Rare, Collectible, & Otherwise

Tag: restaurants (Page 31 of 99)

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!

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.

shamRock2015a

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.

shamRock2015b

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!

shamRock2015c

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.

5toFind_Mar15

“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!

« Older posts Newer posts »