All images via pentagramOne of the items I recently crossed off on my list was having lunch with Audrey at the Mermaid Bar at Neiman Marcus… Truth be told, she was probably a little young for the experience, but once she caught sight of the ginormous chocolate cake under glass at the bar, she miraculously went from Eloise-esque to “what an amazingly well-behaved child” in the hopes of snagging a piece... She succeeded.
The Mermaid Bar isn’t particularly fancy; but it is particularly Southern, serving giant popovers with a little pat of homemade strawberry butter, chicken salad sandwiches, BLTs slathered with mayo, a never ending stream of ice tea and amazing, epic chocolate chip cookies… In fact Neiman Marcus in general in Dallas is a wholly different affair, especially the downtown store. It’s genteel and old school and completely and totally (and oddly given my somewhat crunchy northern California upbringing) appealing.
I was having brunch at my friend Achlee’s house a couple of weeks ago and flipped through this gorgeous book sitting on her coffee table. Reflection of A Man is a tome chronicling Stanley Marcus’ photographs (in addition to founding Neiman Marcus, he was a prolific photographer.) Edited by Marcus’ daughter and granddaughter, photographer Alison V. Smith, the images are really gorgeous and elegant, and it’s currently holding court at the top of my Christmas list…
Audrey’s just asking for more of that cake.
