Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1500319
Spaghetti A W hen designer Alessandra Branca decided to throw a Spaghetti Western dinner as her ciao Texas to celebrate the opening of her Branca Bungalow showcase at Red Antler hotel bungalows, she confabbed with media partner Veranda magazine and Red Antler owners Greg Fourticq and John Cone, as well as her son Andrew Uihlein (Casa Branca CEO) and his wife, Georgia McElveen (Casa Branca brand director), in from L.A. The result: a pre-cocktail at the Branca Bungalow show house with rideable longhorns, margaritas, and buggy rides to The Halles, where the dinner took place. Mariachis greeted, and a long farm-table seating 72 was topped with olive branches and mounds of flowers devised by Jimmie Henslee out of Dallas and straw cowboy hats resting at every place, spaghetti-western movies played on screen, and square-dance callers taught the New York and L.A. guests to do-si-do and promenade. Cinda and Armando Palacios' Mandito's restaurant provided the Texas link with enchiladas, fajitas, and the accompaniments, as well as cases of Casa Maestri tequila in the most beautiful bottles we've ever seen. This was a first time to Texas for many of the group, including Branca. "Alessandra really wanted the guests to sit on hay bales … square ones … at the dinner," Fourticq says. "We found them, but I asked her if she had ever sat on a hay bale for any length of time. Of course, she hadn't. The hay can really stick you." Compromise: Hay bales dotted the corners of the 19th-century wooden barn. Branca gifted her team — many of whom had been in Round Top for weeks, installing the bungalow show house — with Western boots. Uihlein rented a hefty pickup truck for the duration of his stay and knew every waiter in Round Top by name by the time he packed up to return to L.A. Western Dinner Photography Jordan Geibel. Emma Finch, Craig O'Dell Cinda & Armando Palacios at Branca Bungaolow at Red Antler Mary Ella Gabler Jason Needleman Casa Branca X Veranda X Red Antler Steele Marcoux Casa Branca-designed tablescape at The Halles 44