My Weekend in the Metroplex

Dallas and Fort Worth are referred to as "The Metroplex," which I think is a great word, although I don't actually know what it means.  Wait, Wikipedia to the rescue: "A metroplex is large metropolitan area containing several cities and their suburbs. It is also sometimes used as an alternative to metropolis or megalopolis, which is a chain of continuous metropolitan areas. The term was coined for, and is still commonly used to describe, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex."  Well, look at that!  It's named for this metroplex!  Cool.  Dallas and Fort Worth are actually kind of far apart.  It took me a solid 45 minutes to get from the center of one to the other.

Yes, it's true: this past weekend I was forced to stay in the metroplex for a weekend!  I was not looking forward to it at all, but I ended up having a really great time.  No cooking, of course, but I did enjoy expensing a weekend's worth of meals!  It was nice not to be trucking myself back and forth across the country every weekend, but I'm SO ready to be going home tomorrow after a full 10 days here.  Here's an overview of how I spent my time here...

Friday: Joanna can be officially named as the person that saved me from eternal boredom in Dallas, as she introduced me to her friend David, who has been far more generous to me than any person should be.  I think he's just gregarious by nature, but I really appreciated having someone as fun as he is to hang out with.  He invited me to Friday night services, which were held in possibly the most beautiful sanctuary I have ever seen.  Truly, it was gorgeous.  Then there was a young adult chili dinner afterward!  (You know you're in Texas when...)  Everyone I met was incredibly friendly, and people kept asking me when I'd be back.  After a while I couldn't break it to people that I didn't actually live in Dallas.

Saturday: I got up early on Saturday for a lovely (free) breakfast at the hotel of steel cut oats and fresh berries with mascarpone.  I had trouble deciding between that and the buffet, but I made the right choice.  Then I met David at his gym for Turbo Kick, which, quite frankly, kicked my butt.  My glutes were sore for DAYS!  But it felt good.  After a much-needed shower, I headed off to Fort Worth in search of The Lonesome Dove.  I saw Chef Tim Love on Top Chef Masters, so when I realized he had a restaurant in Fort Worth, I made it my number one priority for places to eat in the D/FW area.  I've been talking about it for months, so it felt like the culmination of something special when I finally walked in the door, barely making the 2:30 lunch cutoff (I had a whole sob story planned about how I had come all the way from NYC, wah wah wah, if they didn't want to seat me).  IT.WAS.AMAZING.  I didn't take photos because it was really dark and I was already a little self conscious about eating at a nice restaurant alone, so I didn't want the extra attention.  But I went all out.  I had an iced tea, the most incredible summer squash soup with shaved gruyere and the perfect amount of fresh black pepper, and a shaved tenderloin sandwich with horseradish cream, caramelized onions, and sweet potato fries.  I knew I needed to eat some steak before I left Texas, even if it's not my favorite food group, and I was determined to get it at The Lonesome Dove because Chef Love uses local beef.  I thought it was grass-fed too, but now I can't find confirmation of that online.  The beef was so delicious and fresh and buttery (as was the potato bread roll), but the highlight of the meal was really the soup.  The fries were literally like shoestrings, which looked pretty but were unpleasant to eat.  Overall, wonderful meal that lived up to the hype.  Side note: Tim Love opened a burger place around the corner called Love Shack.  Too cute!

I walked around historic Fort Worth for a little while and saw some longhorns.

And some other farm animals.

I also saw lots of fun signs that reminded me I was definitely in Texas.

(Can you see the blue sign that says Rodeo Plaza?  I got such a kick out of that.)

After I strolled around here for a while, I drove over to the itty bitty, but very lovely, Kimbell Art Museum.  They have a couple of Picassos and a couple of Matisses, and a Miro that I really liked.  Also some stuff by Piet Mondrian, who I don't think I've ever heard of.  It was very blocky and geometric but pleasing to the eye.

I really had a lovely day by myself in Fort Worth and didn't get lost once!  OK, once I thought I was lost, but it turned out I was right in front of the museum. I will continue the weekend recap in a later post.  Getting a little hefty here!  Off to go brave the crazy Dallas weather... it's colder here than at home!  And I am totally unprepared!  BRRRRRRR.