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The Reasons

I love living in Dallas. There are plenty of big reasons why, but there are plenty of small reasons as well. Case in point: certain kinds of eateries and drinks that are common around here, but are hard to find elsewhere. This didn't occur to me until the recent holiday season.

Kyle and Sally are both from Texas, but live in Chicago. They love Chicago, but whenever they come down to visit friends and family, they want to hit up certain places that aren't in Chicago. Totally reasonable as that's what I've done whenever I've visited Chicago. In deciding on where we could meet up for lunch one day, Kyle was craving Whataburger, so we went there. As someone who hears commercials for Whataburger and sees some of their umpteen restaurants every time I drive around, I rarely eat there. But I'm pretty sure that if I lived in Chicago, I'd miss Whataburger too.

What was even more interesting was when we were getting our soft drinks. Kyle said he once asked for Dr. Pepper in Chicago and the response he got was, "No, but we have root beer." If you've never had Dr. Pepper, this is like asking for orange juice and being offered chocolate milk instead.

Then there's a guy named Frank who recently moved from Denton to New York City. He's digging the town, but craving Shiner beer. He's heard of a bar in Brooklyn that serves Shiner and he hopes to find the place very soon. It's as if he's heard of a record store that still carries 78s.

After spending years living in towns where the general mindset was, "We don't need to good into the city. We have everything here in our small town," I find Dallas to be a relief. There's still plenty I'd like to explore around here (including finding out if Flower Mound is a real place). But if some major opportunity came to where I would have to move out of here, I'd do it. I'd probably still come back and visit friends and family and also have some Whataburger and Shiner.

Comments

Rj said…
I absolutely miss the food and beers of the midwest. I'd stab somebody for some Portillos (hot dog joint). A friend of mine is coming down to sxsw from Chicago, and he is bringing me a pizza from our hometown.
Eric Grubbs said…
The following is from fellow reader Amy Mueller:

you're not the only one who would stab someone for a portillo's hot dog. i would probably take a ton of those things with me and freeze them. i love me some portillo's!

i'm from a very small northwestern town in PA. we go back one to two times per year to visit my family. there are TWO places in town that i wish i could have mail-order food from. one is a local pizza joint that has the BEST salads and subs (their pizza ain't so bad eitha). the other is a super tiny grocery store. it's the bottom floor of a two story home. anyway, they have the BEST hoagies in town. now ask me what a hoagie is.

grubbs, next time youre in chitown, we goin' to portillo's.

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