My new favorite thing in which to dip chicken tenders — green sauce.
Salsa verde.
My buddy Chris Salazar is one of the best-placed beacons of the WacoFork wire. He's friendly and comes across a lot of information while working at Shorty's Pizza Shack and he passes it along to me.
On Wednesday evening, Salazar told me about a new bar called Nite Court across from the court house. I guess I wanted this to be a quaint, Murphy Brown-esque pub that quietly served customers in the Columbus or Washington Avenue area near the county court house.
Thanks to my friend Toph Whisnant for buying my lunch today at Olympic Family Restaurant.
I met a group for lunch at Olympic and wondered on the way if it would be a cash-only establishment. Sure enough, the sign on the door indicated no checks or credit cards. Whisnant, who helped to organize this Tuesday lunch group I join, astutely brought $50 cash to cover anyone who didn't have cash.
He said he's charging 8.9 percent interest compounded hourly on his lunch loan, so I guess he's going to make out pretty well on that decision to bring $50 cash. I wonder if he will send my account to collection if I don't pay him right away. Toph is actually going to London for the Olympics (coincidence) in a couple of weeks, so maybe this is how he's financing the trip.
Oh, you might be wondering why there's a picture of breakfast food with this blog. Olympic serves breakfast all day. Big plus. When I learned this fact, I went straight for the breakfast portion of the menu.
Kielbasa with hash browns and eggs over easy with a Dr Pepper. Heck yeah!
This was my first trip to Olympic, which sort of explains why I didn't know it was cash-only. I'm pretty happy the lunch group chose it because I look forward to adding restaurants to my personal catalogue. I wonder how many years I'll have to write this blog before I've dined at every restaurant in town. Is it even possible?
One more bite: On a separate note, I found Taqueria El Crucero closed for breakfast this morning due to temporary air conditioning issues. But I also stumbled upon something very intriguing and possibly a Waco game-changer. There was a big green food trailer parked next to the restaurant. Is this the Crucero food truck? When will it launch? More on this story as it develops.
I had to wash my hands before writing this blog or else my computer keyboard would be entirely too greasy.
That's a proper Fried-day. Wouldn't you agree?
As I wrote on Monday, summer is an excellent time to get to know new folks, especially because by this time the people who are around are going to be the ones who are around for the next school year.
At least that's how things kind of work in my circles. We live in a college town, so the school year has a huge impact on people coming and going from Waco. To that end, I had lunch with University Baptist Church's Tuesday dives group, which picks a different Waco original place for lunch each Tuesday.
We've made it past two of the three prongs of summer — Memorial Day and Independence Day. All that's left is to work our way to Labor Day, and maybe work in a vacation before then.
That's a good news/bad news scenario. When I was in school, summer could not go by slow enough. I can still feel the deep resentment toward the stores that seemed to advertise back-to-school supplies by the middle of June. These days, though, I begin looking forward to the beginning of football season and the hope of cooler weather long before we reach the 4th of July.
It's time to celebrate our independence, Americans.
I'm not sure how the signers of the Declaration of Independence intended for us to do that, but eating barbecue and watching baseball seems to be the standard. And as luck would have it, I've found a really great way to do it in our town.
The opening of BJ's Brewhouse stirred the pot when it came to reviews this month. Between the restaurant's rehearsal nights and a very busy first few weeks, a whole bunch of folks in WacoFork land made it in and out of the new joint.
We had a few reviews of BJ's along with interesting reading on a variety of restaurants in June. Instead of a top 10, I pulled out the most compelling lines of the month.
Evan Morrison from The Gin at Nolan Creek taught a grilling class Thursday night at Gourmet Gallery. If you can eat it, there's a chance that Morrison grilled it.
We bring you the highlights in video form.
As we get into the hot, sweaty thick of summer, I'll admit I'm having trouble staying positive. The heat drains me and I know that cooler weather is so far away and that kind of depresses me. But I will endeavor to hold my head up and think happy thoughts.
The best one I know comes courtesy of my friend Dr. Shawn Skeen who says that God gave Texans the heat because He knew we could handle it.
