Thursday, August 12, 2010

Breakfast at Neiman Marcus

{ a la Audrey Hepburn }

...although slightly less elegant in my attire, jewels, and coif.

THE first, the magnificent, the lovely downtown Dallas Neiman Marcus store is a wonder. While it contains the same couture trappings as the other stores, to me this one FEELS different. It's exclusivity seems to whisper to you in the soft scents and cool air pouring from just-opened doors and out onto the sidewalks. In 1914 after a devastating fire in the original store, the Neiman Marcus flagship opened on this spot at Main and Ervay. This visit I am staying a half block down the street at another Dallas landmark, The Adolphus Hotel. Built by Missouri beer baron Adolphus Busch in 1912, it's a step inside old splendor. I can imagine in more prosperous days the back and forth of beauties and NM boxes and bags between the two buildings kept porters busy. Today the shuffle on the street below belongs to a few men in suits heading to Starbucks, one stooped bearded man holding a sign and repeating the phrase “Jesus died” over and over with varying inflections at each repetition, and a 20-something blond in big sunglasses and a cadmium blue sequined mini-dress. I encountered all of this on my walk to obtain coffee (oh who am I kidding, I went for the cookie) from the street-level NM Café.

Past the Louboutin platforms, the Hermes scarves, the Diptyque candles, and the Godiva chocolate (“what?”, you say? Yes, I agree. How they EVER can equate the quality of almost everything else in their stores with this choice in chocolate offerings is beyond me), I opted for a $2.75 Illy coffee as my treat. I passed on the pre-wrapped cookies at the bar -- which is a fully-stocked bar, of course, since shopping is more fun that way -- and headed outside and around the corner to the NM Café. Here the cookies are baked in the store, and as luck would have it, I got a warm one.

I've made these many times, and they're great. The espresso makes it. Click on the link for the infamous Neiman Marcus cookie recipe.

....Although I'd opt for the Holly Golightly take-out version vs baking any old day. ;)

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