What do we do now??

Gotta be one of the hardest questions, in more ways than one, but for many Oregon high schoolers, there was always a default answer... Shari's. This restaurant was a base where we were safe and had an aura that catered to our needs. It was a cheap bite to hit up before we hustled home to make curfew. Big booths would cramp in 10 hungry boys fighting metabolism. The menu seemed to have everything... from milkshakes to steak, but just about anything would satisfy the 'drunkies' or the 'munchies'. And as teenagers, a fickle fib would cater a birthday piece of pie. Yes, we were more than immature, but as a cornerstone of my youth, I was sad to see the franchise close the doors whose only rule was that you "Please wait to be seated."

So after the title of this blog post... where would we be without Wikipedia??

But apparently the 2023 9th largest family chain can't even afford the Oregon Lottery. Well... whatever. Just a pillar of my adolescence goes down. If Dunder Mifflin supplied lottery tickets

My palette has never been sophisticated. Hot IS hell. I hate burning my tongue. As a kid I would retort "Ahhh thats HOT!!" and my mom would console "spicy hot or temperature hot?" and usually replace my meal accordingly with either milk or a popsicle. My grandmother, RIP, would do anything for her 'snookies'. She got us going on tea, but not the herbs and spices that most associate with the liquid... this was Tetley English Tea loaded with milk and sugar. Grandmom, bless her soul, would do the heat check before serving us the concoction, in preparation for bringing it to the 1970's green and yellow couch that supported us for most of the weekend.

While I took a Chinese Film Class during college, I still know very little about Asian culture. I understand that family is important, that success and achievement is pivotal in honoring ancestry, and respect is fundamental. However... I knew nothing about wasabi

Well its my senior year and I am leading daily Linemen Workouts. So I figured big guys gotta eat.. so we all show up at a local buffet to fill our larger than normal bellies. We went to town, but little did I know, a little of Asia would come to me. One of my teammates, KC Youm hailed from South Korea, and while he could leg press a house, he was always down for a good laugh. So 20 of us gorgeous giants are inhaling food by the fist, but KC wants to have a little fun. He piles wasabi onto a piece of sushi about an inch and a half high and says "TJ... you gotta try this"..."I say haha what is this?" He says "dude you'll love it.. it tastes like ice cream"... so I put it down the hatch. As I am regurgitating water and some sort of green devil out of my mouth, KC cannot stop laughing. This kind of juvenile celebration of our teens manifests at local eateries... before we encapsulate watering holes.

So this brings to question proper etiquette at local establishments. Respect is the key. When you take a table and order a water... its bad form. You got to substantiate service for the sake of courtesy to the person delivering on your bequest. Kids are notoriously bad tippers, and hours of hospitality are wasted on ungrateful table-stayers from good paying customers. It's more of honoring the code of society that you are compensated for your work, and Shari's ate shit. THANK YOU!

While they hosted nightly miscreants and early bird special octogenarians, the restaurant was a fixture in Oregon, and hails life-long members on its walls and kids throwing up in its stalls. That is probably the hardest thing to replace. It has always been my dream to walk into a restaurant and just say "I'll have the usual." And usually, that taste doesn't go away.