The Living Room [January 2023]

Ohmygoodness, this week is going to be so fun to write about!! I hope y’all are ready for Bacon, Eggs, and Toast, I did picture the girls in my Postino blog back in April but here is rest of the story... not only is it the best breakfast sandwich, it is the perfect description of how well this trio of girlfriends complement each other! Let me tell you about how we came to be… you already know my good travel nurse friend, Sherri Lee [you met her at a couple of different wineries earlier this month]. We had already been hanging out, but then we met another kindred spirit who was born with the name Krissy Hays at the facility where Sherri and I were working together. 

Well, one day [what I thought was] out of the blue, Krissy started calling me Bacon. We are all a little interestingly unhinged down in the operating room, [kidding, not kidding... haha!!] so I really didn’t think anything about her calling me that at first. Then one day I’m like… why you call me Bacon? She said it was because on one of her first days, she was setting up for a surgical case [I was working as a resource person] and I stopped in to help her. She said I really saved her bacon!! Haha!! Awww.. so, I said if you’re gonna call me Bacon, I’m gonna start calling you Eggs because Bacon and Eggs go together!!

Once Krissy, Sherri, and I started hanging out more together, we simply had to come up with a nickname for Sherri to complement our existing nicknames. Toast... it had to be Toast, and this is how Bacon, Eggs, and Toast was born!! The perfect amalgamation [the act of combining or uniting separate things into a single, unified whole] of a breakfast sandwich, and [as you can imagine] we’ve been having a blast with it ever since. I mean, just check out the photo below with the socks that Eggs got for us!! LOL!! Eggs is always so full of surprises for us. [you have no idea] I would love to see the contents of her purse on any given day... you will see what I mean in the future!!

Check out The Living Room [pictured above] at the DC Ranch located in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Scottsdale, Arizona. Opened in 2014 by Mr. Hospitality himself, Tom Kaufman, who is originally from Michigan. He moved to Arizona in 1973 and graduated from ASU with a degree in marketing. He moved around some over the years but has always worked in the hospitality arena. He says of himself, “I’m a wine guy and I always wanted to do a wine bar that wasn’t cork dorky. I wanted it to be more of a place to come and hang out that still has great wine options.” 

Tom has learned through his travels over the years that Americans love their wine. In fact, the U.S. is one of the world’s largest wine markets, producing over 870 million gallons of wine per year!! He has also learned to pay attention to ongoing trends, meaning the time of year and what people are driven to drink and, in turn, to purchase. An example: spring brings higher temperatures, so people tend to exchange those heavier winter reds for lighter, brighter pours. Another trend that is gaining traction is the exploration of bottles offering organic wines that use sustainable practices.

Tom created a place for people to gather by decorating his dining room area with plush seating, with low tables and soft lighting to mirror the coziness of a residential living room. This is actually how the cafe and lounge got its name, offering an inviting warmth to draw you in. The brand operates around the mantra of "love, laugh, lounge" to emphasize comfort and easy social interaction. Add these things to their offering of a myriad of wine options... a list with over 200 wines, where 30 of those wines are on our "wine wall," a panel of self-serve dispensers where guests can help themselves to small tastes or larger pours of any wine they choose!! 

When I think about Bacon, Eggs, and Toast I just get the biggest smile at all the fun we’ve had together and the memories that go along with them. It’s been way to long since we’ve all been in the same state, but you are defiantly going to want to keep an eye out for some our EPIC upcoming adventures!!

Next week Wine with Wixy will be visiting another favorite wine bar… don’t you think Turquoise is a beautiful color!? [hint-hint]

Cheers to you my wine loving friends, and TTFN!!