Just back from the 806. Hub City. (See title.)
We had a great time, the most we’ve really spent in LBB for a while, and I have to mention this place: Manna Bread and Wine, down in the old Cactus Alley mall, soon to be nestled in the shadow of another Marsha Sharp overpass. Check out the “Texas Versus the World” wine flight. I had the Bandito Chicken, which was kind of a fantastic “take that!” to chicken fried chicken.* The wife had the best Tilapia ever.
We had a good visit with our waitress (we liked Autry), who said they’ve built a customer base almost entirely through word-of-mouth, and that there’s a great little community of clientele forming around this spot.
Two interesting heardsaids:
- The Hub described as “more cosmopolitan” than it was 10 years ago
- Conversation between a cashier and a customer at a used bookstore:
“Lubbock is about the same size as Austin now, isn’t it?”
“No, not nearly.”
“Well, it feels like it to me.”
Later that night, full of the sweet lightness of involuntary nostalgia, intensified by the soft glow of a familiar-but-shifting city-scape, punctuated with little landmarks of poignant memory, viewed through the haze of adolescence’s heightened hormones, I pulled into a gas station and opened the door to Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” quickly followed by Blondie’s “The Tide Is High” and English Beat’s “Mirror in the Bathroom.” It’s like they knew I was coming.
Here’s to the other windy city. Maybe the slow turn from the center, and the inimitably unobstructed view across the plains, made for a great place to learn to see what all’s on the horizon.
*Chicken fried chicken, one of my favorite culinary mysteries, of which I never tire repeating:
1) It is chicken being prepared in the style of chicken fried steak.
2) Chicken-fried steak is steak being prepared in the style of fried chicken.
So, what is “chicken fried chicken?” It’s chicken-fried-steak-fried chicken. No?
The 806 – ha! That reminds me of visiting Andy and company in Riverside, famously identified as The 909: Valley of the Dirt People.
You were at that gas station for three songs’ worth of time? Did you go in and get a soda or something?
By the way, congratulations on the results of that little quiz of yours. I love having smart friends.
Hey, thanks! I’m impressed with your connections (also like having smart friends).
I washed the windows. It was cold.
Also, I thought of you when I was putting all the commas in that sentence above.
Gen-X membership cards are issued by John Cusack (”In Your Eyes”, “Say Anything”… you get the connection), but revoked by Henry Rollins.
Did you go to a restaurant that had glass tables?
Did you watch yourself, while you were eating?
That sentence reminded me of reading anything Paul wrote, to tell you the truth.
Revoked by HR – ha! That’s great.
My restaurant had paper table coverings you could color on.
I believe that any grammatical style not warranted by scripture is displeasing to God.
Dave, if I may:
“Chicken fried chicken” is where they fry some chicken the regular way and then stuff the fried chicken into an uncooked chicken, then deep fry the whole thing. For a real treat, stuff that into an uncooked 30-pound turkey and deep fry that. Then you and your loved ones work your way down into the original chicken like a heart-attack inducing treasure hunt! But that’s all in my new book, “You Can Chicken-Fry Damn Near Anything.”