My friends Tye Barrett, Jacob Robinson and I grabbed some pizza from Nizza Pizza to ease the bumps and bruises of a football season in its late stages. We also debated about the fullness of the glass.

I just received a press release titled "Torchy's Tacos Treks North and to West Texas."

Here's the key paragraph:

What does "home of the jumbo shrimp" mean?

That's the part of the sign at the new Waco Drive restaurant which caught my eye. Does it mean the restaurant — Sam's Southern Eatery — opening on Thursday is the originator of jumbo shrimp? That seems almost impossible. Does it mean Sam's intends to reinvent the way we think about jumbo shrimp? Does it mean they will serve the largest shrimp known to man, redefining the term "jumbo?"

I guess we'll have to wait and see. As stated, Sam's opens on Thursday, or so I was told by staffers preparing the inside of the restaurant. Sam's is located in the spot most recently occupied by Cancun and Adriana & Janette's before that. It's apparently fried seafood, po'-boys and other Southern-style food.

Including jumbo shrimp.

Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers

Waco Tribune-Herald business columnist Mike Copeland reported on Sunday that Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers will anchor the new shopping center going up at Mars and Hewitt Drive.

I recently dined at a Freddy's in Cedar Park. Good chili dog. Good frozen custard I would imagine but didn't dive into that. In some respects it's similar to Smashburger, which recently opened on Valley Mills.

One more bite: Come out to The Dancing Bear Pub tonight at 7 p.m. for our favorite author/illustrator Becky Murphy's "I'd Rather be Short" party. Barnes & Noble will be there with copies of "I'd Rather be Short" for purchase ($14, cash only). The deal is this: buy a copy of the book at the event and you can put a beer on my tab.

My friend Tye Barrett and I grabbed some pizza from Poppa Rollo's, reviewed the Baylor-Texas Tech game at AT&T Stadium and looked forward to this week's massive clash between Baylor and Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

I know the weekend is almost upon us, but I'm already looking forward to Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when Becky Murphy will be in town to celebrate the publication of her book "I'd Rather be Short" with a signing party at The Dancing Bear Pub.

A lot of people who follow WacoFork are also friends with Becky and we've been planning to have a fantastic night celebrating her book for as long as we new there was going to be a book published by the fancy New York publisher Penguin/Plume.

By Dustin Payne

I recently took a visit to Dave’s Burger Barn at the corner of Patricia and Crest in order to confirm some talk I had heard during the week about a Thanksgiving project concerning Dave’s. I talked with Melanie Williams, an employee and temporary spokesperson for Dave’s, and it turned out that everything I had heard was true, and then some.

This Thanksgiving, Dave’s is really putting forth an effort to engage their community by opening their doors from 11am-2pm for a Thanksgiving lunch.

Quick-hit blog today, but it has a pretty picture, which might actually be worth more than 1,000 words, an opinion and a promised update.

The picture is of the press box/alumni side of the new Baylor Stadium. The athletic media relations office offered a media tour of the stadium and I jumped on board. Word from the project managers was that everything is on schedule. Lots of phrases like "structural steel erection" and "dried in" which I didn't quite understand, but managed not to giggle at while TV cameras were pointed in my general direction. I think "dried in" means that pretty soon the work will reach the point that it could not be delayed by rainy weather.

My friends Tye Barrett, Jacob Robinson and I grabbed some pizza from Shorty's Pizza Shack and talked about Baylor's chance to get in the national championship game and this week's all-important matchup with the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

By Dustin Payne

If you have ever wandered into the Johnny Carino’s Italian Grill that resides near the corner of Valley Mills and Lake Shore Drive on a particular Tuesday evening, then you might have noticed the white linen cloths draping the tables, short tea light candles burning dimly, and a well dressed waiter holding a microphone and discussing a particular bottle of wine.

If you have stumbled upon this sight, then you became a witness to one of the many Wine Dinners that Johnny Carino’s hosts every last Tuesday of the month. I was curious as to what one might expect when attending one of these events, and so I stopped by to see this dinner in action, but more specifically to see what’s going on at Johnny Carino’s.

Thanks to our friend, Alison Pruett, for digging this up and bringing it to our attention.

Torchy's reached out for a Waco manager via Craigslist. Alison found that and retweeted it, mentioning us and Torchy's in the tweet. Torchy's Twitter handle then confirmed it and mentioned Alison and us.