Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: books (Page 31 of 128)

ShamROCK’ing the Rose District!

We’re worn out and our dogs are barking, but we had a fun Saturday during the ShamROCK the Rose District festival! The sunshine never came through on the weatherman’s promise, but here in Oklahoma, we know all about predicting what Mother Nature has in store.

At least the rain ended early enough that the streets were pretty dry by festival kickoff.

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There were plenty of first time visitors to our little shop, and there might have been more but for the fire engine parked directly in front of us. When I opened the door, the roar of the gasoline-powered generator tipped me off that the massive vehicle was a food truck in disguise. Despite the variety of food offerings that rolled onto Main Street for the day, we had quite a few takers for our Irish offerings.

Chef Dustin whipped up an easy-to-carry corned beef and cabbage slaw sandwich that garnered a lot of compliments. As it happened, very few of them were carried out. The cool breeze and cloudy skies sent a lot of folks indoors to sit down and warm up while having a bite to eat during the afternoon.

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For our second year, Irish Stew was also a popular choice among festival goers. I was happy for that – it makes chopping all those carrots and potatoes worth while!

Unfortunately, during the interview with Channel 2, Kristen’s hand made such a brief appearance, even her dad barely caught it. In fact, I had to back up and replay the KJRH video just to double-check what I saw. Sure enough, it was a draft green beer being poured.

Since McHuston’s was the only place to get a green beer in the Rose District, my superior deductive reasoning convinced me that the video was of Kristen at our keg handle, pouring out a pint. I answered several questions from reporter Nathan Edwards, and – fortunately – he kept my onscreen appearance to a bare minimum. I was happy to seen the front of the shop and the wind-blown flags that I had draped below the awning earlier in the week.

Thanks to our beer representative Brett for the decorations, coasters, posters, and tee-shirts… and for personally delivering the keg of green beer on Friday. It gave us just enough time to get it chilled down to a proper serving temperature. We’ll be pouring the green again on Tuesday – which is, of course – officially St. Patrick’s Day!

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Kristen will again be ably assisting at lunchtime, and Dustin and I will be doing our best to keep up.

Hope you’ll have a chance to get out and – Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

Surprises? Sometimes they’re good.

The fellow on the telephone said he’d read the article about us in the morning paper.

“The article?” I asked.

“Yes,” he answered. “In that insert section of the Tulsa World.”

That was pretty much my clue to grab the paper and shake out the insert. Sure enough. Not too many pages past the front cover was an article by Mr. Scott Cherry that included the locations of five places to find Irish fare in the Tulsa area – and not just on St. Patrick’s Day.

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“Five to Find” is a weekly feature in the World’s “Weekend” section that comes out – ironically – in the midweek Wednesday edition. More time to plan your activities, maybe. This week’s focus ties in with the article on Tulsa’s St. Paddy’s celebrations and mentions five restaurants. Coming in at a solid number three?

McHuston Booksellers and Irish Bistro.

I’m really pleased to be mentioned on the same page as the big boys – Kilkenny’s Irish Pub and McNellie’s Pub – both of which I have visited and enjoyed. Baker Street Pub & Grill is new to me, as it Midleton’s Bar & Grill, so I’ll have to add them to the got-to-try-one-day list.

Thanks, Mr. Cherry, for remembering our lunch efforts in your article! And it makes for a good time to mention that we’ll be having some St. Paddy’s offerings this weekend, during the run of the Shamrock the Rose festival on Main Street. Surprisingly, the second annual event didn’t get their information to the World to be included in the weekend calendar.

We’ll have a limited menu in order to stretch our manpower (and womanpower, in the case of my daughter Kristen, who’ll be lending a hand for a second straight year). Of course, we’ll be offering Irish Stew as we did last year, and on Saturday you can try corned beef and cabbage served sandwich-style. I was able to corral a sample and wound up devouring the entire sandwich.

Green beer on tap, and there’s no surprise.

The Rose District will be full of entertainment and eats on Saturday, and the festival is schedule from 11am to 11pm. And as you would expect, we’ll be here and doing it at lunchtime on Tuesday – St. Patrick’s Day.

Plenty of time for you to get out and…

Come visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!

I know the unknown magazine model.

Readers will think she was hired for a photo shoot, but it’s my lovely daughter Kristen gracing the article by Tulsa People Magazine. I’m pretty sure the paragraph identifying her standing in front of McHuston Booksellers and Irish Bistro was accidentally trimmed – for space requirements or something. It is appropriate that she is featured on a festival article, though. Kristen has agreed to help us again this year for the St. Paddy’s fun. The picture was taken outside the bookstore on St. Patrick’s Day last year.

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The article on the Tulsa People website has a photo credit, although it almost looks like it is identifying the green-beer-bearing beauty as someone named Debra. That’s a photographer’s credit, and is the name of the organizer of the ShamROCK the Rose festival, who must have snapped the picture at last year’s event. The 2nd Annual festival will happen in the Rose District on the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day (which falls on Tuesday). Since our shop is located in the Rose District, we’ll get to have two separate days to party!

You can click on the links to see the articles on the TULSA PEOPLE website and on the ShamROCK festival page, since Kristen appears on both.

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Chef Dustin and Party-President Kristen will be teaming up for some specials for both days, but rest assured – I will not be personally idle. Someone has to come up with a green beer concoction, and they have entrusted that duty to their dad. I plan to take the job seriously.

We sold a lot of Irish Stew at last year’s event (along with a lot of green beers…) and we’re hoping that all of you will come out to sample our Irish fare when that bless’t day o’ days rolls around.

I’m greatly pleased to see Kristen modeling in front of the bookshop, accessorized with a pitcher of Irish tonic. Luckily, she was spared the majority of her father’s genetic makeup and is considerably more photogenic. I do believe her children are not quite as afraid at the sight o’ me as they used to be.

I just wish the magazine or the festival would have identified Kristen. I’m hoping some of her friends will spot the article and share it, which would make an old dad more than a wee bit proud!

The festival is March 14 and – of course – St. Paddy’s Day is on the 17th, but you don’t have to wait until then to – Come Visit!

McHuston

Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow, OK!

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