Happy Birthday Pa-in-Law! Brunch at Sandy’s
Submitted by My Garden Spot Blog
Sunday was my dear Pa-in-Law’s birthday. The young cutie is ‘Pup’s youngest nephew. That kid has grown 14 inches in the last 2 years. Yeah… at least 14 inches. Right now, he’s built very much like my Pa-in-law was built at his age, or a little older. PiL left High School at 16 to enlist in the Navy during WWII. Pictures of him show a 6 foot 4 inch kid with about a 22 inch waist. He’s filled out a little in the years, but he’s still a tall, good looking and engaging man. He’s a hit at the seniors apartments he lives in…as it seems he never lacks for a dinner engagement, and had a good share of lunch dates too. He says he buys very few groceries these days.
He once mentioned that he’d not had fried cornmeal mush for breakfast since he was a kid, before he enlisted.
The next morning, he got a call, and an invitation to breakfast…yep… one of his lady neighbors fixed him some.
We took him and nephew “Stilts” out to Sunday brunch. PiL had already taken two of the lady neighbors to church, and later that day, he was the center of an impromptu pot luck dinner. Have I mentioned he REALLY likes where he lives?
We took the two of them out to Sandy’s Produce Market for brunch.
Yes, it’s a grocery store. It’s also an incredible place to go eat fresh, organic, reasonably priced and dang tasty lunch or breakfast. It also has a huge assortment of teas, coffee, herbs, spices, and honey.
And it sells antiques. And has a masseuse, a selection of new and used books and oh yeah, locally produced meats, vegetables and eggs. When you step in, you kinda know you’re not at your usual supermarket chain…
Sometimes, they have live music, too.
It is also the cleanest and tidiest store I’ve ever seen. Really. Things are kept spotlessly clean and well presented.
There are tables and chairs scattered all over the store. The tables are for sale too… but they’re mostly for socializing and for…..
Eatin’.
During the buffet lunches and breakfasts, a trolly comes around with a selection of different teas. You select the tea you want from the selection, or if you have a particular favorite you don’t see, ask. You receive. The tea is brewed and served from an individual and ingenious tea pot. They’re for sale too… (new ones!)
Between buffets, you can come in during the afternoon and have a cup of tea with a friend and talk.
There are cool things everywhere.
Some go beyond interesting and into fascinating. This piece used to be part of a several piece set. I recognize it from past visits. It, and its companion pieces were made from cypress roots, hand carved and pieced together and burnished. I’d have loved to have had a piece or two, but, it’s not to be…alas.
This little area is new, or at least new to me. It’s a child friendly place to play and
read.
The managers aren’t tucked away into the back, either. They’re stationed out in the middle of the floors, using desks that are (you guessed it) also for sale. You want to see a manager? You have a question? You’ll find the answer about products they carry and any service questions you might have.
And one of those desks belongs to the owner, Sandy hisownself. (He’s the one in the blue shirt.)
One new thing they’ve started offering that ‘Pup and I haven’t tried is their dinner service. It’s a more formal service, with a menu that changes as the chef chooses from the store stock to prepare dinner. For a $5 cork fee, you can even bring your own bottle of wine. They’re offering a Thanksgiving dinner too, and if we hadn’t already made plans for Thanksgiving already, we might have made reservations and gone. Unlike the buffets, you do have to purchase the tickets to the dinner service in advance.
All in all, it was a wonderful afternoon, and then a wonderful evening.
Happy Birthday PiL!
