Happy Flashback Friday! Over the years my youth groups visited many fine restaurants- and a whole bunch of not so fine ones as well! Each time you take a group of teenagers into a restaurant, you can see the fear on the faces of the employees and patrons. They expect mayhem, wildness and no tips. We always tried to surprise them and make our time there as much fun for them as it was for us. Today I take a look back at 12 places that were favorites of various groups for a variety of reasons. All of them share one thing in common; we were always invited back. I had the best students anyone could ever ask for! So here are 12 great memories:
12) The Jade Dragon- Located only a block from Union Church in Hinsdale, IL, this great little Chinese place was a regular stop for meetings, lunches with students and SHO-Time. We had a great meal there one night with the gang from Spooky Tuesday and had my farewell dinner there as well.
11) Sonic Drive-In- In both Tampa and Waycross we used a Sonic for a summer program called Happy Hour. I would go sit at the tables outside and spend several hours greeting students, playing cards and drinking Cherry Limeaids. It was always a great time of relationship building, and I miss those very hot summer days!
10) Captain John's Seafood- I picked this fine Calabash restaurant (a favorite since my own youth group days) to represent all of the seafood restaurants we visited in the Myrtle Beach area over the years, including the all-you-can-eat places (pictured) we favored in the later years. Special memories include Lisa Kraus destroying an entire army of crab legs and the night I discovered half of the Springfield group didn't like seafood. Not included in this list is White's Point (inside joke for my oldest buddies!).
9) The Roadhouse Grill/Rio Bravo- These two Kissimmee restaurants were favorite SHO-Time spots, and we ate at both on many occasions. We loved the queso at Rio and the bread and throwing peanut shells on the floor at Roadhouse, and both places knew us well. Later on a Roadhouse in Clearwater became a favorite of the Wesley Memorial group. None of those three restaurants are still in business. I blame myself...
8) Dick's Wings- This wonderful wing house became the home of our 5th Quarter "after football" events in Waycross, which drew big crowds of students on Friday nights. You had to beware of Dick's Special Sauce- it was lethal!
7) The Beaches & Cream Soda Shoppe- Located at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resort, this place serves great hamburgers and hot dogs- but no one cares! They have some of the most amazing ice cream creations anywhere, and we visited often, as tourists from Springfield and as locals from Kissimmee and Tampa. This was the home of the Kitchen Sink, and the much-missed Disney Dash Ice Cream Bash event.
6) The Fireworks Factory- Another out-of-business restaurant and the second in a trilogy of Disney eateries, we only had two meals there with youth groups. The first already received its own post, and you can read it by clicking here. The second was the night Marilyn and I informed everyone on the Springfield Alumni Trip in December of 1994 that she was pregnant. A very special place.
5) The Cape May Cafe- On long trips or just going over for the morning, there was no place quite like Cape May when it came to breakfast. Both the Springfield and FUMC-K groups got to experience the wonder of this all-you-can-eat buffet that never ceases to amaze. Plus you get to share the meal with Chip, Dale, Goofy and other Disney stars! Located in Disney's Beach Club Resort, this one is still open for business!
4) Lee Gardens- Located near Wesley Memorial in Tampa, this Chinese buffet was host to us on so many occasions, and they never failed to show us a great time. To this day when I walk in with just Marilyn they are stunned, and ask "Only 2?" Best egg drop soup ever!
3) Carmine's- This Manhattan establishment has the feel of something straight out of The Godfather. It is a great place under any circumstance; to go there with a large group simply defies description (especially when I got to order everything in advance!). The service, the sheer amount of food, and the desserts are all amazing. We didn't find this place until Jill Painter's Aunt Gerry took us there in the late '90's; we didn't ever miss a chance to go there after that!
2) Kyotos- Many of my former students will be stunned to see this come in at #2. After all, no place spanned as many years of my ministry as did this Japanese steakhouse. While at Springfield, we discovered one in Greensboro, NC, and began to plan regular group events there. It became tradition for me to take youth there to celebrate their 16th birthdays. When we moved to Kissimmee, we discovered one in Longwood (just north of Orlando; see picture) and began regular pilgrimages, often with huge groups of teens. Later, we discovered one in Myrtle Beach and ate there with both the Wesley Memorial and FUMC-K groups. So many stories, so many memories and so much food! Also have to give a quick shout out to Kado Japanese in Tampa, which also hosted many a memorable meal!
1) Pizza Inn- Although we ate at Kyotos many times over many years, for shear quantity nothing came close to Pizza Inn in High Point, NC. It has so much meaning to so many people who were a part of the Springfield Friends Meeting youth ministry (see The Ministry of Pizza Inn), partly because at least a portion of us ate there every week- at least once a week! No other restaurant ever had as much impact on my ministry, and we had a pretty major impact on them as well. Congrats, Pizza Inn- you are still #1!!!
So there it is- I would love to hear your thoughts on oversights and omissions from this list. And thanks to so many of you for making theses memories so wonderful!
Because of Jesus,
It's Super Bowl Sunday, and I have been flashing back to past years and parties with my various youth groups. Here are VII memories that came to mind from my XXVIII years in student ministry- still not including the year of the great fight- Amber and Chrissy will get their own post when I reach the Kissimmee years!
1) It's weird, but I have absolutely no memory of any kind of Super Bowl party during my years (1978-83) at New Garden Friends Meeting. I remember Super Bowls from every other stop on my career- even one from 2001 at the Union Church of Hinsdale, IL, when a large crowd filled our little house to watch the game. I was only in Hinsdale for one Super Bowl. But I have nothing from New Garden...
2) My first Super Bowl party after moving to High Point and Springfield Friends Meeting was cut short by a snow storm that led to an exciting couple of days (see A Super Surprise). The Giants beat the Broncos in Super Bowl XXI on January 25, 1987.
3) We had several parties at the home of Butch and Barbara Moran while we were at Springfield. I can't remember if they were really youth parties, or if most of the youth were just there because they were related to the Moran's! In any case, these were fun because doing anything with Butch was fun, and they had a 55" screen...which in those days was HUGE!
4) We used to get together with friends for the game and make huge crock pots full of chili. Somewhere along the way, this changed to me making Mexican Pile-Up for the the multitudes. For the uninitiated, pile-up is basically a taco salad you pile on a plate, using chips instead of a shell. I have fed a lot of kids a lot of pile-up on Super Bowl Sunday over the years...but I always made them bring the desserts!
5) The party got serious on January 26, 2003. We had moved to Wesley Memorial UMC in Tampa in 2001, and now we found our hometown Buccaneers in the big game. I knew I would be irritable and grumpy if I didn't get to pay full attention to the game, so we decided to not have a youth group party- sort of! We invited only a few select youth and adults who we knew would watch the games and hosted it at our house, complete with Wing House wings! My Bucs whipped the Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII, and as the game ended we went outside and listened as the entire city of Tampa honked their car horns in celebration.
6) The following year (Feb. 1, 2004) was a perfect example of why I often got frustrated on Super Sunday. We had the party in the Fellowship Hall at Wesley and drew a big crowd- about half of whom cared anything about the game. I spent most of the evening chasing kids back into the room and cooking. We went through 30 pounds of ground beef in the Mexican Pile-Up that night. I was in the kitchen at halftime, trying to clean up a bit, when Jacquie Thomson came running in a told me that Justin Timberlake had just exposed Janet Jackson's breast, in what came to be known as the Wardrobe Malfunction. And I had missed it, along with most of the first half. At least the game got really interesting after that, even though the hated Patriots won.
7) My final youth Super Bowl party was a great one. We held it in the Fellowship Hall at Trinity UMC in Waycross, GA on Feb. 4, 2007. I ran the cable through a VCR and into a video projector and we watched the game projected on a wall that had to be 90" wide! I ran the sound through our system, and we were better than any sports bar around. As a matter of fact, we were illegal. The NFL actually stopped some churches in Indianapolis from doing just what we did, limiting the size of the projection to 60". We charged ahead, eating pile-up, Dick's Wings and all kinds of goodies while the Colts beat the Bears and made Tony Dungy the first African-American ever to coach a Super Bowl winner. Good times!
So tonight I'm off to Winners Sports Bar here in Tampa to watch the game with Marilyn and Will and a crowd of strangers. I get to watch the game AND I don't have to cook. But still...I miss all the excitement of those youth parties, and I always will.
