Sizzle & Bounce
“I don’t think there’s another feed store in the entire United States where I can get Eggs Benedict, my feed, and a plumbing part in the same store.” One of the highlights of my recent cross-country road trip was my stop at Three Chicks in Texarkana, Arkansas. I stopped for lunch and because I thought that a café would be a good place to stop and take a work call that I had scheduled for that afternoon, but what I found was a café that is also a feed store, a boutique, gift shop with jams and jellies – clothes of all sizes, a hardware store, and I came to realize that I had actually stopped at a bustling community center of sorts. The parking lot our front was full, and when I pulled into the back, I knew that I was in a special kind of place because next to the chicken coop there was a miniature chicken village, complete with chicken saloon and a chicken bank. I learned later that this back garden is also where Santa had also recently come to talk to kids about what they want for Christmas. I arrived in a bit of a road-haze, and already running late for my call and so was focused on looking for a place to plug in my phone and a quiet (possibly dark) corner to take my business call – but realized quickly that this was not a place that met my script for “café.” Everyone was more than happy to let me take my call, but they also wanted to make sure that I was taken care of, and that perhaps I should order my food before I got on the call to make sure that I didn’t have to wait when I was off it, and I didn’t have to worry about whether they would run out of the special in the meantime(they did, and I was so glad to not have missed it). During the call, I kept getting refills on my iced tea. This is a place that cares about people, even harried folks from the big-city who need to take a bit of time to unplug and recognize that they have landed in a very special kind of place. What finally really and truly broke me out of my trance was how just staggeringly delicious the food was. And this was not just because I had been eating road food for a few days at this point. A creative celebration of spices and flavors, rich ingredients, and the freshest ingredients: anyone who orders an egg dish at this place has some that have come right out of a chicken that morning!! I had an unforgettable tortilla soup (with gruyere cheese?) and chicken salad, with rosemary and a million other things, but chef Julie isn't spilling her secrets!! And I started to notice that there was a great deal of teaching going on: there were young apprentices being trained to do all sorts of work all around me: taking orders in the restaurant, learning how to do math and not depend on the cash register to make change. I realized when I arrived that there had been someone training a young man to operate the tractor and the hay baler out back where I had parked, and when I went into the boutique afterwards, there was another group of young folks learning how to take inventory, how to interact with customers and help them figure out what they needed, and to recognize an opportunity to add something to the inventory. I met the woman who had set up their social media marketing, who they helped out by giving her a place to live in the home onsite but who they credit with helping them to keep afloat, and then while I was hanging around, a young entrepreneur stopped by to ask for sponsorship for a non-profit she had founded dedicated to taking care of animals. If you go to their website, you will find one version of their story that tells you about how Angie is the idea-woman (the dreamer), that Dee Dee is the manager, and Julie is the chef. And if you ask them, they will tell you another set of stories that comprise how they found their footing in the business: figuring out how to set up systems to deliver hay to an old lady who was alone and isolated on her farm in a storm, how they have found ways to involve friends and colleagues from the Texarkana country club in the work, and how this is a “God thing” – they feel God working through and for them. But the story that I found while I was listening was a community thing. And the story that I want to tell about this special place is that this is a group of women who have found a way to take care of their community and that their community, given a chance to connect, leapt at the chance to take care of them in turn. The three chicks recognize strengths and gifts – in working together, they openly acknowledge that they each bring their own and depend on each others’ – but they also help those who surround them to recognize, express, and develop their skills, interests, and abilities as well. Angie tells her daughter she can be anything, and in a way, their business tells anyone who visits the very same thing! It’s tremendously hard work, but ultimately there is nothing that is more worth it!
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Anna Marie & KirstenWe met at "The Porches" writers retreat one summer, and a love for cooking, conversation and adventures brought us here. ArchivesCategories |