Torchy's Tacos

 

I remember like it was yesterday going out to lunch with my father after he had retired and knowing that eventually he'd comment that everything seemed expensive. I'd say, "that's okay dad I'm buying" but that didn't really matter, the price of our lunch compared to the price he paid thirty years before was higher and, inflation or no inflation, everything to him was expensive.

Now as I near retirement, I'm beginning to think the same thing so keep that in mind as you read on.

My one man lunch at Torchy's was $11.24 no tip (you order from the counter). I had two egg tacos, a small bowl of chips and salsa, and a drink.

The tacos were good not great, the chips were below average, and the salsa was okay. So when I think of Torchy's I think, a cool, hip kind of place, pretty good food, but way too expensive.

Am I just getting old or what?

www.torchystacos.com/

Torchy's Tacos
Northton St Fort Worth, TX 76104
(817) 289-8226

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Ryan's Fine Grocer and Delicatessan

Ryan's Fine Grocer and Delicatessan

If there is such a thing as hoping prayerfully for a new venture to succeed I'd add Ryan's to my list.

Why?

First, they're a young sister and brother team with plenty of culinary experience and who doesn't want this kind of family business to succeed, second they have invested themselves and their money into an area that is developing nicely but which needs a broader variety of stores and merchants, and finally because it reminds me of the corner markets in center city Philadelphia. Places I shopped in every day. Both Ryan's attended culinary school in Brooklyn so it makes sense. There are no super-hyper marts in the city, what cities have is what Ryan's is. And I like it.

What do they have? Take your local supermarket cut it down to corner market size, limit the selections to the higher quality products and you get it. Ryan's has a good selection of meats, cheese, fish, non-perishables, canned goods, vegetables, and fruits with a focus on quality. Also, attached to the market is a deli-style sandwich shop, coffee bar, and a seating area with wi-fi. In the proprietor's more professional words: “We're an urban grocery store with a Brooklyn-style deli ... we specialize in high-quality produce and dry-aged meats. We plan on dry-aging our meats in-house, curing our own salmon, and, hopefully, hanging our own prosciutto.”

The big question: can a local grocer make it on Magnolia? I sure hope so. They'll get my support.

Ryan’s Fine Grocer & Delicatessen
815 W. Magnolia Ave.
Fort Worth, TX 76104
Ph 817-945-2770


ryansfinegrocer.com

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Alvin Lee, R.I.P.

Thanks for the memories. They are countless. And this is as good a representation of 60's rock and roll as you can get.

Oh no . . .

Is it really necessary?

You know what's beginning to annoy me?

I'll tell you: the ubiquitous jug of hand sanitizer.

I was visiting a church away from home the other Sunday and before communion all of the lay assistants making their way to the altar pumped the big hand sanitizer jug on the back altar and rubbed their hands. I suppose the thinking is that the germs will go from the assistants hands to the communion wafer to the recipient. Okay, fair enough, but do we really need the jug of goop behind the altar? I don't know why this annoys me so much and if I were a more devout person I would be considering the mote in my own eye. But it does.

Maybe it's that we have blue-jean clad lay-assistants in the first place. That's certainly a part of it. But it's also the smugness related to this line-dance at the altar, as in "I'm going to make sure you don't get any of my germs." It's the faux pre-occupation with public safety when in years gone by common sense did just fine. Mind you, I have been known to ask the deli counter worker to take off the stupid rubber gloves while making my sandwich.

What if Michelangelo had included the hand sanitizer jug in his "The Last Supper." Or even worse, our Lord himself before breaking the bread pausing to pump.

I remember doing mission work centuries ago in Mexico and being invited into the very modest adobe home of  a local family for lunch. Grandmother was making fresh tortillas, and as she was standing at the glass-less window looking out and rolling the corn meal she reached over and brushed away some dirt that had gathered on the window sill and then in one motion went back to tortilla making. I smiled and thanked God for a real human being and the dirt.

I do have one question though. What happens to the germs that go from hand to pump before they are sanitized? I assume they rest on the pump nozzle for the next person to get those germs and on and on until the pump nozzle is filled with 10x more germs than when you started. I'm just sayin'  . .  it's weird.

It's the disproportionate concern for trivialities that annoys me most. Rend you hearts not your garments the old prophet said, I agree.