The French Room and Chesterfields: A Dallas Adventure in Cocktails

One thing that I've reiterated is that Dallas's cocktail menus (at least the ones that we've seen) are definitely nod-cheers-and-drink worthy.  On Saturday night, we visited the French Room at the Adolphus Hotel.  The hotel was alright, but probably not high on my list of favorites.  I booked it because I bought a stay from a deal site.  The French Room's menu was pretty tasty with the crab cake being one of my favorites.  It is (if you can't tell from the pics) one of those extremely dim restaurants) with prim and proper service.  I did notice that the desserts here were quite large.  See the soufflé below.  That's a giant dessert for single person, so we decided to just split one.  After a full dinner, we trotted down to Chesterfield's (literally behind the hotel) on the recommendation of Plinio Sandilio.  Plinio did not let us down.  Chesterfield's Aaron Howard showed us a great time.  All cocktails we had were interesting, creative, and darn well executed.  I noticed that there was a giant block of clear ice on the counter.  I asked Aaron if he could carve me one of those elusive Japanese ice spheres.  And he said yes.  See pics below.  I had never seen someone carve the ice by hand in person, only on YouTube previously.  It was served in the Gentleman's Companion....... which I guess was me.  The crab cake was quite nice, with no bread crumbs in it.  A palate cleanser.  This was a GIANT soufflé.  I'm not sure how a single person could stomach it, but the people at the table next to us did.  Here's the line up of Chesterfield's bitters.  Aaron Howard chisels the ice.  By hand no less. Tada.  Magic. Here it is served in the Gentleman's Companion.  I'm not sure what happened to the drink, but the ice is still there.

Chinese Lantern Festival in Dallas, TX

I found out about the Chinese Lantern Festival via a deal site.  It wasn't everything that was advertised in terms of the vendors and food, but that could be because we arrived early in the season on a Friday night.  But whichever, I had a very enjoyable time, and I was amazed by many of the displays.  I can't even fathom how many hours and careful moving it took to set up this beautiful wonderland.  I'd highly recommend going if you like taking photos or if you enjoy trying to figure out how they rigged up all the displays. 

I really wanted one of these pandas.  Most of the displays were wire frames covered with thin fabric and lit from the inside.  Some also moved and danced, which was pretty awesome. 

Peekaboo!

This sure was grand.

The peaches.

This dragon is constructed with plates and cups that are hand-tied together. 

The discipline it takes to create this is just crazy.

The lotus lanterns on the water: some of them opened and closed!

It is amazing to think that most of these displays are just wire frames.

Salute!

Perot Museum and the Original Pancake House

You know that saying..... "everything is bigger in Texas?"  The Original Pancake House is the poster child of that slogan.  We decided to try it because I felt like having a Dutch Baby, and I also wasn't too familiar with the Dallas Breakfast scene. 
Afterwards, we visited the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas on their second day open.  When you do visit the museum, do not neglect the very bottom floor.  They have a stairwell that plays notes, which is pretty awesome (see below).  There's also an interactive sports arena - I dare you to race a T Rex!

Dutch Baby on one plate and omelet on the other. 

This is just to give you an idea of the SIZE of the plates around here. 

The museum was an architectural wonder. 

Musical Steps!

There goes the escalator!

Rain = musical pipes?

The view of Dallas from the escalator.  Quite a fantastic view at that.