Dining out and small town life

I will admit that I get irritated when I hear folks complaining about a Starbucks on every block or saying that Thai food is everywhere now. I'd love to have one real Starbucks and a Thai restaurant opening here would bring tears to my eyes. I live in Teenytown.

So here on the Upper East Side of Texas (I stole that from a community newspaper), we can eat Mexican food, mediocre Italian, "country cookin', or burgers--or cook at home.

At one point, after our one Italian restaurant added a bar, I had to stop going because people I didn't know were talking about me and my consumption of martinis. Apparently there was just one of me because complete strangers wanted to know how many I'd had the night before. Let me just say, I did NOT drink huge numbers of martinis.

I'm fortunate that M loves to cook and is gifted and creative--a natural talent. I enjoy cooking myself, so it's not the problem it would be if we both hated to cook and were poor cooks to boot. But, still, sometimes I want to have a good dinner, and I don't want to drive an hour or so to get it.

I go into my favorite of the two Mexican restaurants, and by the time I've unwrapped my napkin my Diet Pepsi with lemon is on the table. The waitress sees me and says, "Number 12 with pico and Ranch." I say, "Yes."

Right now, M and I are thinking about a weekend restaurant--a subscription kind of deal where he'd know beforehand how many people would be there. He's been writing menus, and I've been scoping the area for a house to use. I think the house/restaurant idea could fly here a la the East Side Cafe in Austin or the Phoenix in Grinnell, Iowa. Check this one out:

It belongs to a man in town who's trying to do some cool stuff. He boarded up the windows after kids broke them out one night a year or so ago. I think there'd be plenty of parking space, but the neighborhood isn't zoned for business, and I think the neighbors would squawk loudly.

At any rate, we're both dreaming of a place where M could serve appetizers that include duck confit right here in Teenytown.