Skulking at the CIA

I'm still digesting the wonderful meal I shared with cousins J-Yah and Sher at the Wine Spectator Greystone restaurant at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena yesterday, so let me rhapsodize not about the food yet but instead about the gift shop.

I love beautiful tableware. I admit to having six sets of dinner plates and keep thinking I need one more. I actually drool when I see food service items that I can just imagine with food placed beautifully on them. I think it's a sickness but it's a benign affliction.

So, yesterday, wandering around the gift shop at the CIA, I saw this charming set of glasses, all clear glass but each a riff on the clear glass theme, and fell instantly in love. And, for once, this wasn't the sixth set of that size glasses that I own - we actually needed this size! They'll be perfect for juice in the morning or for the modern presentation of wine in stemless glasses. I'm tickled pink.

If you ever need a gift for a foodie friend, I can recommend a leisurely drive with favorite people through the fall countryside around Napa, with the golden vines glowing in the sunshine and the sky washed deeply blue by recent rains, to the CIA where it's a huge pleasure to skulk among the gift shop treasures.