June 26 , 2006
ABOUT THE TIME THIS NEWSPAPER HITS YOUR MAILBOX, most of Coloradoans will be celebrating at a restaurant. They won’t be doing anything special, just enjoying the nothing. No smoke. Not in any restaurant or bar. Not anywhere in the state of Colorado. Saturday, July 1, 2006 is The Day.
Yeah, the legislature, probably wisely, made several exceptions. The biggie, quite sadly, is the casinos. I suppose it was a move to get the legislation passed, and I’ll take it. Sure, the smoke in our casinos is an abomination. The meager no smoking sections in most are at best an attempt to placate the non-smokers like G. But there are few casinos we go to cuz the smoking is so bad.
But let’s look on the bright side. We will now have a smoke-free environment in every restaurant in every city, town and county across this Great State. Ain’t that a kick in the ass? Imagine all the folks like you and me who will now dine out without having to breath smoke with every bite of food. Think of all the folks who never eat out cuz of the smoke. Think of all the employees who won’t have to breath in second-hand smoke just cuz they need the job. Sure, there are lotsa benefits that we probably can’t measure. Reduced health costs in the future, lower costs in sweeping up cigarette butts. Howsabout faster turnover of tables cuz smokers ain’t lingering over their cigs and coffee?
This is one great event that will make most of our lives a bit more enjoyable, and for that I am grateful to every legislator who had the guts to support this legislation. Maybe next year they will really get gutsy and ban smoking in the casinos. Why don’t each and every one of you send a note, either via mail or email, to every legislator and thank them for their support this year, and ask for their support next year when (not if, when) the banning of smoking in casinos comes up for a vote. Yeah, I feel for the smokers. I really do. I quit December 3, 1983. Generally, cigarette smoke around me doesn’t bother me, but I know it bothers lots of others and I feel for those who can’t kick the habit. But I feel even more for the young folks who work in restaurants and are forced to breath all that bad stuff into their lungs just cuz that’s their job.
ON THE ROAD AGAIN. This is really The Fox, the one and only No More Mr. Nice Guy, back from being gone almost the entire month of May. But the good news is there is lots of material for about a dozen columns that came out of those trips.
The first of the month G and I spent a week in New York; the primary purpose was for me to attend my High School’s tenth reunion. What? You think I speak with forked tongue? I belie the truth? It WAS the tenth reunion. Well, OK, It was the fifth anniversary of the tenth reunion.
The reunion took place over three glorious days with unbelievable activities, fantastic food and – pardon, but I’ve got a tear or two running down my cheek – the first time I had seen so many faces that had all but faded from my memory. I don’t know how I can express my gratitude to my old friend, John Kelley and the rest of the group that put it all together, but for me it was truly memorable. Even G had a great time and made new friends. Actually, I think G almost had more fun than I did. More about this in a couple of weeks. At least the dining part.
The only way I could get G to go to Massapequa Park was by agreeing to spend the first five days basking in the sun in New York City. And that’s what we did. God couldn’t have been kinder. The weather was a perfect 65-70 degrees every day and no humidity. G couldn’t believe it; her hair never curled. We stayed at a magnificent hotel, the Michelangelo on 51st Street and 7th Avenue, we dined gloriously uptown, downtown and all around the town, on everything from lousy pushcart hotdogs to New York’s finest including Danny Meyer’s glorious Gramercy Tavern. But this story will also have to wait a few weeks.
A week after returning from New York, I left again, solo this time, for my annual trek to the National Restaurant Association Restaurant Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago. I drove there via a circuitous route with stops in Kearney (NE), Blair/Omaha, Chicago, Blair/Omaha, Kansas City (Overland Park, KS) and back to Denver. That was a 12-day trip to attend a four-day show. But worth every calorie and carbohydrate. Oops, now I have Dr. Stan nervous. I was really good, Stan, really. Well, mostly. They do some strange things in Chicago steakeries. And we found some great ones. Yo! That also will be a column or two coming soon to a newspaper stand near you. Hmmm. Don’t think the Statesman is available at newspaper stands. Oh, well, you’ll find it somewhere. By the by, have you checked out their website yet? www.Coloradostatesman.com? You can even find all my columns for the past three plus years.
Finally, G, with tons of help from daughter Camille, planned a family (hers, not mine) reunion, for over a year. The timing couldn’t have been worse for me; it took place the week after I got back from Chicago. Not wanting to create Disharmony in Paradise, I agreed to attend at least part of that reunion. After all, how many reunions can a guy handle in the same month? But I also knew if I didn’t go at all I would be attending a small funeral. Mine. So there went another three days away from the office.
The reunion was held at a fantastic locale called Snow Mountain Ranch just north of Tabernash and south of Granby, about 75 west of Denver. The facility is owned by the YMCA of the Rockies, www.ymcarockies.org, and it’s one fantastic place for a retreat of any sort. There were 32 of us – 1 Fox and 31 of “thems”, including nine rugrats – in one very large cabin with every modern convenience, including a double kitchen. Even our own chef. Chef Mick of the “them” family came all the way from San Francisco. That was a dual-purpose deal. Chef Mick is in a culinary program and got terrific practice as well as school credits and we got terrific, gourmet fare. Granddaughter Harper and I had to make a special trip into Granby to get our ice cream fix. We were nice enuf to share about three gallons of the stuff with the rest of the clan.
After all of that I still managed to find a terrific eatery. I left the reunion about five pm with the idea of getting home, having a light dinner and spending a few hours at the office. After all, I still have a business to run and I was gone for almost an entire month and the phones were ringing off the wall with clients asking where the heck their tax returns were. No, folks, while many of you thought think that Jody pays me $150,000 per year to write this column, it ain’t quite that much. And I’ve yet to find a sponsor to pay for all my meals or even send me to Rimini, Italy for the 28th International Exhibition for the Ice Cream, Confectionary and Baking Industries to be held next January. Anywho, as I drove thru Winter Park, I decided to grab a sangie there and go straight to the office when I got back to Lakewood.
After stopping at four different places looking for a real bugger, I finally found Deno’s Mountain Bistro (78911 US Hwy 40, 970/726-5332; www.denosmountainbistro.com). Well, surprise, surprise. I walked into what I thought was the main dive in town, saw this turn of the century bar with stools all around, old rickety floors, and wondered. Then I walked a bit further into the place and saw a large fine dining room with white linen table clothes and sat muh butt on the first open bar stool. Long story short, I had a terrific hand-packed bugger with good fries, a super slice of apple pie, and terrific service. One of the waitresses came by and asked if I was having the house special, the Steak Bada Bing dinner. I asked why. She looked at me with a whimsical smile and sed, “your shirt”. I didn’t have a clue until I looked at the shirt that was emblazoned with the words, “Bada Boom, Bada Bing”. I almost fell to the floor laughing. I passed on the steak, promising myself that G and I would return. Or did I forget to mention that this “dive” also served G’s favorite Chardonnay along with having a truly fine dining menu.
Cya.
In his real life Jay Fox is a CPA. He offers all kinds of good tax planning advice, financial calculators and the latest in tax news at his website: www.jayfoxcpa.com. He just writes this column for the money.