Zoo Rendezvous 2007

We'd barely been home for 48 hours from Tokyo and where do we head out for dinner? Yes, sushi, of course! :)

Well, luck was with us this Friday evening at Sekisui Collierville. While dining, Dr Dewane (a regular customer like us) came up to us and asked if we were going to the zoo the next evening. Being the "blur like ika" (sotong aka squid) person that I am, replied without thinking, 'what zoo?!'. He rolled his eyes and said 'Zoo Rendezvous! ...it's only the biggest party of the year!'. It then clicked... the poster on the wall! 'Ohhhhh, no one asked me!'. Steve, another regular customer sitting next to me at the sushi bar exclaimed, 'that's not the right thing to say!'. So I tried again, 'nobody got me tickets!' Honestly, I wasn't trying to get anything out of Dr Dewane lol. I didn't even know he was in any way tied to this event! Plus, who in their right mind gives away tickets that went for a couple of hundred bucks per person to two people you don't know other then seeing them around at the sushi bar?! Well, the generous doctor pulled out two tickets from his pocket and said 'make sure I see you guys there'. The rest, as they say, is history :D

Zoo Rendezvous was the highlight of our weekend - well after the highlight of being handed those tickets lol. Looks like we're doing everything we need to before we leave this town, aren't we?! First Graceland on Elvis's 30th anniversary and now Zoo Rendezvous! Having lived in the Memphis area for more than six years and never gotten around to the local zoo (though we've heard so much about it) we were nicely impressed! We did plan on seeing the pandas before we leave but with all the travels this summer, it's been hard to manage a trip out to, of all places for a couple with no kids, the zoo lol. But this was definitely a spectacular reason to go!

There were 95 local restaurants that set up booths giving out 'free' food and drinks. Well, free for us since we didn't pay for the tickets... speaking of which, Dr Dewane wasn't only generous to us; he also gave tickets to other regular patrons at Sekisui and also a sponsor to the huge jungle lounge theme that housed restaurant booths such as Paulette's, PF Chang's, Half Shell, Sekisui (of course!)... he rocks! :D I don't know how we managed in the crazy crowd, but we met up with Joelle and David as planned - also Sekisui Collieville regulars :) The place was packed with all the food you can imagine, all the booze you can drink (yes, also 'free'!), all the people you can meet in one evening and countless sets of bands boogieing the night away. Yes, it was, well, a zoo! :D We even spotted Mayor AC Wharton in the crowd coming a little later in the evening.

My two favorite booths of the evening was that of River Oaks with chef Benjamin Vaughn behind making his version of fresh duck spring rolls that were absolutely delicious! We chatted for a little before going off to my other favorite counter.












Here, I had the most awesome strawberry cake I'd ever had by 'That Takes The Cake' who also had a bunch of cool looking cakes on display. Who would have thunk it?! Lol! You can get cakes here that look like they'd just come out of Charm City Cakes lol - well, almost. But I was impressed.














The weather was perfect, great live music every corner you turn, great food (some not so great but you can't have 'em all :D) and the alcohol topped it off and made it a great night for me (the king was responsible and had only one beer early in the evening since he was the designated driver). Too bad it's our last... but you never know with the Ryans... have ticket will fly :D