BOOTH 13

Perhaps it was because I went straight from work to my son's basketball game. Perhaps it was because the basketball game ended a little too late to be going home and cooking. Or perhaps we just didn't plan ahead well enough. No matter the reason, we once again find ourselves with a desire to eat out on a Friday night. Have we learned nothing? No, we did learn something, I promise. Instead of heading to a busy sit-down restaurant, we decided to go Fast Casual. In case you don't have the joy of living with a full-on restaurant nerd and aren't sure exactly what Fast Casual is- it's all those restaurants where you walk in and have to immediately turn left and walk around the outskirts of the restaurant (menu along the way somewhere, either on the wall or in a little cubby, or both) and arrive at a counter where you either order or progressively build your meal buffet style, except you're not aloud to touch the food. Ok, I jest- you don't always turn left and w...

2:30 in the morning. Omaha, Nebraska. After a late night, a traveling district manager walks into a gas station, not sure what to expect at this hour. He opens the door to bright lights, a clean atmosphere and two upbeat smiling employees, who greet him cheerily. So he assumes what anyone would... they must be getting robbed. Naturally, right? Well, they weren't getting robbed, they were just happily doing their jobs the way most QuikTrip employees do. And thus began the greatest love affair of my husband's life. For this episode of Booth 13, I thought it might be fun to give you a little insight into Jon and I and what makes us tick. We are huge fans of breweries, Mexican food, pizza, food trucks, beer, burgers, pubs, sushi, beer, bagels, donuts, and... um, did I mention... beer? However, with all this variety, and all the times I've been asked, or thought about, what our favorite places are, the two places I realize that we frequent the most? QuikTrip  and Dunkin' D...

Late October, back in Seventeen What a very special time for me As I remember (and always will), what a night... We really should have known better. If anyone reading this is one of those lucky (insert laughing, crying, eye-rolling emoji here) friends who has had the intense pleasure of working in restaurants, you know better too. You never- NEVER- go out to a restaurant on a FRIDAY night. Ever. I realize to a majority of you this may seem asinine to say, since, duh- that is THE night to go out. And God bless you, sincerely, for keeping the rest of us in apartments and houses and clothes and hot water all these years. Friday nights are the bread and butter and the bringing' home the bacon of the those who work in restaurants. But if it's before 10pm on a Friday, and we're not wearing an apron, name tag or logo-ed shirt of some sort, you won't see us in a restaurant. Nonetheless- there we were. We even had the gall to think we were so clever when we called ahead...

For a long time, I have been trying to convince Jon that we should write a blog. Mostly the conversation has always ended up with no. Why? There are so many blogs out there. Who in the world would care what we have to say. Well. Tonight I have finally been pushed to Yes. We're doing this. I don't care if no one ends up reading this- we are doing this. Because if nothing else, it will be cathartic to say the things we have to say and fling them out into Internet World, instead of keeping it to ourselves. Jon and I (mostly Jon) have worked and lived in the world of restaurants for many years. We have seen it, done it, experienced it all. Or so it feels. Jon's last job required him to frequently scope out the competition, and that's really where the fun began. We would pop into restaurants and bars at least once, and sometimes several times, a week. We scrutinized atmosphere, employees, food, happy hour specials, bathrooms, all of it. With more than half his life now spe...