This weekend we celebrated Small Business Saturday and Fat Turkey Sunday with kind people, memorable food and a new appreciation for the letters R and E.
Our story begins just north of Chicago in a small family owned Mexican restaurant we chose to kick back, have a nice meal and kill a little time before we headed over to another small business, Citadel Theatre. With a solid four years of high school Spanish behind him, Vinnie ordered Menudo, or, as he read in the menu, beef tip soup. Katherine ordered the same and soon four members of the family eagerly dipped into the two big bowls.
Turns out Vinnie had missed a few letters when he scanned the menu, and the beef tip soup was actually beef tripe soup, a Mexican delicacy to some, a big bowl of beef intestines to others. To walk off the queasiness, we headed over to Gifted, a family owned gift shop, where we picked up several cool ornaments and tried hard to pay for the one we shattered.
Our last stop on Small Business Saturday was the charming Citadel Theatre, founded by Scott and Ellen Phelps. We saw an energetic and thoroughly entertaining production of Little Women. We enjoyed Jo’s lively narration and Amy’s funny mannerisms that aptly portrayed an indulged 12-year old and we found the whole cast to be talented and engaged. We also appreciated the savvy set design that made clever use of the available space.
Fat Turkey Sunday followed our eventful Small Business Saturday and we paid homage to Gulliver, the giant turkey that gave us our Thanksgiving meal, Turkey Sliders, Cobb Salad, and Turkey Tetrazzini.
We finally run out of turkey but we’ll continue our support for local businesses throughout the holiday season.
