When he sees the last guests cross the threshold of the door out of the dining room into the lobby he’ll stop in the middle of his chill Jobim or his John Williams show tune, right in the middle of an arpeggio, stand up, shut the lid, grab his bag, walk out. The effect is as abrupt as turning off a stereo except that sometimes the last note he played drifts there in the air, along with the smells of butter and salt.The piano sits on a dais in the middle of the open kitchen, right in front of the dining room. It’s a black Yamaha concert grand, and too nice to be in The Restaurant’s kitchen. When Lissandri hired him eight years ago Jimmy didn’t mention that, afraid he would sell it when he learned its worth, since the rate Jimmy was offered to play there was less than he was used to. That was right after Valentino’s burned down, and he needed the work so much he didn’t bother to argue with a man he knew from D Magazine to be one of Dallas’s wealthiest. Valentino’s had been a great gig, five nights a week and just two blocks from his M Street bungalow.
