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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Tour de France: What is in a name; Francesca's?


WAY back in the summer of 1999 we sat around the Boardroom Table in the The Grille at the The Resort Course of The Westin La Cantera Hill Country Resort.  The Resort was sparkling new, just opened, and our fine dinning restaurant had yet to open.  Around the table were Westin executives, the Matre 'd, servers and our consulting Chef Mark Miller.  Yes, THE Mark Miller of Coyote Cafe fame.  I was one of the servers.  The hot topic was how are we going to pronounce the name of our restaurant.


We all agreed that it sounded best as "Fran-CHESS-kas."  It is just how most of us said it.  Then Chef Miller gave us a lesson in European pronunciations; the "Fran-CHESS-kas" we were saying was Italian and we wanted to stay away from being an Italian restaurant.  Since we have more Spanish influence in our cuisine, culture, and region he maintained that we should use the Spanish pronunciation .."Fran-ses-kas."  From there on we agreed, the Spanish pronunciation was the way to go.

Nowhere in all our discussion do I remember us talking about what the name meant. We all got that it was a girl's name, which is obvious, the legend that our name is honoring was the prettiest lady in the county who stole the heart of a young man that was destined to become a priest.

What I did not catch is that it was acknowledgment of France or French heritage which was itself a reference to freedom or "free one!"  

Many will agree that this French Spirit of freedom is vibrantly on display in the feats of the month long race that tours the country, called the Tour de France.

AND it can be tasted in the wines made from their land!  Which is why our wine list is featuring French wines during July.  Check out this wine list here.


Featured Red Wine:

Featured White Wine:

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