Dear Feastlings,
I had nothing against sports until I was about six, when they began to separate the wheat from the chaff. It went from Duck Duck Goose to kickball, and suddenly, my peers saw me for who I was: an awkward child with minimal coordination, which was balanced by minimal strength and minimal aim. Team captains would be selected, and I’d stand in quiet humility as they picked their teammates from among the athletic boys, and in quiet humiliation as they went on through the other clumsy weaklings, then on into the tomboys and girls of moderate ability before grudgingly calling my name. Nothing made me happier than a rainy day, where we were allowed to sit in the cafeteria and I could make my way through every Herbert Zim book the school library offered, quietly, and without anyone noticing or caring about anyone else’s clumsiness.
Since I was six, I’ve avidly cultivated a disinterest in team sports. I’m less weak and clumsy than I was then, but to this day I prefer a solitary walk or bike ride to so much learning the rules to football. Today, I find myself torn, because as a member of the Tucson community, I feel an obligation to want the U of A to do well in the various sports in which it participates, and our guests are indisputably Wildcat fans. I like to support those who support us here at Feast, but for a restaurateur who doesn’t have a bar lined with televisions (and, may I add, never will,) the success of the basketball team is inversely proportional to the success of the evening. As such, please know I’ll be wishing you all well from about 6 pm until we close tonight, but only about as grudgingly as the six-year-old team captain who got stuck with young Doug on the team.
For those of you who read all the Golden Guides to birds and reptiles and stars and insects and ended up like me, tonight’s a good night to go out to a restaurant without a television and have the place more or less to yourself, as the Wildcats play their Sweet Sixteen game and the city all but shuts down.
The good news is I’ll have time to get the April menu written, as I’ve been focused on a number of other menus which I now present to you:
Chronologically first is this Saturday’s end-of-the-month wine tasting, a sampling of wines from Giuliana Imports with our buddy Rob:
Next would be the Easter menu. Yes, we’re normally closed on Sundays, but we’ll be hanging out the shingle on Easter Sunday with not only our regular menu but a healthy handful of Easter specials:
In between would be the April menu, which won’t be beginning until the 7th, the first Tuesday of April, and I imagine I’ll write that while we drum our fingers on the bar tonight while a smattering of guests ask us if we know the score, or hoot at their phones as they watch.
I will, however, post the menu for our wine dinner with Giovanni Triscornia of Ethica Imports, as I’ve gotten that written:
And from there, I’ll go home and cuddle up with a copy of the Golden Guide to Rocks and Minerals or something, and wait for March Madness to end.
See you on a day that’s not a game day.
Love,
Doug