Breakfast at the
After breakfast we drove out
Lower Ranchitos Road
After about an hour of touring the Hacienda Martinez, we drove to the Blumenschien House and saw the Cliff Harmon exhibit and the Blumenschien's extensive Taos Society of Artists collection. The house was given by the Blumenschien's daughter Helen to the Taos Historical Society and it is still intact as the day they lived in the house plus a few added cabinets of awards and pictures associated with the family.
When we stopped at the front desk to pay on our way out of the Blumenschien House we asked the attendant which gallery had some Cliff Harmon's for sale and were told to go to the Hulse-Warman Gallery on Camino Pueblo north. We were hungry so we stopped a Graham Grille near the square on Camino Pueblo for some lunch. I had the chowder, tried last night, and ceasar salad. Suzette had a not very flacid calamari sauteed in blue corn meal coating and the excellent fig pizza, also served at the Reserve Tasting last night.
After lunch we walked to Hulse-Warman Gallery, located about three blocks north of the square on Camino Pueblo in the old Patrick Dunbar location. It had only a few Cliff Harmon works in multiples done in 2010 and 2011. None of the wonderful pencil drawings done in the late 40's that we loved. So we talked to the owner, a veteran of the early wine and food days in Napa in the 70’s, about wine and food and looked at some of his other artists’ work. I particularly liked the work of Michelle Cook, a NYC artist who works in works in grids of plain clear glass that throw decorative shadows on the paper into which the pieces of glass are fastened. We asked which of the new restaurants he liked and he volunteered the name, Mondo Italiano as a real Brooklyn Italian restaurant. We thanked him for his suggestions and complimented him on his lovely Gallery and marched on to the Town Hall where we saw the local artists' works there, mostly amateur artists. Then we went to Robert Parsons Gallery on
Bent Street
At around we awoke and went over to the Trading Post for its four artist opening. We met and enjoyed talking to Thom Wheeler, who has lived in
Mondo Italiano is located in a strip center on South Camino Pueblo south of Albertsons. It is filled with formica covered tables, booths and banquettes with the kitchen and a long counter and refrigerated display cases filled with pizza ingredients and desserts in the back. We sat and looked at the menu. Suzette immediately saw that the restaurant served a fried avocado and I was looking at the baked pastas. We decided on the avocado and two half orders of pasta. Farfalle Carbonara ($6.50) 1 inch wide strips of pasta lightly baked with peas, pancetta, garlic, in an olive oil sauce and Ravioli ($6.50) laid on a wild mushroom cream sauce (mostly oyster mushrooms and strips of porcini) and garnished with marinara sauce. We ordered a glass of Masi Sangiovese ($6.00 per glass), which was not very good compared to the superb wines we had drunk the night before, but in fairness it was probably a $7.00 bottle, not a $100 bottle of wine. We loved the food but I had to order a side of flash grilled fresh spinach served in a garlic and olive oil sauce to add to the Farfalle to give it added vegetable mass ($3.00). So we had a very light but filling and pleasant dinner.
Revived, we pushed on to the Taos Inn for the music. We found a seat, which is unusual. The Band of four members was two couples. A female conga player, a female singer, a male regular guitar player and a male steel guitar player. We enjoyed the music, which ranged across the spectrum of world fusion music from West African Afro pop music to Cuban Afro Latin and South American music. There was one interesting event involving our waiter. After about thirty minutes a waiter approached us and asked if we wanted something to drink and I ordered pineau. He did not know what I had said and so I ordered Doc Martin’s wine menu. When I showed him the listing for a pineau under sherries and Ports, he said, “Oh, a sherry.” I said, “No, a French aperitif.” He said, “Oh, a French aperitif!” I was happy he was willing to be informed. We find that pineau is always a good thing to order at Taos Inn because they pour a full 6 ounce glass for $6.00 that we chased down with glasses of water. Not enough good things can be said about the city water of
After about an hour we saw that it was after so we knew that the first set had started at Midtown Lounge, so we jumped into the car and drove north. I had had a tip on the location from Thom Wheeler, who said it was seven miles north of the traffic light at the Ski Basin/Gorge crossing roads. So even though Suzette was insisting that we go to the Old Blinking Light Tavern and Restaurant on the
Ski Basin Road
By we were happily in bed.
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