Some of the best gifts are the unexpected ones. Like a souvenir from a long-gone restaurant where the first sentences of a new chapter of life were written.
A couple of months ago, I was sitting with the Wilshire Winds at the front of the sanctuary and waiting for the Sunday service to begin, when Charlene Law walked up to me and handed me a small thin box.
“I was going through some stuff and found this. Thought you and LeAnn might want it,” she said.
I was surprised, thanked her and stuck it in my coat pocket as the organ chimed the hour. LeAnn and I opened the box after church and found a black and gold ink pen with “ST Cafe & Bakery” inscribed on the side. Oh my, what a sweet, wonderful gift. What a sweet memory it evokes. And what an amazing memory Charlene has to remember our story!
It was late January 2009. I was about to turn 50, and LeAnn Kite, who had discovered our birthdays were the same week, suggested we have dinner together. She explained that she and Estelle Slater enjoyed a same-week birthday dinner for years, but Estelle was no longer able to get out. LeAnn suggested she and I could meet instead and recommended Sweet Temptations Cafe & Bakery, a favorite of many Wilshire members in the Lake Highlands area. I’d only been there once for lunch so I’d get to see what dinner was like.
While the food was fine that night, the service was awkwardly slow. I don’t recall what either of us ate, but I’ll never forget the long, winding conversation we had. We’d known each other casually from Winds and church committee work, but in the two hours we were there we shared our life stories and many amazing connections. Long story short: It was the first step on an unexpected, winding road from acquaintance to friendship, love, marriage and this life together.
Sadly, we never got a chance to eat at Sweet Temptations again before it closed forever. But on an anniversary of that first dinner, we sat on the curb outside their locked, empty space one night and ate LeAnn’s rendition of Rock Cake, one of their signature desserts. Meanwhile, LeAnn and I enjoyed A Taste of Home in Wylie and Highlands Cafe in Lake Highlands while we dated. Those restaurants are gone too, but when we married and moved to downtown Garland, we discovered Main Street Cafe, or simply “Tammy’s” as we call it in honor of its gracious owner.
The common element in all these places has been reliably good food in the “comfort” or “home cooking” category, and a casual and relaxed atmosphere where you can have a conversation and aren’t rushed to leave so another party can have your table.
LeAnn and I spent our most recent birthdays sequestered at home during the ice storm. We were glad to be safe and warm in the house we built together on a street and in a town I would never have known if we hadn’t met at Sweet Temptations. But soon, we’ll try a place new to us and maybe write some new memories there too.