Life has a bright way of being cyclic sometimes. I do believe with all my heart that everything happens for a reason; I have met far too many 'coincidences' in my life to invest in any other belief. I also think that everything connects in one way or another-- as is laid out in the rest of this post! Early on in the day, after a morning interview at Whole Foods (it went well and I sincerely hope I got it), I got a txt message from my parents telling me about the Mansfield Arts Festival. Not only that, but the festival was being held in front of none other than Steven's Garden and Grill, a delicious family favorite which I'll try and mention later. It sounded perfect-- free and fun and something to do that would break the ordinary. I imagined a perfect summer day-- an arts festival with delicious foods after a swim at the public pool on opening day. I had to execute this vision!
My partner in crime, I soon discovered, was to be Amanda. We were soon on our way to a crowded day at my old work (Bad Kongishoffen Aquatic Center) (where I, no joke, had to save two little kids who were under water in the deep end, while the ""lifeguard"" fooled around in his own little wonderland on the stand). We could hardly wait to get to the festival, and after an all-too-leisurely drying-off, we were on the road.
The festival was small and cute. I expected something Denton or Ft. Worth scale, but it was more small-town and way more overpriced. To our dismay, Steven's was closed for the festival-- I had wanted to take Amanda on her first trip there-- and the only foods being offered just didn't strike with us too much. Around the back of a field near a big music stage was a tent with a promising sign-- offering wraps, gyros, fruit popsicles, and the food that got me happily jumping up and down and pointing while "OO-OOH"ing, Chicken On A Stick. This delectable, cudgel-based, grilled treasure was no standard 'festival' fare, no no-- it was comprised of thick cuts of tender white meat with a delicious dusting of herbs. From there, we decided we'd start aiming for dinner.
Wanting someplace local, as always, I began asking around. Nothing sounded all that great at the time. A nice guy pointed us toward a Chinese place on Broad St that we figured we'd give a go. As we meandered down 157 toward Broad, we both whipped our heads to the left as something caught our eye at the exact same time. Pirate Coffee Company! A coffee house?! A pirate-titled coffee house?! Well ahoy and here we come! We parked, and as we walked in, found ourselves amazed. We talked to the owners for a long time and decided to carry on, but I ran back in and asked them about a dinner place. I told them my criteria: Interesting, local, healthy, and affordable. They looked at each other.
"Oliver's."
They told me out to get there and our journey continued. Pulling up, it looked like a regular store-front, but this shell simply concealed the mecca that was within. Walking in, I was amazed-- it was bright, spacious, and instantly friendly. I recognized the logo-- the tent that we bought our Chicken Stick from was an Oliver's tent! I dropped my mouth open and flapped my arms before running around the store screaming like a macaque. I was thrilled (apparently)! So thrilled, in fact, that I called my parents then and there and told them that if they would come, we would wait. My mom knows the area better than my dad, so I told him, "tell mom it's right across the street from the hospital." He paused.
"We ate there today for lunch..."
Surely he was wrong! Not this place! "Olivers?!" I asked.
They had! It turns out that after all that, the way that they had originally heard about the festival was from the people here at Oliver's themselves. And to make things even more interesting, the man at the festival in the tent was the owner, who I found was named Todd. And do you remember that interview I had at Whole Foods that morning? My interviewer was, amazingly, also a nice dude named Todd.
More food-based specifics to follow :).
- It's so bizzare?!
-
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
captainshen- June 7th, 14:54
