We went to dinner at Mario's Portofino last week, and again I was surprised to see how full the shopping center parking lot was. It was a weeknight, and Portofino's is in an old (1960s?) strip mall at South Virginia and Mt. Rose Street (a few blocks north of Plumb Lane). What's the attraction?

My guess as to why so many people gather there every night is the variety of restaurants in the center. Across the parking lot from Portofino's are Coach's grill and sports bar, India Garden restaurant and Si Amigos restaurant. Some or all must be pretty good (we like Portofino's, but it did not have enough diners to account for all the cars in the lot).

The recently opened Zephyr used-book store facing the Virginia Street had lots of cars parked in front of it, too. I plan to check that out the next time we go to Portofino's.