Now what do I do?! The Tune was destroyed by a fire which “started in the kitchen and spread through the ductwork above,” reported the Washington Post.
Breakfast at the Tune was like parachuting into a bar in Meeteetse, Wyoming, not far from the ranch, with stuffed heads; antlers; painted, tin signs; neon; wooden booths and some rummy-eyed souls. Where else could you kick back in Washington the Capitol, which is just four blocks away, and feel at home?
No wimpy brunch there. The Tune is so authentic that God whispers: “Bacon, you must have bacon,” just like at Nora’s Fish Creek in Wilson, near Jackson Hole, only God hollers there: BACON! Extra-thick, extra crunchy, bacon. The Tune specializes in Virginia ham, a special brand that they fetched from the interior of the state.
I should say, “was,” but the WPost quotes the owner, Lisa Nardelli, and her husband, promising the bar will get “a tune-up,” and be open in a few weeks.
The Tune is a standard on the Cathy tour. This is where I took Kyle last January when he arrived from home to be a senate page. “This is for when you get homesick,” I told him, showing the fairly short route from the pages’ dorm.
My international friends, who seldom get to Wyoming, have all had breakfast at the Tune. Naturally, they’re amazed, especially the vegetarians, who aren’t used to taxidermy, moth-eaten or not.
Fortunately, when my cousin’s daughter, Madeleine Healy, 28, comes to visit DC for the first time in July, it doesn’t matter that she can’t Tune up — that’s because Mads will fly on home to the ranch, so of course she’ll see the real deal. I’ll bet she’ll even get BACON at Nora’s.