More shopping discoveries and good eats and drinks

On Friday, June 17, we headed south to El Paso, Texas. First we went to The Shoppes at El Paso, a very nice shopping outlet on the western side of ELP. We only spent an hour there because we were on a mission to find a shopping area that we had discovered by accident the year before. La Placitas is group of adorable stores from jewelry to antiques with a wonderful, lunch restaurant nestled in the midst of all of them called The Magic Pan. It is not a crepe restaurant like the one of the same title we used to have in STL. They had a huge selection of sandwiches, soups, and salads and a fantastic gift shop in the same building with lots of stuff that women just love. We both bought the neatest purse organizers I have ever seen. I also bought a very nice black scarf wrap. I don't usually have much interest in antiques but I found the sweetest shadow box made out of a rusty metal in the shape of a church with a cross in the middle and bell towers on the sides. It has a mirror inside and a glass door that still opens with a little latch. 12 bucks! It looks perfect in the nicho on my buffet with a wine decanter and large wooden rosary. That is what I call designing on a dime.
On Friday evening we went to dinner at the St. Clair. Winery and Bistro. The St. Clair Winery is a local winery that is very successful. The main winery is in Deming,NM which is an hour west of Las Cruces. The restaurant has great food and our server was very knowledgable about wine and brought us a few tastes to help use decide what bottle to purchase with our dinner. We chose a Pinot grigio. I had salmon with a special sauce named after the owner's deceased wife, I believe it was Dianna. It had a nice bite to it. We sat outside on the patio and during dinner we kept hearing music from across the street. So after dinner, we decided to check it out. The music was coming from Meson De Mesilla, a bed and breakfast, restaurant, and rooftop bar establishment that has opened and closed numerous times since we started coming to Las Cruces. The owner is a lady who also happens to be a jazz and standards singer. Unfortunately, they had just finished for the evening at 10:00 and were closing but it looked like a nice place. So we headed home and had another drink on the patio before calling it a night.