We
had a grand time at Keith's party. They hosted about twenty of us at
Julian Serrano in Aria, and the food and service were just wonderful.
There
were plenty of fancy beers, some were 30 dollars a bottle. This was
a great pleasure for my sons who are all great beer lovers, one of
them invested in Joyride, a local brewery in Denver.
Few
drank wine. Most had fancy drinks of all sorts. Many I had not
heard of before. I had Celeste wine, a tempranillo from Ribera del
Duero, my favorite Spanish wine region.
The
only annoying bit was that my daughter-in-law pre-ordered the food
and planned a fine meal where every thing was served family style.
There was plenty, but she had carefully planned a certain menu and
ordered very tasty scallops, but she could not get more because the
restaurant had changed offerings and did not have any morescallops in
the place.
Also
they pre-ordered a small sandwich with beef and it came instead with
pork. The pork was wonderful, however, and my daughter-in-law did
get some added shrimp and an added beef dish to compensate for the
errors.
It
was quite a feast. We were also invited to order things off the
menu, but most just stayed with the basic choices.
The
rice pilaff with mushrooms was grand.
Potatas
bravas was very good. It was one of my favorites when I lived in
Spain. There it tended to be more spicy, but perhaps we ordered it
that way. I love hot sauce, but there is something in these potatoes
that is a different sort of spice.
I
remembered as well the small soft, deep fried chicken dessert was a
very popular bite sized cream puff, a small cake and the classic
churros con chocolate. Everyone seemed to love the desserts and I
tasted one small off-diet bite to find the churros very good and the
chocolate perfect.
It
was a lively crowd. I knew many of the people and had a good talk
with Keith's old college buddy who is working on opening the casino
in Schenectady. Probably 2017. Probably no comped alcohol. They
will have a poker room. There will be good parking and food and a
place for having weddings and such, but there will not be a new hall
for shows. This may have been to avoid competing with Proctor's, a
famous old show venue that perhaps now will have more offerings.
He
explained that market analysis shows that new casinos do not really
generate much in the way of new gamblers, but merely draw from those
who have been going to other local casinos. So they compete with
Turning Stone and with the slots at Saratoga and to a lesser degree
with Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
There
was plenty of banter around the table. I have met many of the
Filipino friends and family of Bernadette, but not all of these
folks. It was a real look into their social community. Sometimes a
marriage between different cultures and religions puts strains on the
relationships. Not here.
Of
course, it does help that it seemed much more important that Keith
was a Bulls rather than a Giants fan than that he was culturally
different. Bernadette is a huge sports fan. Sports is really the
center of their life.
We
brought along some great sports presents. I framed two photographs
of my father. One is the classic photograph of him in his Buffalo
Bison uniform in the twenties. The other was an action shot where as
a catcher he was tagging somone at home plate. Dad always loved that
photograph.
Pat
Mcasky of the Chicago Bears
is
an old friend of my wife, and he graciously sent us some tickets to
give to Keith. Nice seats for a game on a date Bernadette chose.
Both she and Keith were equally excited. Along with that we gave
them two of Pat's books on sports and faith.
I
added in a signed birthday greeting of Ricky Watters of the forty
niners as he was signing photographs here at the Gold Coast.
Dana took these photos
Dana took these photos
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