Poolside Dining at Best Cafe

My earliest memories of eating at a museum are of dried out burgers in the basement cafeteria of the National Gallery of Art.

Even as a child, I appreciated that I was there for the art, not the food, so whatever was available was good enough; it was just sustenance between morning and afternoon gallery roaming.

And I was fine with that.

I'd fallen in love with the museum experience the very first time I stood in wonder in the rotunda of the National Gallery, a passion that has never waned.

Fast forward to 2010 and a friend and I made plans for lunch at the VMFA, followed by a tour of the Tiffany exhibition today.

As it turned out, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day for an al fresco lunch, although neither of us had had any idea that that would be the case.

We'd already eaten at Amuse, so we were going to give the Best Cafe a shot and see how it stood up to my misty cafeteria memories.

To start with, dried out gray burgers were not an option.

We could choose from salads, wraps, paninis, a couple of entrees, hot dogs and pizza.

And then there was the unexpected glamour of wine and desserts; clearly we weren't in a basement lunchroom anymore, Toto.

One of the salad options was country ham, asparagus and mozzarella over mixed greens and that sounded pretty wonderful to me.

With a piece of unexpectedly good cheese-sprinkled bread, followed by flourless chocolate cake, it was the perfect summer lunch.

The Best Cafe is situated alongside the reflecting pool, which I have admired on previous visits from inside for its mirror-like stillness.

But today it was appealing for different reasons, so we took our meals outside to enjoy on the patio.

The breeze rustling through the enormous magnolias and the constant rippling motion of the water made for a tranquil oasis on a Friday afternoon.

My friend teased me because I was so quiet (a second night of less than five hours sleep will slow down even a talker like me on occasion), but part of the reason was just my enjoyment of the experience.

I wouldn't have changed anything about the moment.

As for Mr. Tiffany's glass, I was impressed with the scope of the exhibit.

Knowing that he'd been a painter first, I would have been disappointed had some of his paintings not been included.

I'm also one of those people who are not satisfied with simply seeing the fruits of an artist's labor, either.

I need the historical context to full appreciate a body of work and was rewarded with vintage photographs of his homes, studio, store, and glass factory as well as pictures of the workers and artists who brought his vision to fruition.

I definitely appreciate a side of history with my art entree.

The chapel-like room that housed the full-size Tiffany windows from a church in Canada was the centerpiece of the exhibition and absolutely breath-taking.

Even a heathen like me could appreciate the majesty of these ecclesiastical scenes rendered in eye-popping colors with light streaming through them.

If anything, I became a convert to the church of Louis Comfort Tiffany, so perhaps I'm not a completely lost soul.

And although personally, I still go to museums for the art, and food is just the fuel for doing so, a place like the Best Cafe will be far more likely to impress a ten-year old on her first visit to a museum than a basement cafeteria could ever hope to.

I understand that not every kid will experience the genuine frisson of pleasure that I did on merely being in such a place. If hot dogs and pizza help win her over, so be it.

But we want her to be won.