Chick-fil-A (Midtown)

Chick-fil-A
1980 Union Ave
272-0511

It's been nearly two years since we ate at a Chick-fil-A, mostly due to the fact that the monkeys declared the chicken "gross" and refused to eat. (Is it true that they marinate it in pickle juice?)

So, imagine my surprise when the monkeys (Satchel, 7, and Jiro, 5) were clamoring to go to Chick-fil-A last Tuesday when I picked them up from school. "Please!" they begged. "Everyone from school is going! Please!" Considering I had seen and heard an abundance of people at school--and frankly all over Midtown--talking about the new Chick-fil-A, I was inclined to believe them. Warren had class and I didn't feel like cooking, so I gave in under the condition that they actually eat their food.

Besides, I was curious to see what the place looked like.

As you may or may not know, the new Chick-fil-A on Union is special. The company agreed to leave the front facade of the old Cumberland Presbyterian Church up after Memphis Heritage lead a fight to preserve the historic structure which was slated for demolition. The company spent more money -- it won't disclose how much -- to grant the community's wish and to have the restaurant's appearance complement the wall.

That's huge.


There's been lots of grumbling--at least among my Facebook friends--about the ridiculousness of the facade, but I'm here to tell you that it's pretty freaking awesome. I expected there to be just bricks on the backside, but it's completely finished and looks like new. There are also very nice lighting fixtures and a delightful seating area behind there. People in the drive through can look through the windows while they wait.

I give it a gigantic, Sissy Hankshaw, nine-inch thumbs up.

Okay, so back to dinner. Before I could discover the beauty behind the facade, I had to get a parking spot--no small task. The parking lot seems to be completely counter intuitive, and with the masses coming out, well, en masse, I had to circle the block twice before finding a place to park. Even though I was in the official Chick-fil-A parking lot, it was still quite a jaunt to get in the building.

As we made our way to the door, Satchel spotted a car that looked like Warren's. "Look! Daddy is here!" he said excitedly.

"Daddy is not here," I replied with a giggle.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"I promise you that Daddy would not tell us he was going to school and then hide out in a Chick-fil-A," I assured him.

Inside, we immediately saw the monkeys' friends from school. While I good-naturedly thanked the parents for having their children exert a fierce amount of peer pressure upon my children, I noticed another friend of mine from roller derby. She appeared to be all alone, but it turned out that her kids were in the playland with the rest of Midtown's under ten population.

Which brings me to my next point. Why don't any of the other chain restaurants in Midtown have playlands? It seems that this fact alone is making Chick-fil-A extremely popular.

By the time I was ready to order, the monkeys were scaling a giant plastic slide, so I decided to make an executive decision and order them whatever I wanted. (It's not like there's a lot of choice involved--chicken or chicken, right?) I'll admit that I had to wait in line longer than I thought necessary. Yes, the place was packed, but no, the girl behind the register didn't quite have her act together. I reminded myself that this particular restaurant had been open for exactly 5 days and to cut her some slack.

I ordered each of the monkeys a 6 piece nugget meal (as opposed to a 2 piece tender meal). I got fruit and white milk for Satchel and waffle fries and chocolate milk for Jiro. (I decided I'd eat at home.) My friend had given me the heads up that my food would be delivered to the table so I joined her and waited. I noticed that there were fresh flowers on the table and my friend confirmed that this was the norm. Nice.

The food came out quite fast and eventually the monkeys took a break from the playland to check it out. Jiro had one fry before disappearing again, but Satchel dutifully sat and ate both his chicken and his fruit. "I want water," he said, eying his milk. Before I could even get one cheek off the seat, a Chick-fil-A "waitress" came over and asked if I needed anything. "Water, please," I said. And then poof! We had water. A few minutes later we needed napkins, and poof! There were napkins.

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Satchel finished his food and went back to play for a bit. Meanwhile, my friend's oldest daughter came over to eat her food. When she was done, she asked if she could trade in her "toy" (which was an activity book of some sort) for ice cream. Huh? My friend, who by now had outed herself as a Chick-fil-A disciple, confirmed that unopened "toys" from kids' meals could be traded in for free ice cream. I used this information to get Jiro to actually finish his dinner on his most recent visit to the table.

Much to my horror, he sat down and put all six of his nuggets in his mouth and chewed them up. He did it before I could stop him, or believe me, I would have! Luckily (?) the nuggets are rather small, so it wasn't too bad. Speaking of, those nuggets sure are small! I really think the kids' meal is more of a "snack" for my giant monkeys.

Once Jiro was done, we said goodbye to his school friends, my friends, and then headed over to the counter to redeem our "toys" for free ice cream. It took an eternity. I'm not exaggerating! I had to make sure that we were all on the same page a couple of times. When we did eventually get the ice cream, the nice young man explained he'd been busy making shakes. I think we just had bad timing all night, but dang. Anyways, the wait time gave me an excuse to send the monkeys to the bathroom to wash their hands. They had managed to get incredibly dirty in the playland and I started getting twitchy about swine flu.

Ice cream in hand, we went to enjoy the outdoor seating area behind the facade. The monkeys thought it was just as cool as I did. Had I let them, they would have been happy to hang out there all night!

I'm sure we'll be back again soon--along with the rest of Midtown. Maybe I'll even eat next time!

Panera Bread

Panera Bread
444 S Grove Park Rd. (Laurelwood Shopping Center)
767-3116

Sunday we took the monkeys to the IMAX to escape the rain. When the show was over, everyone was hungry. Jiro, who is on a burger kick, started campaigning for Wendy's or Danver's, but I managed to steer Team Oster towards the new(ish) Panera Bread in Laurelwood. I've never been to Panera Bread despite hearing good things. I wanted to do some shopping in the area, so it seemed like the perfect time to finally try it.

I was impressed by their very large patio upon parking. The monkeys immediately ran over to the fountain and started splashing around. I had to start talking about food and lure them inside before they started disrobing. "What do they have to eat here?" Satchel asked me.

"Salads, sandwiches..."

"I don't want a sandwich!" he barked grumpily. (He'd been barking all day thanks to 5.5 hours of sleep the night before at a "slumber" party.)

"...and soup," I finished.

His eyes lit up. "What kind of soup?"

It was a toss up between chicken noodle and broccoli cheddar, but he went with chicken noodle. Once I told him he could get it in a bread bowl, he was content to join Jiro over by the pastries. They both pawed at the glass and repeatedly asked when they could have a "donut."

A nice woman behind the counter was patiently waiting to take our order, but since it was our first visit, I had to politely let her know that it would be a minute. (This was code for, "Stop telling me you can help me!")

I examined the kids' menu (PB&J, ham & cheese, or grilled cheese) and told Jiro his options. He quickly chose ham & cheese. (Actually now that I have a menu and some quiet, I see that he could have also had a turkey or roast beef sandwich.) In an attempt to be helpful, Warren, who missed the previous conversation, tried to sell Jiro on the PB&J. "I already talked him into the ham & cheese!" I snapped. (I'd been snapping all day thanks to being the hostess at the "slumber" party.)

While I was snapping, the monkeys were still pawing the glass and talking about donuts.

Warren and I had plans to go to the Memphis Farmer's Market dinner at Erling Jensen's (lucky us!), so we didn't want to spoil our appetites. I suggested splitting a "Pick Two." Warren happily agreed, so I finally made my way to the register to order us a 1/2 roast beef sandwich and a bowl of summer corn chowder in addition to the kids' ham & cheese and the bread bowl of chicken noodle. I opted for waters all around sensing that this place was a bit pricier than Wendy's or Danver's. Our total was $16. Not too bad.


We went in search of a booth in which to wait for our pager to light up. It was at this time that I got a chance to take in the atmosphere. Panera Bread is very clean and new feeling. It has that corporate look that is indicative of Starbuck's, Taco Bell, etc. I'm sure every one looks pretty much the same, with just a speck of variation. (i.e. The monkeys noted that the tiled fireplace looked like their favorite board game, Blokus, which uses colored tiles.) There were plentiful seating options and quite a few people hanging out on a Sunday afternoon. There were signs for free wifi and several people were camped out with coffee and laptops.

I was told that there were water cups at the drink station, so I headed over while the boys took a seat in a nearby booth. Jiro ran after me and insisted on helping. (He also insisted on filling his tiny water cup with Sierra Mist.) The cups were #1 plastic which is recyclable in Memphis. (They aren't recycling in store, so I planned to take ours home.) I grabbed some napkins, lids, and straws and went to sit down. We could see the counter where the orders came up from our booth and I told Warren he was going to have to help me get everything since it was on real plates. They looked ceramic, but when we actually got our food, we realized they were that melamine plastic. (Yay for reusable plates that the monkeys can't break!)

We eagerly carried our food to the table and I had to forcefully yell, "Wait! Let me take pictures!" before everyone started chowing down. Jiro was super excited by his sandwich because it came with an organic yogurt tube. That kid LOVES yogurt tubes. (The meal actually looked kind of sad on the big plate, but he was not sad one bit.) Satchel was equally thrilled with his bread bowl of soup. This did not stop him from trying to eat my soup, however. Warren and I had a nice big bowl of some badass corn chowder to share, and the 1/2 sandwich was rockin, and a good size, but I think we could have both easily eaten the whole half, so sharing was a bummer. Jiro offered Warren half of his sandwich (he had his eye on the prize--a "donut") which was sweet. Satchel also shared his soup and bread bowl with us once he got his fill. Warren noted that you could scoop out the soup and a bit of the soft bread inside and it was like eating chicken and dumplings. Yum. Watching Satchel devour the whole thing was rather frightening and definitely pushed the limits of "good manners," but he loved it.

"This is so good, I can't stop eating it," Satchel said. "I could just eat this all day," he continued. "I wish I could eat the plate too," he went on. And on. And on.

My favorite comments came from Warren. "I need to make some bread," he said. "And I bet I could make this corn chowder too."

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Before letting the monkeys pick out a treat from the bakery display, I made a quick trip to the bathroom. It was pretty nice--just a few paper towels littering the floor--and the handicap stall had a changing table. Thumbs up.

Back at the bakery, the monkeys were breathing on the glass deciding what to get. Jiro got the hugest cinnamon roll ever and Satchel got "bogels" whatever that means. (He chose them based on their appearance. They look like donut holes.) Dessert set us back another $4. Not bad at all. We were given our treats in a paper bag, which is another thumbs up.

We'll be back.

El Ranchito Taqueria

El Ranchito Taqueria
3916 Macon Rd
452-4655

Team Oster is officially cheating on its steady, Summer Avenue. We're completely smitten with Macon Road.

Last week one of my facebook friends made reference to Mike's Taco Express on Macon Road. It's nothing more than a convenience store, but I was dead set on trying it. Friday night I convinced Warren and the monkeys to check it out with me. When we turned off of Graham on to Macon, it was like all the best parts of Summer Avenue were crammed together. Before we drove two blocks to Mike's Warren was pointing out restaurants and bakeries he wanted to try. When we pulled into Mike's parking lot, we had second thoughts. It looked a bit sketchy for the kids. (i.e. There was a pick up truck full of pit bull puppies for sale, no windows, and lots of people just hanging out.)

We decided to back track one block to El Ranchito Taqueria. It didn't seem like much from the outside, but we were intrigued.


Inside there were five small tables covered in blue and white checked table cloths and a few stools at a sidebar. There was a large counter opposite the door and just over it you could see a couple of guys working in the kitchen. Whole chickens were smoking on the grill and the place smelled fantastic.

Warren started translating some of the Spanish signs around, i.e. goat and pork sold by the pound, menudo on Saturday and Sunday, etc. I couldn't wait to see the menu.

A young girl came over with menus and took our drink orders. Jiro was being a bit grumpy so I directed his attention to the cooler full of Juaritos, beer, and a few other kid targeted drinks with plastic Toy Story character tops. We went over and picked out a Tutti Fruiti Juarito and then joined Satchel and Warren back at the table. The rest of us ordered water and watched in dismay as Jiro spilled half of his drink on the table. Luckily we had a stack of napkins handy and got it cleaned up with little fuss.

The menu was just one page and had several items blacked out. There wasn't any cheese dip or flautas--the kids' standbys, so I had to do some quick thinking. I asked Satchel if he wanted a taco, and he replied, "Tell me everything they have on the menu." I hate it when he says that.

"Just get them a carnitas plate to share," Warren said. "Or they have quesadillas," he added. Jiro often orders quesadillas, but rarely eats them, so I decided to go with the carnitas. Then I had to decide what I wanted. While we were wringing our hands the waitress came to take our order. We asked for a few more minutes. Warren finally decided he wanted a carnitas torta (sandwich). I narrowed my choices to a burrito and the steak plate.

When the waitress came back I ordered the carnitas plate for the kids. "We're out of carnitas," she said in broken English. I quickly recovered. "Ok, then how about a steak plate?" She nodded. Then Warren interjected. "So no carnitas torta either?" Nope. "Carne al pastor?" he asked hopefully. She nodded. I asked what came in the burritos and she pointed to the list of sandwiches and said, "All of these." I assumed she was talking about the various meat options, so I just ordered chicken and hoped for the best.

Once she went off to fulfill our order Satchel looked at me and said, "Why didn't you read me the menu? Why didn't you order me something? What do they have?" I informed him that I ordered him a steak plate to share with Jiro. "But what if I'm still hungry?" he asked.

"Then I'll get you some more food," I said.

"What food?" he asked.

Mindlessly, I said, "Soup, I'll get you some soup."

"They have soup?" he exclaimed. "I want some soup!"

"Let's get through the steak plate first," I said.

We enjoyed some conversation and some Mexican TV while we waited for our food. Jiro requested my notebook to color in, but I took it out of my purse before dinner for some strange reason. I had a nice view into the kitchen, although I was too low to really see everything going on. I definitely saw the guys cutting pork off of the bone and I saw a large stash of hot dogs in the freezer, which seemed weird. I also noted an inflatable pink flamingo floatie hanging from the ceiling.

Within ten minutes our food came out and when I saw it I almost squealed out loud. My burrito was humongous. (Oink, oink.) Inside was chicken, beans, lettuce, sour cream, and tomatoes.


The steak plate was equally impressive with grilled onions and jalapenos, rice and beans, salad and tortillas.


Even the beans were fancy. They had hot dog chunks in them (solving the earlier mystery) and a hunk of bone for flavor.


Warren's torta sandwich was almost as huge as the burrito. It was grilled and had onion, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and jalapeno on it. Yum.


Unfortunately the kids were not immediately impressed. Satchel gave me a look and I asked the waitress of we could have some soup. She looked at me like she had no idea what I was talking about and said, "We're out of that." So, Satchel and Jiro were stuck with their steak plate. I asked for two extra plates and immediately started cutting up the meat. I needed to separate it from the onions and jalapenos, which were freaking them out. I added some rice and put a plate in front of both Satchel and Jiro. I tasted a bit of the steak while doing this and realized that the parts of it that had been touching the jalapenos were a tad spicy. Satchel didn't seem to notice, but Jiro did. It wasn't super spicy, so I just wrapped his meat up in a tortilla and he happily ate it that way. Satchel cleaned his plate pretty quickly and started on the beans.

Now I know what you are thinking. No, you probably can't take your kids here, especially if they are chicken nugget dependent. But Warren and I both agreed we'd bring in fast food for the kids if necessary, because it is definitely somewhere we plan to frequent. In fact, this place was so good I questioned whether I even wanted to tell you about it!!

What they lacked in salsa and cheese dip, they more than made up for in hot sauce. Warren and I couldn't agree which was spicier, but they were both addictive.


Warren and I did halfsies and then split the boys' leftovers. Everything was so freaking good, we couldn't stop eating! The strange part was that even though we were stuffing ourselves we didn't get that super full feeling. (Probably because we didn't eat a couple of baskets of chips, salsa, and cheese before dinner.)

Once everything was gone, I went to the counter to pay. Our ticket was $29, and luckily I had $40 cash with me because that's all that they accept. I gave her a $5 tip and took a minute to really observe the guys at work and the kitchen. Igave them a thumbs up and told them how much I liked everything. They nodded politely and went about their business. (I'm pretty sure they thought I was weird for taking so many pictures. Weird or a health inspector.)

Once we left, I told Warren that I still wanted to check out Mike's Taco Express. "You could eat a taco, right?" I said. "Sure," he said. "Surprise me."

Warren and the boys waited next to the pit bull puppies and I ventured inside. Right inside the door was a group of people just hanging out. I walked past them and many rows of shelves to the back where there was a large counter and a kitchen. The counter was lined with chairs and there were a couple of tables off to the side. Then menu was in Spanish and there wasn't anyone around, so I just made a circle an walked out, glad I hadn't brought the monkeys. (We never would have gotten past the Doritos and gum.)

As I walked to the car, I noticed a colorful umbrella in the parking lot across the street. A man and woman were standing under it selling something. I got in the car and told Warren he was out of luck on the taco front, but that I needed to find out what they were selling across the street. He looked over and said, "It's probably tamales." As we got closer and could see better, I shouted, "It's something on stick!" I was thinking it might be a popsicle.

"It's corn!" Warren said.

"Pull over!" I instructed.

"I want one!" Satchel and Jiro shouted in unison.


I hopped out and inquired as to the cost. $3. I had $6 and plans to go to Jerry's Sno Cones. I could only get one, but it was definitely big enough to share. (I really wish I had more cash!) It wasn't just plain old corn, but the kind they smother in mayonnaise, cotija cheese, cayenne, and lime. I chatted the couple up a bit and found out they are there every Friday and Saturday and that they also sell pork and chicken tamales for $7 a dozen.

I got back in the car and explained that we'd have to share. I was also trying to figure out how we were all going to get a sno cone at Jerry's for just $3. (Some digging through the change drawer got us enough to share a wedding cake supreme. We ate the corn while we waited in line!)

Okay, so back to El Ranchito Taqueria. Here's what I suggest. Get some corn and eat it in the parking lot. This should satisfy the kids long enough for you to eat at El Ranchito. Bring fast food if you must. Just don't take pictures if you want them to like you!