One More Bite

First things first, a Smashburger update.

The burger chain is in the process of building out its space in the Valley Mills shopping center anchored by Aldi. But the build out is an 80-day process and the Smashburger staff can't be trained until the build out is largely finished.

With the new H-E-B set to open on Friday, we received an interesting tip from the WacoFork wire that the new H-E-B could include a Flaming Bird restaurant.

I stopped by today and confirmed that there is a Flaming Bird, which according to an online menu serves rotisserie chicken by the piece or by the whole bird. Interestingly, they also offer pizza by the slice and by the whole pizza. Even more interesting, the pizza choices include chicken artichoke.

One of Waco's quarterly treats rolls around Thursday night as Sironia hosts Cupcakes & Cocktails.

This is a cool party that popped up on our radar when Sironia partnered with us earlier this year. For free stuff (food and drink and more) it doesn't get much better than this event.

I haven't been to a Cafe Homestead special dinner in a while, but this one looks too good to pass up.

On August 17, Cafe Homestead will roll out a garlic-crusted prime rib dinner augmented by some eye-catching sides. There will be two settings — 5:30 and 7:30 — and it will cost $48 per person.

Well, I'm more conflicted than anyone should be concerning the opening of a convenience store.

Stripes, which contains the fast-food taco cafe Laredo Taco Company, opened at the intersection of New Road and Bagby today. My grand plan was to hit it up after my morning warm-up at Starbucks and buy enough tacos to take home for me and my friend Giles, who usually mows my yard on Monday.

A new bar, featuring multiple entertainment venues, opens this week on Lake Air Drive.

Brian Brown from Sloppy Joe and Red C Production's Russell Clay and Chris Cox have partnered to open Cinema next door to Captain Billy Whizzbang's, and coming at you on Friday.

I have three items to report from my weekend rounds with three different levels of information.

First, my buddy Toph Whisnant told me he dined at the new Mexican food restaurant, Cancun, which is located on Waco Drive in the building formerly occupied by Adriana and Janette's. Cancun opened in the last week or so. Whisnant said the decor in the restaurant is impressive but the menu might still be finding its way.

Nizza Pizza quietly opened on Bagby on Thursday.

In a sense, it's something we didn't already have — a walk-up, New York-style pizza place. It's kind of like sbarro, Michael Scott's favorite pizza joint in New York. I've already consumed the two pieces in the picture with this blog. I was going to eat one on location and save the other for later. Which I did, sort of, as I saved it for about 20 minutes later. Restraint.

Here's an idea for the weekend: dine at Clay Pot and take advantage of their fantastic wine sale.

In order to make room for an udpated wine list, Clay Pot is selling bottles of wine at half price.

OK, I'm back from my golf trip and back from Big 12 Media Days in Dallas and I'm ready to get back into the realm of new restaurants in Waco.

The first item on the agenda today was lunch at the new Outlaw's BBQ, which opened on Thursday at 8th and LaSalle. My friend Wes Kitten, who provided the photo for this blog, texted me last week to tell me Outlaw's had opened. I usually like to be in town when these things happen, but the way things are shaping up, if I wait until there aren't any openings to take a vacation, it could be a while before I have a vacation. So I can live with this one.