After work today Brian, Tara and I went over to La Cima with Brian. Brian had told us that this was his “private club” and we really had no idea what to expect. I am used to the term “private club” from South Carolina where you pay a lifetime membership (of like $5) and you can drink all night without having to worry about when the bars have to shut down. Nothing fancy. We were thinking jeans and t-shirts. Brian had invited us for $1.99 pasta night so that helped move our thinking in that direction.
Just before he arrived to pick us up, Brian called ahead to tell us that we couldn’t wear jeans or t-shirts. We were pretty shocked. We had been planning on “dressing down” after work not “dressing up” for dinner. So we changed and he then picked us up.
Brian’s private business club, as it turned out to be, was La Cima at the top of the tower at Williams’ Square in downtown Las Colinas. This is the tower whose courtyard has the famous “Mustangs of Las Colinas” statue with several wild horses galloping across some water with fountains beneath each of their feet. A very cool monument indeed.
We rode the elevator to the twenty-sixth floor to the highest point in Las Colinas and possibly in Irving, Texas. Not exactly tall for those of us coming from the New York City area. Dominica and my last apartment was in a thirty-four story building, but in Texas this is rather tall and the view was spectacular. From the dining room at La Cima there is a panoramic cview from Dallas to the east all the way around to Fort Worth to the west. It really gives you a feel for the layout of the metroplex.
We had drinks in the lounge before going in to the dining room for dinner and wine flights. Dinner was great and the wine was excellent. The atmosphere at La Cima is great.
The idea of a “business club” is something that we don’t have back in New York so this is what was really surprising to Brian, Tara and I since we had never heard of such a thing before. La Cima is basically a country club without the golf and tennis. It is a private, members-only club open for breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week with its own bar and restaurant plus private rooms and amenities. It is a place, in the heart of the new tech corridor in Irving, for business people to go to escape the office or to treat as a home away from home and to meet up with other business people in a relaxing but very upscale environment.
We had a really nice time at dinner. Brian Souder and I have a lunch appointment at La Cima on Monday now as well.