Glorious styles of yesteryear

A lot of people (most movie critics) think "The Artist" is God's gift to cinema. A lot of other people (mostly average Joe movie-goers) think's an overrated snooze.

For what it's worth, I thought it was a clever idea, beautifully executed, but not the "Best Picture" of the year.

But best movie style? Absolutely!

You can't help but fall in love with those sleek Art Deco sets and that retro-glamour fashion. The hats ... the veils ... the shimmy little dresses ... they open the door to a time that seems so much more elegant and sophisticated than our own.

Nostalgic design has a powerful pull, especially when it brings us back to a style era we never actually lived through but experienced only vicariously.

That's why baby boomers who grew up in '50s ramblers have been so smitten with the earlier Arts & Crafts era, and why their children have fallen in love with mid-century modern.

It was a nostalgic hunger, not a craving for steak, that lured me to Mancini's in St. Paul last weekend. I'd never been there before -- I'm a west metro girl. I knew the restaurant was there and that it was an institution. But I never felt compelled to actually go there until I happened to catch a recent radio show on which people were raving about its old-school supper-club ambience and decor.

And Mancini's didn't disappoint. It felt like stepping back in time -- to my parents' time. By the time I was earning my own money and choosing my own restaurants, supper clubs like that were already a dying breed.