BURKARD'S BLOG
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1 OCT 03: TWO-FER TUESDAY
Only have time for a brief summary of two big Tuesday night Columbus parties. The first one was an open house at Dillingham Place downtown - where I think even the town drunk could have enjoyed free wine and beer, if he'd dressed nicely.
Dillingham Place on 9th Street, between Broadway and Front Avenue, threw an open house to celebrate a couple of new businesses. One of them is the new office of the Convention and Visitors Bureau. So did I miss Peter Bowden and his staff -- or were they all out of town, looking for visitors to invite?
The other big new business at Dillingham Place is Quizno's Subs, which had plenty of samples for visitors to share. There was even a guy wearing a five-foot-tall inflatable mascot's head, shaped like a Quizno's cup. I've heard of Big Gulps, but this is ridiculous....
The curious thing about Quizno's Subs is its location in the Dillingham Place complex. It's on a basement level, which you couldn't see from the street if you tried. So asking where the restaurant is will be the biggest "Quiz-no" of all.
For those of us who jog downtown, there was one other nice development at the open house. The sidewalk on 9th Street next to Dillingham Place seems to be open at long last, after months of detour signs. If you didn't know better, you'd think the managers wanted you to visit the Wyndham Hotel's gift shop instead.
The Dillingham Place open house had free food samples, a live band, a wine and beer table -- and a woman to the side painting several wine bottles on canvas. The bottles had different colors, from red to green. Considering there were only green wine bottles at the drink table, she left me wondering how many glasses she'd had.
I couldn't stay long at Dillingham Place, because a larger invitation-only bash was waiting at the Columbus Museum. I'm not really allowed to say too much about it - except that it was strange to see a couple pray over their food at one table, while people were playing casino games 20 feet away at another.
(Come to think of it, that scene of "pray and play" tables probably happens all the time - but I've never been to Biloxi.)
The Columbus Museum atrium was filled for a 50th-anniversary party. Miriam's restaurant provided the food - but I became a bit concerned that the chefs' fiery presentation might force the fire marshal to come and actually count the crowd.
Several familiar faces could be spotted at the Museum party. I picked out Mark Levy from Bill Heard Cadillac right away - because he looks just as rumpled in person as he does in the TV commercials.
Another guest at the golden-anniversary party was a former familiar name in Columbus television. Penny Leigh presented the weather years ago - but Tuesday she showed up with a badge saying "Jay Auto Mall." Maybe now she predicts the highs and lows of car interest rates.
(By the way - how cutthroat do you think Georgia car dealers are? Do you think one of them called Atlanta Thrasher star Danny Heatley in the hospital Tuesday, to sell him a replacement for his wrecked Ferrari?)
COMING THURSDAY: The Mayor's great new image-building idea.... one that's too good to ignore....