://teatrodallas.org/
Dallas has always been, just like New York, a dream city to me. I've always glamorized it in my mind. Sure, it has its ghettos, gangs and grave areas of danger as do other cities, but that's not what I see when I go there. Call me crazy but the city is comforting to me. I don't mind driving an hour or sitting in traffic for two in order to get there because I have a passion for it. I feel its culture burn inside me whenever I'm there. Its vanity, as some would say, makes it stand out. And although vanity can be considered a brash quality, people don't talk about humility and positive qualities now do they? Nope. They talk about the "in," "the now" and everything materialistic in between. The vanity is probably what draws me in.
But because of this vanity I don't usually take towards higher end restaurants in the city. Although I dream of it, things aren't very "Sex and the City" these days in the wonderful world of United States economics. Money is tight for most and that means not eating out in beautiful but expensive restaurants in Dallas. So when Villa-O restaurant was recommended to me because of its free Monday night meals, I remember thinking that there had to be some kind of catch. There always is after all. You know it's true. I looked the restaurant up at http://www.villaorestaurant.com/cuisine.php and sure enough found their Monday night special. I swore in my head "Free 2-Course Italian Meal" meant one free dinner per table. Alas, I made my reservation anyway and bit the bullet.
Upon entering the restaurant I instantly felt relaxed. The lights were a little too dim for my taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed the baby blue napkins, the matching water glasses and the white skeleton head illuminating the wall for our upcoming holiday. Our waiter was nice, attentive and never let our glasses go empty.
For the Monday Night Dinner Special you are required to order your two course meal from a certain menu, but Villa gives you several options including pasta, chicken parmesean and lasgana with choice of soup or salad. I decided to go with the starter salad and lasgana. And while I felt the portions weren't very large, they were rich with flavor. The lasgana's aesthetic appeal made my mouth water. Rich tomato sauce and light cheese should never be denied by anyone.
By the time I had finished my meal, I half expected our waiter to announce that we would only be getting one dinner for free. Again, marketing can be a deceiving thing, but when he brought us our bill, which included a dessert, (chocolate mousse cake to die for if you can handle the over the top rich taste) I noticed what would have originally been a $60 meal for two had been reduced to a $13 meal. (The drinks and dessert we ordered are not included in the Monday special) I was impressed and almost shocked. No restaurant I've been to in my lifetime has offered such an honest and delicious deal.
So I encourage everyone to endulge in Dallas vanity one Monday evening when they have nothing else to do. Villa, as they say on their website, is Original, Organic and Oceanic...Oh my!
No comments:
Post a Comment