I spoke with Derek Varejcka at Cafe Homestead during the lunch hour today. He and his wife recently welcomed their seventh child into the world, so much congratulations to them.
Always full of friendly energy, Varejcka was ready to host Cafe Homestead's next Farm to Table Dinner.
This month's Cafe Homestead Fam to Table Dinner will be a Thai food theme with 5:30 and 7:30 seatings on the evening of July 21.
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.
At noon today, I spoke with Beatnix co-owner Penney Simpson, who told me the burgers and lattes shop is closing.
Beatnix served up a wide variety of tasty burgers, but it was just as well known as one of Waco's most active concert venues. However, during a recent show, Beatnix received a surprise visit from the fire marshal.
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.
I just received word that Cafe Homestead has about 30 total seats available for the two seatings at its Brazilian Farm To Table Dinner on Saturday night.
The dinner will feature a main course of churrasco-style garlic crusted lamb kabob and a Brazilian salted chicken thigh served with vinaigrette fried polenta and bananas, and Brazilian cheese bread.
The one appetizer I can never resist comes in its own little boat at Clay Pot.
It's inevitable now. Every time I dine at Clay Pot, it's "I'll have (chicken fried rice or banh mi or whatever else catches my fancy) and an order of chicken steamed dumplings to start." I'm addicted to them. Hello, my name is Chad, and I'm a dumplingaholic. I'm addicted to dumplinghol.
