La Famiglia - dinner with the family

In Reno, there is quite a famous automotive museum.  It's definitely worth the visit.  Not far from there is "La Famiglia", a nice italian restaurant on the butt-side of the the Reno strip.  I have driven by it a bunch of times.  Unfortunately, it is only open for dinner.  On this occasion, I was tired from a day of trial, and decided give it a shot.

First, I was alone.  Fancy, schmancy restaurants don't really cater to the solo diner.  Probably because if they talk the solo diner into buying a bottle of wine, they feel bad about it.  I ate at the bar.

They brought some delicious, crusty bread.  I ordered "Tortellini de Brodo" a tortellini in broth soup.  Handmade tortellini stuffed with chicken and cheese.  Look at the broth.  That is not from a can.  It is dark, rich and tasty.  Also, look at the tortellini.  Does it remind you of anything?  When I got this bowl, I wondered, did Marco Polo bring won tons back from China prior to the advent of tortellini?  Is their a doctor of culinary anthropology in the house?

Amy doesn't like the idea of veal and lamb, so if I am to eat it, it will be when we are eating out.  I ordered the veal saltimboca.  Nothing too exotic, but I love to eat things with such active names (veal that jumps in your mouth).  It was delicious.  The meat was tender, the flavor was exciting, the basil and prosciutto were wonderful and the sauce perfect. I even ate the vegetables and a bite of the spaghetti (is there really that much difference in spaghetti from Olive Garden to La Famiglia - answer, no).

Then, dessert.  This is a caramel custard.  It looks very flan-esque.  Of course, that's because flan is caramel custard.  The texture was good, perhaps more firm than a traditional flan.  The interesting part was the holes, like those in bread or swiss cheese, that were found throughout.  Overall, it was good.  I felt like it neeed something - something like a touch of cocoa powder or maybe some fresh fruit?

The highlight of the meal, though, was the money guys who were having a conference next to me while waiting for their table.  They looked like typical money guy d-bags.  They talked like it too.  One of them was perplexed because he was trying to figure out how to sell a new financial product.  Apparently, there is an algorithm that can replicate the general performance of all the funds in the hedge fund universe.  Thus, you can buy a product that would replicate the returns of a hedge fund, but isn't a hedge fund.  (See: hedge fund)The shorter money guy d-bag was stressed about how to pitch it.  He didn't know what an algorithm was and how it makes his product better than others.  The bigger money guy d-bag didn't know how to sell it either, but tried to convince his buddy that since his clients were very sophisticated, they'd undertsand what the advantages were.   

I totally could have sold that product.  I have thought over and over, that if I weren't an attorney, I would be in marketing.  I would have been able to sell it, and it was all I could do to not tell them how to pitch it.  You tell your prospective client that hedge funds are restricted to only certain customers, but use of this algorithm gives you the same advantages and returns that the rich and supersophisticated investors get.  You sell it as an Equality investment - one that puts your less powerful and sophisticated investor in the same boat as the super rich.  

But, the combination of my shyness and the fact that I would have been handing those d-bags money, kept my mouth shut.