Day 304: Dinner Amigo, Margarita Shakers and a Tortilla Warmer

Do any of you have old favorites when it comes to restaurants that you frequented when you were younger? There were a few that I loved at varying times when I was young. Several weeks ago my husband and I were eating enchiladas at home when I suddenly had a flashback of Case Ole, one of the restaurants I loved as a teenager and young adult. I started telling about all of the fun times I had there and of the times I had to scrape up all the change I had so I could go and have a Dinner Amigo with my friends. I must have painted an attractive picture because he decided then and there that we were going to Casa Ole on our next trip back to my home town. Well, today was that day. We arrived on Saturday and found my dad working on a jigsaw puzzle and a fairly complicated one at that. We started working on it with him and told him that we would help him finish it before we leave on Thursday. At that time my mom proposed a bet that if we (my husband) could finish it by Tuesday at noon, she would treat us to a Dinner Amigo at Casa Ole. The bet was on. In the end it was tight and, despite what you might have guessed, he lost by two minutes. Two whole minutes and no Dinner Amigo. The final piece was set into place by my dad at 12:02 p.m.

Normally that would have meant that we paid for dinner but in the end my parents would not let us pay. And besides walking out with our bellies stuffed to the gills, we left with a goodie bag as well. To make a long story short, my husband decided that we need a tortilla warmer and we thought it might be fun to have one from a restaurant that meant something to us. We asked our server if the tortilla warmers say Casa Ole on them and she said that they did not but we were still interested in one. After the manager came out to offer us, free of charge, four Casa Ole margarita shakers, we realized that we had worked together at Casa Ole's sister restaurant, Crazy Jose's, many years ago. It was really fun to reminisce and talk about the great times we had at Crazy Jose's and in the end we left with a tortilla warmer as well. All compliments of the house!

We had a fantastic day with my parents visiting the Art Museum of Southeast Texas and driving around downtown Beaumont before dinner. Below are a few shots from our little adventure.

Heading into downtown Beaumont with the historic Hotel Beaumont in the background. 

The historic Edson Hotel in downtown Beaumont. 

A few Totems by Felix "Fox" Harris.

One of the many nice works of art at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas. 

This particular artist teaches an art class one of our friends in Dallas takes.

Casa Ole!

So nice to be able to wear a dress with bare legs before heading into hibernation back home...