Last week, Michele Miller and Future Now's Holly Buchanan taught "Wonder Branding ... Marketing to Women" at the Wizard Academy's Tuscan Hall. Fellow Wizard of Ads partners Dave Young, Mike Dandridge, Michele, Holly and I went to dinner at Fonda San Miguel (one of the owners is from Dave's hometown of Sydney, Nebraska).
The restaurant is hidden away in a north-Austin neighborhood. The earth-tone exterior of the hacienda is subtle; at night the lighting and landscape are elegant.
Dinner was "artful." The service, the presentation, the food -- all were shared arts by the chefs and staff. All that was left for us to do was bask in the setting and enjoy each other.
Inside Fonda San Miguel is one of Austin's most famous art collections. I talked to Tom Gilliland, one of the restaurant's founding partners about the collection.
I asked Tom about the vision for the collection at Fonda San Miguel.
He said, "The 'vision' such as it was, was at first to fill empty wall space and I happened to find the first piece, the surreal portrait of Emiliano Zapata.
After that, I guess the bug had bitten and I was on the lookout for paintings that would be interesting and right for Fonda San Miguel.
After hearing the wife of the former San Antonio Museum of Art Executive Director say to me, 'When you look at a piece and if it sings to you, then you'll know.' Before, I'd just think if something was 'good,' that was enough.
Building this collection is like breathing, it's something that is a part of me."
This year marks the restaurant's thirtieth anniversary and the release of Fonda San Miguel: Thirty years of Food and Art -- a book that showcases just two of the magical elements ... the food and the art of the restaurant.
