Sex? Nah just Lunch . . .

I had lunch today with two friends who are also business associates.

Anchorage has a new restaurant that opened last Friday with much anticipation and eagerness for many of our city’s residents. We have waited for the Golden Corral Buffet.

Many of us have watched the construction as the time was announced that we would be getting this “Southern” chain steak house. When I lived in Atlanta we would eagerly hit several locations that were in our area and my company helped build several stores at the time.

Anchorage has many great places to eat with more of them being ‘mom and pop’ type eateries. We do have several “national chains” here like Outback, Chilies, and Friday’s but also lack others like Red Lobster, Olive Garden, & Cracker Barrel.

Getting back to lunch today, we met and had the small waiting line to go through before getting to our table. It has been crowded since it opened last Friday with lines winding outside the building but moving quickly to accommodate everyone. This goes on during both the lunch and dinner meals.

I have had the opportunity to go several times in the last couple of days and it has been fun “people watching” while eating. It was interesting to the three of us this afternoon looking at the various types of people who were dropping in to eat. Anchorage is a great mixing bowl of cultures and people and it seemed almost every type was in attendance today.

We ate and laughed a bit while talking business then near the end of our meal before heading to the desert bar for that ‘much needed’ (NOT) snack to finish off a great meal the conversations turned to watching people.

We saw several other ‘business’ people we knew giving the place a try and said our hello’s but kept going back to the various people. It was great and left nothing out and consisted of the ‘suited’ business person to more normal dress of jeans and sweatshirts or ‘Carharts” (a heavy type garment used in outdoor work or construction work in Alaska). There were natives in various styles and the ‘mommies’ who brought the kids and met girlfriends for lunch. It seemed that several wore pink and most had tight jeans that had us wondering just how they got into them or at what trouble it would be to have to go to the bathroom quickly. Does one ask someone with a paint scraper to join them to peel off the tight cloth?

As men do we kidded each other about this and that and enjoyed our laughs together as they progression of people wandered by.

Friendship is a funny thing as I had not seen one for several months and within minutes it was like old times talking about fishing, families, food, and work.

Good friends, a great meal (thanks Golden Corral), and a renewed commitment that it will not go so long between our next get together.

Have an Ice Day !

Ice