Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: bookstores (Page 28 of 107)

Patio Dining Springing up Roses.

Of course, you wouldn’t expect Broken Arrow restaurants to be on the list of Tulsa’s best outdoor dining, and that was the topic of the Tulsa World article this week. To be honest, Scott Cherry’s column featured a lot of great looking patios and sidewalk dining spots.

But as the Rose District website points out, our area is like one big patio!

And folks have been taking advantage of the sunshine to dine outdoors, even if it is still a bit breezy. From the shop, I can see guests at tables on the sidewalk at Bruhouse and Main Street Tavern. It’s hard to see the patio at Rooftop from here (in fact, it’s impossible!) but it always beckons to people on sunny days.

MVC-061F

I was surprised at the picture on the Rose District page – I didn’t realize that Stogies offered patio tables, which must be at the back of the building. You can click on the image for a better look, or check out the Rose District website. In the Raw has a nice sidewalk area that always seems to have occupied tables, as does Fiesta Mambo and Noveau Atelier de Chocolat (or as I usually call it: The Chocolate shop, pardon my French, or lack thereof).

We’ve had some guests enjoy their lunch outside, although the weather has not been consistently warm enough to merit moving more tables to the sidewalk. But those days are ahead.

It’s hard to not think back on the several folks who told me – adamantly – that Broken Arrow residents will not sit outside at a restaurant. That point of view just hasn’t proven true. Even during the warm (some say hot) days of summer, the tables are attracting diners.

patioDiningPic

While it isn’t really a focus or feature of our lunchtime offerings, we’re happy to serve sidewalk table guests, and love to see people enjoying the great outdoors, Rose District style.

Saturday’s lunch special was another success: Dustin cut and sliced avocados to order for his ATM special. That’s Avocado, Tomato, and Muenster cheese on soft-crust sourdough bread that’s lightly grilled. I don’t know how many avocados he opened up, but it seemed like a lot. And that’s the ultimate in freshness. Made to order.

Now it’s washing dishes time, and I’m feeling a little guilty waiting on book browsers while listening to the clinking of china plates and bowls in the kitchen. (A little guilty, but also greatly appreciate his good work.)

I’m hoping you’ll let us serve you lunch one day next week. Pick a day and…

Come visit!

McHuston

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

Marching into madness…

Well – not exactly marching. Sitting, is more like it.

I’m here at the shop just recharging my batteries. Nah – not a figure of speech. The battery on the camera croaked and the cordless power drill has turned its last screw.

For now. The batteries are out and plugged into the outlets.

Oh, I guess I am doing a little recharging of my own. A little bit of NCAA madness on the television in between scaling the too-tall ladder to change out light bulbs and moving stacks of books.

MVC-061F

A busy week is behind us. No complaints about the catering job that wound up at the end of one of our busier weeks, but it feels good to be working on side projects and meant-to-do-that-earlier-jobs.

Dustin spent the early part of his birthday prepping box lunches for a Broken Arrow History Museum bus tour. That was in addition to the daily prep getting ready for the Saturday lunch service. Lots of bread and boxes later, the catering job was sent on its way. It reminded me of all the sandwiches I helped make back in high school as a young employee at Allen’s IGA in McAlester.

MVC-062F

As it turned out, Mr. Allen’s store was the closest to the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, and when prisoners staged a massive riot back in the early 1970s, we were recruited into service preparing sack lunches for all the Highway Patrol Troopers, corrections officials, and who-knows-who-else. We made cold-cut sandwiches for days.

They were nothing like the meals we worked on Saturday morning. Back then, it was mostly slap a slice of bologna between slices of white bread with a squirt of mustard. No fresh-cooked bacon or provolone cheese. Certainly no fresh-baked cookies to go along with.

firstNational

We’ll be serving it again Monday, but there is enough sunshine today for a quick Rose District update.

We’re still flying the St. Patrick’s Day flags on the awning outside – not so much for the sake of celebrating, but mainly for lack of time to get the ladder outside and take them down. A little shamrock fringe never hurt anyone, anyway.

I’m hoping we won’t be hurt by the upcoming construction project across the street. First National Bank has announced a remodeling project that got a little press in the Tulsa World this past week. I noticed the advisory sign on the front of the bank earlier in the week.

The artist’s rendition (click on the image for a larger view) shows an attractive new front that will fit nicely in the Rose District architectural scheme. I just worry about another squeeze on the available parking. They are coping down the street (where a large crane is currently parked sideways across any number of parking spots), so I guess we’ll have to just grin and bear it.

We survived having the sidewalk in front of the store ripped out and replaced. We managed through the orange fencing and the similarly-colored barrels. Even the closed street sections for utilities renovation. We’ll manage through whatever they throw our way, and look forward to having a beautiful new bank building to look out at from our front windows.

We’ll provide safe haven from any hardhat zone, so…

Come visit!

McHuston

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

Storming into Springtime…

Is it dedication to the task to be out refilling the water jugs during a tornado warning? Or is it simply foolishness?

The TV weathermen were citing activity near Catoosa “at this particular moment,” so I figured what the heck? We always use pure filtered water in our tea brewer and for cooking, and we were fresh out. It wasn’t raining at the shop, and I figured I had time to pick up some gallons and get back before the rain began.

tornadoTweet

The water was just about loaded in the back of the car when the wind kicked up. I looked up and was a little unsettled by the clouds swirling around overhead. I wasn’t the only one. As I was pulling out onto Kenosha, I watched a driver launch his pickup over the center median in a mad dash for the QuikTrip – for what purpose, I can’t imagine – but it was clear he didn’t want to sit at the stoplight waiting for it to change.

It turned green for me as I approached and I made my way back with a few sprinkles beginning to gather on the windshield.

By the time I got the water unloaded and into the kitchen, I wasn’t exactly soaked, but was well on my way there. But I wasn’t sucked up into the clouds.

And that’s a good thing.

So, Springtime has officially arrived in Oklahoma, the season meteorologists look forward to all winter. Spotters in the field. Choppers in the sky. Raindrops falling on our heads. They keep fallin’.

Thunder is booming as I write this little update and it makes me think of the tornado that struck homes in the eastern edge of Broken Arrow during a storm that cruised right over the bookstore. I was sitting in this same chair and hadn’t a clue (it is a well-insulated building, and that’s my excuse for obliviousness). This storm is a little more vocal.

Just felt the chair rattle.

I can’t vouch for the retweeted picture (some folks are notorious for sharing old photos with new captions), but my own snapshot out the rainy front door gives a good idea of how dark it got in the Rose District as the storm approached. The image was taken long before sunset. Plenty of lightning flashes, but I’m grateful the giant ice-balls decided to skip our little area, and my sympathy to those of you who might have experienced some car-dinging hail stones.

MVC-061F

We’ve been Springtime busy at lunchtime and Dustin prepared a great many chalkboard specials today (bacon, turkey & guacamole on soft-crust sourdough bread, with soup, tortilla chips, and his own hand-crafted salsa). Dee-licious!

Here’s hoping the Springtime Kickoff will roll on out this evening and you’ll have a chance to get out and join us for lunch tomorrow!

We’ll be cooking, so – Come visit!

McHuston

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

« Older posts Newer posts »