Jay’s Birthday Dinner at River City Brewery
Posted on May 17, 2022 by Ching under Events, Food and Drink.
We were the first ones to arrive at the restaurant for Jay’s birthday dinner at River City Brewery. We decided to give the other’s a hard time for being late.
It was all in good fun, though.
Everyone eventually made it.
Some pictures of food…
Alicia is always ready with her own salad dressing.
It was a hectic date with Tulip Time in the morning, the ladies’ round robin in the afternoon, and the birthday dinner in the evening but it was totally worth it. After all, it’s not everyday that a dear friend celebrates a birthday.
I’m so glad we could be there to celebrate Jay. Until next year!
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Ladies Round Robin
Posted on May 10, 2022 by Ching under Pickleball.
Here are some pictures from the ladies’ round robin at Riverside Tennis Center last month. It was a huge day for women’s pickleball. Amanda Cervantes and Lacy Waugh had 16 ladies playing a round robin outside while Noi Sourinthone and I had 12 ladies playing in a round robin inside. I continue to be amazed at how much pickleball has grown in our city. It’s amazing that we have 28 competitive female players all available to play on the same day/time. I love that there is never a shortage of awesome players in our city.
Here’s a highlight video I put together.
You can find more videos here. Later that night, Brian and I went to River City Brewery to meet some friends to celebrate Jay’s birthday and we ran into the ladies from Oklahoma who played in Amanda and Lacy’s round robin. These women are so fun and it’s always great to see them, even if just in passing.
Anyway, that is all for now. Until next post. GNG.
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Tulip Time at Botanica
Posted on May 8, 2022 by Ching under Things to Do.
Here are some video highlights from our recent trip to Botanica for Tulip Time.
I’m so glad we had the opportunity to see the tulips this year.
It was a little cold that day but we had a great time nonetheless.
We will have to do this again next year. Until next time, GNG.
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Lunch with Denise Neil
Posted on May 6, 2022 by Ching under Community, Food and Drink.
It’s not everyday that I get to have local celebrity so, of course, I’m documenting this. Well, actually, I document any time I eat anywhere so I guess the post is not that special but the person is – for sure!
As per my usual MO, I only got pictures of our food so there are no pictures of the two of us. I know, “Pictures or it didn’t happen.” You’re just going to have to take my word for it that I got to have lunch with THE Denise Neil.
Denise and I met at La Galette. This place is so good and it is so close to one of my favorite pickleball hangouts (Seneca Park). I really don’t know why I don’t go more often. Probably because I’m mostly hanging out with guys who always want to go to TJ’s instead. TJ’s does have the good rootbeer float.
Anyway, here’s what I had that day: chicken salad sandwich in a croissant and chips. Denise had a quiche and salad.
They also randomly delivered some cookies and a cup of French onion soup to our table. I wondered if it was because they were trying to impress Denise, who is kind of a big deal. I mean, she’s a household name around here.
I’m not really into French onion soup, though I’m sure it’s very good, so it remained untouched. We were busy with conversation and enjoying the food that we did order that neither of us ended up eating the cookies either during lunch either. I did take those back to work and shared them with my friend Chris Townley.
One of the best things about having lunch with Denise, besides the good conversation, is that she makes me feel totally normal. She takes pictures of her food too! One can never have too many food pictures and we sat by a window so we had excellent natural light. Anyway, are alike in that way. No one really understands my obsession with take food pics but she gets it.
I first met Denise through Twitter back in 2008 — the early days — but we hadn’t really done anything together since the Wichita Eagle dining panel ten years ago. I follow her on social media and we see each other at events like the Wichita Orpheum’s Celebrity & Chef Cookoff (not as much the last couple of years because of the pandemic). She did speak to my Rotary club last year to promote her book. Other than that, we’ve only really seen each other a few times.
Recently, she’s gotten into pickleball (as with the rest of the world) and someone referred her to me, which was perfect because we already knew each other. It made sense because everyone knows I am completely obsessed with the sport and it has consumed my life over the last three years. Conversation at lunch centered around pickleball which is one of my favorite topics to talk about — even to people who really don’t care to hear about it. Anyway, as someone who is new to the sport, she had a genuine curiosity and I was more than happy to fill the gaps.
Denise is now officially part of our Wichita Pickleball Facebook group that’s about 2,200 strong and I cannot wait to see her on the pickleball courts!
Until next time, GNG.
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Dining by the Alphabet – Part D
Posted on May 4, 2022 by Ching under Food and Drink.
To catch you up, here is a list of the previous restaurants we visited as part of this dining project:
This has been a super fun endeavor and, while our first three stops were restaurants that I’d already visited before, we did get to experience a new restaurant a few weeks ago — Doma.
We went to Doma after the pickleball tournament at the Wichita Country Club. I decided to take Brian out to dinner somewhere nice as his reward for being a good sport and helping me that day.
I ordered a drink, which I can’t even remember the name of now because I’ve slept (a few times) since then. The drink was very photogenic and worthy of its price tag. Although, I still like the pretty drinks at the Belmont better because I can at least get them for cheap during their daily happy hour.
Dining at Doma is a little bit different in that, rather than each person ordering their own dish (which you could totally do also), it’s best to order something from the menu with the intent of sharing.
Brian and I weren’t that hungry so we only ordered a few things.
I ordered the pork belly dish and Brian ordered the chicken dish.
We also ordered some fries. All three things were excellent.
I really wanted to order everything on the menu but (a) we weren’t that hungry to begin with, and (b) I always try to save room for dessert.
We got the sopapillas, which were good — but I was disappointed with the lack of cinnamon and sugar on the outside. My sister when to Doma a week after us and her sopapilla was covered with cinnamon and sugar. I’m not sure if the cook just missed a step the day we came or if they read my disappointment over the lack of powdery coating on social media. Either way, it was a minor miss and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. In fact, Brian and I agreed that we would definitely be back to try some more things from their menu.
However, in the meantime, we need to move on to the next letter of the alphabet. If you have any restaurant suggestions for the letter E, please drop them in the comments. Until the next post, GNG.
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