Dishing on Lake Anne

Grab your reusable shopping bags and your comfortable shoes, because .  We will once again bare our pasty legs and return to enjoy the views, the farmers market and the wares of local craftspeople and artisans.  

However, before you become too nostalgic about our first village center, you should know that there's a new project manager in town and he's got a Commercial Reinvestment Plan.    Lake Anne is preparing for big changes.  .  

Apparently, the new plan is for Lake Anne to become a hub of restaurants, a"dining destination."   This is in opposition to a "lunching destination," a label already held by . 

What a great idea!  In the midst of a commercial lending crisis that has precluded almost all entrepreneurial projects from finding funding, we should bet the house on a sector wherein the typical project survives an average of 11 months.  

But I'm sure the consultants know a whole lot more than I do.  I wasn't even smart enough to figure out that a person could get paid a ton of money for essentially saying, "Do more of the things you've already done."

Of course, I do seem to remember a definition of insanity that includes that advice when coupled with the expectation of a better, different result.  Maybe the old girl needs more than a mani/pedi and highlights.  

Far be it for me to say that the place might need the ready capital and plentiful experience of a big developer, but I might have heard the

Anyway, if we are moving ahead with the innovative edicts of the consultants, then I think we need to consider what these restaurants will offer hungry (You didn't actually think that blog was written by just one person, did you?).

Lake Anne restaurants need to have signature dishes.  What's the point of having without putting a Marathon Hero Sandwich on the menu?  I've even got a tagline:  "You'll love it so much you'll die when you finish!"

Also, in the name of addressing two issues at once, I would like to suggest a new appetizer for   and solve the problem of the goose population explosion on the plaza.  How about a dish of local pate?  People will love it.

Instead of pop-up art space, how about an impromptu restaurant each Saturday during market season?  It would use up whatever food did not sell that day.  Kettle Corn Crusted Pork Loin, anyone?  

Don't you want to try Tomatoes and Peaches in a Tomato-Peach Sauce on a bed of Tomatoed Peaches?  How about the last chunk of goat cheese at the bottom of the cooler served with onions, garlic and chorizo?  I don't know what it would look like, but the smell would be hard to forget. 

I also yearn for a nice cocktail bar where all the drinks are made of recovered RELAC water.  They may not taste the way one might expect - but they will keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Anyway, if Lake Anne is going to be our collective dining destination, then I had better make reservations.  I've already booked the seat right next to the Bob Simon statue until 2023.  In the comforting embrace of his metal arm, I could be talked into having just about anything for dinner.