Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1215372
39 spot by the windows overlooking Anthony Howe's kinetic wind sculpture, and Guest proceeds to order completely off-menu, but with such graciousness and charm (and the fact that she is Cornelia Guest) that the staff seems eager to accommodate the dish she concocts on the spot. "I know just what I want," she tells the server. "I love kale. And I love baby lettuces too. Ooh, you have arugula. You know what I want? All of that with some light Meyer lemon dressing. Maybe they could add some radishes … and herbs." Did I mention she also has a catering company with star clients such as MAC cosmetics and Donna Karan? "Why Dallas?" is what I was longing to know. She had been living two hours north of New York City in Ancramdale and had grown tired of the cold winters, she says. In mid- January, the New York Post broke the news about the sale of her 456-plus- acre estate, which she affectionately calls her farm. She says that looking for warmer weather, a location closer to Los Angeles, and a home large enough to house her menagerie of rescue animals made Texas seem like a fit akin to Jean-Michel Basquiat and SoHo. She explored all corners of the state, starting out in Austin Hill Country, making her way west, and finally visiting longtime girlfriends Nancy Marcus and Brooke Davenport in Dallas. Explaining the terrain she was looking for — something with long vistas for her furry and feathered family — they advised her to look no further than East Texas. Guest promptly ensconced herself in what she calls a "cozy, charming" rental home in Highland Park, living with a housekeeper who moved from New York with her, and her Westie terrier Olive, who almost never leaves her side, as she continues her search for ranchland off of Interstate 20. The remainder of Guest's menagerie is also in the process of relocating from New York. That includes six dogs, lambs, donkeys, horses, birds, and pretty much every other creature that might have been in need of rescuing. She tells the story of the duck that lives with her, literally inside her home, and has been known to jump into the bath with her in the mornings. Guest lovingly hatched it in an incubator, and it was the only one of six eggs that survived (appropriately it's named Lucky). After living in the house among her dogs for the first few months, the duck was brought outside to be amongst its own kind, the quack- a-doodle-doo set. But Lucky was aghast and quickly leaped back into her arms. It was not identifying with the guinea hens and other waterfowl, but rather to Guest's four-legged, tail-wagging children. Perhaps Lucky is the first species-fluid pet. Guest's move to Texas is potentially the next chapter of her popular 1986 memoir, The Debutante's Guide to Life. I'll tentatively call it Deb Does Dallas. The book gave a tongue-in-cheek view to the so-called blue-blooded life to which she was born. Girls preparing for their debut, as well as their socially ambitious mothers, were schooled through sections devoted to "Practical Social Climbing for Parents" and "The Seven Deadly Sins of Deb." (No. 6: "Writing on someone else's monogrammed stationery. This is so outré as to leave most hostesses completely bewildered; do you come from Mars?"). Foreshadowing her current life is a section called "Party Service in Dallas," featuring the self- proclaimed "social secretary of Dallas" Ann Draper and tips for Texas debs. Guest always had a certain irreverence about the world she was born into, but there's no denying she had an upbringing that deserves a Netflix series akin to The Crown. Her father, Winston Guest, was a polo champion and a distant cousin of Winston Churchill. Her mother Lucy Douglas "C.Z." Guest, was one of the last grand socialites. Her godparents were the former King Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, and his wife, Wallis Simpson. You know, the royal who perhaps set the path for the current Megxit predicament. Guest briefly attended the Foxcroft School, but over bites of salad, she shares that Cornelia Guest and one-time suitor, Sylvester Stallone, 1988 Cornelia Guest photographed at the Virgin Hotel Dallas