Everybody has a favorite place to eat, even fictional characters from our favorite TV shows.
How's this for meta? The people who make TV shows write about restaurants because those are some of the closest places to their hearts and then we, in turn, identify with those restaurants because they remind us of the places we hang out and have fun BUT THEN WE ALSO identify some of the places around us as our version of places we see on TV.
Good live music in Waco can seem hard to find in a city that often feels like a road bump between the thriving music industry of Austin and the big names and big shows in Dallas.
But Wes Butler, event coordinator at Common Grounds, is convinced that Waco is something special on its own.
Hello, my name is Cory, and I am a serial procrastinator. That feels good to get off my chest.
I've been a procrastinator most of my life. I live by the motto "Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?" The reason I procrastinate is that most of the time I can get away with it. The reality is, most things can wait until tomorrow... or the next day... or maybe even next week.
But this is not true with Valentine's Day, which I learned a long time ago. Procrastination means forgetting to make a dinner reservation until the day of only to find out that every place in town that takes reservations is already booked. And let's face it. Valentine's Day is a day when you want to go to a place that takes reservations. McDonald's isn't going to cut it. This is a cautionary tale to those of you who, like me, put everything off until the last minute.
Our town received a couple of impressive stamps of approval last week as Dichotomy and Balcones landed prestigious recognition.
It's been well publicized that Dichotomy made Eater.com's list of "The 20 Hottest Coffee Shops Across the US Right Now," and that Balcones' Texas Single Malt earned London's Wizards of Whisky World Whisky of the Year.
Bad news, friends. Katy Perry's upcoming Prismatic World Tour doesn't include a Waco date, taking a cue from Pearl Jam, who skipped us last fall. Lorde doesn't have any plans to come here. Imagine Dragons is brazenly flying over our town when they swing through Texas in February.
I guess that's why they say we don't have a live music scene here. Nonetheless, there are opportunities to be serenaded here in our humble burg. Actually, there are a bunch of them this weekend beginning tonight.
Last week I posted an article with the top 10 rules for dining out with children, and I got a lot of interesting responses. I wrote that article from the perspective of a parent who dines out with three children often and tries his best to follow those 10 rules. However, I know there is a flip side to the discussion, because as a parent I know that there are times when it's simply not possible to follow those rules perfectly. With that in mind, I decided to write 10 rules for dining without children, for all those people who look down their noses at parents who are struggling to get their kids to behave.
When dining out in Waco, it's easy to forget the time that went into creating and perfecting our favorite local establishments. In an attempt to connect with our rich and delicious past, I did some research on the oldest restaurants in town.
Here's a brief history of eight of Waco's most establish restaurants (counting down from relative youngest to oldest):
There's nothing to do in Waco? Nonsense!
Ok, I admit the absence of football this weekend (I don't count the Pro Bowl) has me a bit anxious about my weekend agenda. But it's not a problem. It's an opportunity for me (and you) to start a new routine. So for my benefit (and yours) here are seven things happening in Waco this weekend.
Let me introduce a hidden gem in Waco that not enough people know about: the Texas State Technical School culinary arts department.
This is a red alert to foodies because TSTC hosts a full-service, three-course meal available at lunchtime for $15. For those astute enough to make a time and the short trip to TSTC, it's at least a $30 value for half of that.
I have 3 kids, so I am approaching this from the perspective of a parent. Dining out with kids is hard. I get that. Believe me. I do. But we have a responsibility as parents to try our best to make sure that having our kids with us in a restaurant doesn't ruin the dining experience of those around us. With that in mind, I've come up with what I think are 10 essential rules for dining out with children.
