Round Top

There is a tiny town not too far from us called Round Top. Mostly, this town with its population of 77 (give or take a baby just being born or an elder who is just getting acquainted with the angels), is known for the two huge antique fairs hosted every year-- one in the Spring, one in the Fall. Sellers come from all over the country to display their antiques, collectibles, crafts, and "high class junque" -- and buyers come to haggle over prices and hope to walk away with what they believe to be the bargain of the century. With just a two-lane road going through Round Top, getting from one place to the other during Antique Fair Days takes a lot of patience, a lot of smiling, and a lot of gas.

Round Top also has a "downtown" area-- a square block of shops and a Texas-famous cafe that ships homemade pies all around the country. "Royer's Cafe" was featured on an episode of CBS Sunday Morning not too long ago. My husband and I happened to be in Royer's picking up a pie when the television film crew was there, so we asked for the airing date so we could watch it on TV. Royer's is the place (the only place) to eat in Round Top... good country cooking, and their pies, of course. Their menu states that if you don't order a slice of pie for dessert, then you get charged extra. And if you order pie without ice cream on top, you get charged extra for that too. (With only 77 people in the town, you can make up a lot of your own rules.)

What we didn't know about Round Top till we moved up to the Hill Country is that tucked away along the two-lane road going towards the downtown square, there is a huge auditorium called "Festival Hill." I believe its proper name is The International Festival Institute at Round Top. What started out as an outdoor gathering place for musicians, complete with dirt floors and plastic chairs, is now an architectural achievement of carved wood, leaded glass windows, plush city-theatre seats, and an elaborate stage-- all accomplished by generous donations and talented craftsmen. The interior of Festival Hill looks very European, with a Texas flair-- the Star of Texas is carved into every nook and cranny of the wood-filled interior.

We were there yesterday afternoon, part of a group of twelve neighbors and friends. The concert was the Synergy Brass Quintet and they were just wonderful-- five extremely talented brass musicians who started playing together in college "just for beer money." Years later now, they're still playing for beer money (all over the world, 300 concerts a year)-- only now they drink imported beer, they announced. Trumpets, tubas, trombones, French horns, all bright and gold and shining in the stage lights, expertly playing their way through jazz and rock and classical music. The acoustics in Festival Hill are so correct and precise that when each of the five musicians walked to the far corners of the auditorium, with one being front and center on the stage, their hymn-like chamber music medley made you feel as if you were sitting inside one of their instruments. Totally amazing... it brought chills to your skin, as one of the neighbors said to me.

After the concert, we all drove to yet another small town (Burton, population 300-something) to a restaurant there run by a French-born and trained chef who once ran the kitchen at the Four Seasons in downtown Houston. He left the hustle and bustle of Houston and bought a house and land in the Hill Country, to remind him of France, and to let him cook just what he wanted to cook in his own restaurant. "The Brazos Belle" restaurant was originally an inn for travelers, built in the late 1800s. Sitting in that restaurant (which we've gone to many times before) with the vintage wood floors and ceilings, wavy-glass windows, and long saloon-type bar, you can't help but think about all the people who have passed through those doors since it first opened as an inn.

We had a wonderful afternoon at the concert, then a delicious dinner at the restaurant, then went back to one of the neighbor's homes here for pie and tea. We were too full for dessert at the restaurant, but by the time we drove home, sharing left-over pie and hot tea seemed to be the perfect way to end the night.

During the concert, as the musicians were talking to the audience, one of them thanked Festival Hill for inviting them back to play. He said that Round Top was one of their favorite destinations because it was like being in a "little piece of heaven." What a nice thing to say.