Brick & Elm | July/August 2021

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co n t e n t s

34 | cover story TRUCKIN’ DELICIOUS

Amarillo’s food truck scene is on a roll

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PHOTO BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

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CA N’T MISS

The top things on our radar

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SO CIA L SEEN

Who did we spot at area events?

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FO RWA R D

With Patrick Miller

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SPOTL IGHT Kids, Inc.

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B IZ

Get up in the city’s business

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THE CHA S E

Andy Chase Cundiff: clumsiest man in the world

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R ETA IL THERAPY What’s hot in local shops

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SPACES

Caring for roses with Coulter Gardens

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SPACES

Trees that thrive in the Panhandle

50 | LEAP OF F8TH From Tanzania to Palo Duro, a young entrepreneur pursues the American Dream

57 | SET UP TO

Craftsmen save a vintage chuckwagon from the rubble

Allen Shankles on ALT, its history and a future without him

& THE TORNADO

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SUCCEED

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54 | DOROTHY

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PROVIDED PHOTO

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F EAT U RE

WT Enterprise Center celebrates its 20th year

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PHOTO BY ANGELINA MARIE

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LISTEN

Recently on the Hey Amarillo Podcast

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IN FO CUS

K I TC H

Photographer Jason Burr

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B ACK WHEN

Vegan Dream Tacos

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F +D

Glenwood Electric Park

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FINISH

Matcha Jelly Delish

ROA D TRI P

New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness and Historical Silver City

PHOTO BY CHRISELDA

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Featuring Karen Welch PHOTO BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

hhi i!! i itt’’ss uuss LO PR EM ER AA MM AA RR I LI LL O ’ S’ SP R EM I EI R T LY EL EMM AG L ILFI EF SE TS Y AG AA Z IZNI N EE P U B L I S H ER S Michele McAffrey Michele McAffrey mm@brickandelm.com

PU B L I S H ER S

mm@brickandelm.com

Jason Boyett

jb@brickandelm.com Jason Boyett jb@brickandelm.com

D E S I G N ER Kayla Morris

D E S I G N ER km@brickandelm.com Kayla Morris

BRICKANDELM.COM M AY | J U N E 2 0 21 B R I C K A N D E L M . C O M J U LY | A U G . 2 0 2 1

km@brickandelm.com

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CONTRIBUTING P H OTO G R A P H ER S CO N TChriselda RIBUTING Angelina Marie PH OTO G R A PH ER S Shannon Richardson Angelina Marie Scott Thomas C O N TRichardson RIBUTING Shannon W R I T ER S Mason Dudley Chip Chandler Gray Gillman Andy Chase Cundiff Sal Gutierrez CO NPatrick T R I B UMiller TING WWes R I TReeves ER S

Chip Chandler Andy Chase Cundiff Wes Reeves TO S U B S C R I B E : brickandelm.com Print subscription: $34.99/year Digital subscription: $8.94/year

TO S U B S C R I B E:

A DVbrickandelm.com ER T I S I N G I N Q U I R I E S: Print subscription: $14.94/year mm@brickandelm.com Digital subscription: $8.94/year 806.414.5235

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Brick & Elm Magazine is published bimonthly

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Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited.

Brick & Elm Issue 2 July/August 2021 (ISBN 978-0-578-90022-3) is published bimonthly for $34.99 a year by EdgeBow Media LLC, P O Box 2104, Amarillo, TX 79105, 806.414.5235.

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o say we’re having funpast withfew every henthat I look back over the element ofitBrick Elm—the weekly months, feels& like ages since I last newsletter, social media wrote an editor’s note,engagement, and then backthe to directing photo shoots, atgetting other times weeks have flown by. Inand the designing a stellarit print magazine—would be a middle of January, seemed my days of typing understatement.

I amprior having an absolute uphuge my last-minute thoughts to printing a blast. It’swere beenover. a heady, busy … fewa months. magazine And then miracle.

delighted to partner dive intoJason the world MyWe’re longtime writing Boyettof food trucks my thisnew month.

I’m thrilled toand see that side of became business partner Amarillo’s foodborn. sceneThis growing and flourishing.

Brick & Elm was “hyper-local” There’s plenty of warm-weather magazine was created in meetingsgood at ourfood waiting just around this summer. respective homes, andthe it’scorner the compilation of everything we’ve ever hoped a Beyond food, our pages arecould filled with diverse perspectives and cultures, people Panhandle-focused publication be. The community outpouring for our new that came to Amarillo to forge in a better life, people who are working to make this project has been overwhelming the best way.

My friends and local businesses have citystreams a betterofplace to live. Encouraging to venture outside their neighborhoods, sent encouraging messages oflocals support.

Now I truly know what it means to tomy experience something new apart from their daily routines, to learn another point say cup overflows. of view—that’s ourmany goal fantastic as we produce Brick & Elm. We’re so gladbyyou’re for This is the first of Amarillo-centric issues created a truealong dream the ride! and the incomparable Kayla Morris. I’m thrilled beyond measure to team—Jason share Brick & Elm with you. Thanks for reading.

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ourbest cover feature, met began up with llorthe parts of mywe career food owner-operators during in thetruck Amarillo College Journalism an early summer heatinwave, enduring Department.

There, the midtriple-digit temps radiating hot parking 1990s, I learned to write fast.from I learned to lots.I learned These creative didn’t bat edit. desktopentrepreneurs publishing, design anphotography. eye. They’re used to hot, cramped, noisy and But what I learned most and they’re doing it onIpurpose. ofconditions, all is that I really liked magazines. ended spokeof lovingly about their customers, upEach the editor AC’s award-winning campus talked about the care, they putininto magazine, AC Current and fell lovetheir withvehicles the and menus, and delighted in howstart far Amarillo’s process of creating a publication, to finish. food truck culture had come.

Here I am again, more than a quarter-century later. For years, Michele and I have In fact, more telling than half of theabout trucks wecity. featured a year ago. worked together stories our A few opened months less ago than we decided the The scene still young, andagrowing.

Like our magazine, it’s inmagazine its infancy.about Amarillo. time wasisright to launch new, sophisticated, independent That’s why this that issue,our ourfirst second, “Forward,” a new column

by Patrick It feels appropriate issue introduces covers topics like trail-building, business Miller, withcreative additional columnists scheduled to join new our pages in historic the future.

We’ve reopenings, problem-solving and breathing life into structures. even retailare partners, including Market 33 and and maybe Toot’n Totum. so We feeladded like allnew of those metaphors for Brick & Elm, for printWe’re magazines in grateful general.for their interest and for the excitement we continue to hear from readers.

Thanks forto supporting usand as we continue evolve.

So here’s fresh starts a new way totoshine a spotlight on the city we love.

Thanks for reading. We’re honored that you’re here with us, at the beginning.

co n t r i b u t o r s

KAYLA MORRIS

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Kayla has been designing professionally for local businesses and nonprofits for more than 10 years. Kayla was raised in the Panhandle and graduated with a design degree from West Texas A&M University. When not designing she loves spending time outdoors with family and friends.

SHANNON RICHARDSON

Shannon has been a commercial/advertising photographer for almost 30 years. His work can be seen at shannonrichardson.com.

ANGELINA MARIE

Angelina Marie has been a photographer in the Amarillo area for 11 years. She specializes in food and drink, architectural, and creative portrait photography. She has a passion to capture the true character of the Panhandle in all its beautiful and unique variety. Angelina is the founder of the Amarillo Women’s Collaborative, which promotes local, women-owned businesses. See her work at shorteareddog.com or find her on Instagram.

08 CHRISELDA

Chriselda (she/her) was born and raised in the Amarillo area. She is a mother, daughter, friend and community volunteer. She hopes to leave this world better than she found it. Whether that’s by befriending strangers, petting all.the. dogs, being an advocate, unlearning and learning, or simply taking a photo, she strives to make an impact. See her work at chriselda.com.

PATRICK MILLER

Patrick Miller is President of the Amarillo Branch NAACP and assistant principal at Eastridge Elementary. In 2021, he completed a 6-year term on the Amarillo College Board of Regents, to which he was elected at the age of 25. He has earned Master’s degrees in both teaching and educational leadership from WTAMU and has served in a variety of leadership roles within the Amarillo Independent School District.

CHIP CHANDLER

Chip is the senior communications specialist at West Texas A&M University. A Canadian High School graduate and award-winning journalist, he has covered arts and entertainment in Amarillo since 1998 and is a member of the Amarillo Convention and Visitor Council arts committee.

He is a 2020 Golden Nail Award winner and a 2017 National Philanthropy Day award winner. He is a member of the national GALECA critics group, has seen every Best Picture Oscar winner and watches way too much television.

WES REEVES

Wes was raised in the Texas Panhandle and has been a resident of Amarillo for almost 30 years.

He has been active in the Amarillo Historical Preservation Foundation for the past 15 years, and works in his spare time to bring history alive through historical preservation and engaging new generations in the appreciation of the region’s colorful history.

ANDY CHASE CUNDIFF

Artist, singer-songwriter, music producer and humorist Andy Chase Cundiff spent many years traveling the U.S. and abroad, but calls Amarillo his home. A longtime resident, Andy’s house is on a red brick street in Oliver-Eakle that is lined with elm trees.

SAL GUTIERREZ

Sal is an Amarillo College graduate and a PR and Advertising major at West Texas A&M. He works as a social media strategist and does PR for a local nonprofit. Sal is also the founder of La Dosis and Muliversion podcast, two projects with staff from Latin American countries. He speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese, and spends his free time cooking, hiking with friends, and learning new languages.

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rick streets and elm trees are tangible parts of our city, but Brick & Elm definitely has a digital component. In fact, there’s much more to this publication than the physical copy you’re reading now. We’re building a platform to provide the most comprehensive local coverage in the city, including the following:

BRICKANDELM.COM At our online home, we offer the e-version of Brick & Elm, accessible for subscribers to the print magazine ($34.99 per year) or those with a digital-only subscription ($8.94 per year). Even if you’re just interested in our print magazine, brickandelm.com is always worth a visit, because we will occasionally provide exclusive, digital-only content for subscribers.

SOCIAL MEDIA Yes, of course, you can find us on Instagram (@brickandelm), Twitter (@brickandelm) and Facebook (@brickandelmmag). Follow us for a glimpse of what’s happening behind the scenes, first looks at our photo shoots and features, and fun gift-card giveaways from local businesses. The print magazine is a finished product. Our social media lets you into the process—with personality.

BRICKLY This issue is packed with content, but we realize there’s a lot more happening in Amarillo than we can include in these pages. That’s why we’ve created Brickly, a free weekly email newsletter dedicated to Amarillo. Subscribe to it today for business and entertainment news, links to important stories, and updates from local businesses. (To subscribe, visit brickandelm.com.)

HEY AMARILLO While not technically part of Brick & Elm, one of our founders is the host of this popular local podcast. Every week since 2017, Jason Boyett has been interviewing the most fascinating people living in and around Amarillo, Texas—including in-depth interviews with folks you’ll read about in these pages. Find the show at heyamarillo.com or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

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Subscribe today.

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J U LY/A U G U S T July

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AMARILLO SOD POODLES: The Soddies continue to chase their second championship with five home stands over the next two months: June 29 to July 4 against the Wichita Wind Surge; July 20 to 25 against the Frisco RoughRiders; July 27 to Aug. 1 against the San Antonio Missions; Aug. 10 to 15 against the Corpus Christi Hooks; and Aug. 24 to 29 against the RoughRiders. (Hodgetown, 715 S. Buchanan St., 806-803-7762, sodpoodles.com)

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CANYON’S 4TH OF JULY INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION: The fireworks will be extra special this year after the muted festivities of 2020, and perhaps nowhere will be as fun as Canyon, home of the Panhandle’s biggest Independence Day party (give or take a Clarendon or a Canadian). In addition to the Canyon Lions Club Pancake Breakfast, parade and pyrotechnics at night, don’t miss all the fun at the Fair on the Square, featuring more than 100 vendors.

Here’s the catch: All the fun will take place on July 3, so don’t let that pesky calendar confuse you. Looking for more holiday fun? Check out Don Harrington Discovery Center’s Explode! on July 1, the Will Rogers Range Riders Rodeo from July 1 to 3, and Texas country giant Robert Earl Keen on July 3 at Starlight Ranch Event Center. Or, head down to Turkey for a July 3 celebration with a lineup of Texas country favorites at Hotel Turkey.

OUTDOOR CONCERTS: Amarillo’s best-loved summer tradition continues with live music four days a week through most of the season. Amarillo Parks and Recreation’s Starlight Theater offers a variety of acts Tuesday nights through Aug. 31 in Sam Houston Park, Line Avenue and Western Street. Center City of Amarillo’s High Noon on the Square offers a slew of favorites (plus lunch) Wednesdays through July 28 at 501 S. Fillmore St. Amarillo Botanical Gardens’ Music in the Gardens goes into overtime this season with tunes Thursday nights through Sept. 16 at the gardens, 1400 Streit Drive.

And the newest offering, Music at Wellington Square Courtyard, on Saturday nights through Aug. 28 at 1601 S. Kentucky St. BLACK WIDOW: As delightfully fun as WandaVision and Loki have been, it’s been a long, long time since Spider-Man: Far from Home in 2019. The Marvel Cinematic Universe comes roaring back with this highly anticipated thriller, the long-awaited solo spotlight on Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff (and, potentially, the introduction of her MCU replacement?). (Opens July 9) NAZARETH GERMAN FEST AND SUDS & SOUNDS: The 49thannual festivities kick off at 9:30 a.m. with an arts and crafts show, the 11 a.m. German sausage dinner, kids’ games and more, then move into high gear at the 6:30 p.m. music festival, featuring Mitchell Ford & The Volunteers, Next to Kin, Hogg Maulies and headliners Dylan Wheeler and Dirty River Boys. ( July 10; Nazareth Community Hall and Nazareth Ball Park; lunch $8 children and $12 adults; music fest $30 at gate; facebook.com/GermanFestSudsNSounds) ALWAYS... PATSY CLINE: Amarillo Little Theatre’s biggest hit returns for a final bow with original cast members Tammy Hysmith and Cindi Bulla, nearly 30 years after it was originally produced. I’ve been around long enough to have attended some of the first revivals, and

if these two talented women can recapture the magic, this will truly be a special engagement. ALT Academy is also on the boards this summer with a production of Newsies, the popular stage adaptation of the Disney musical. (Newsies: July 9 to 19, Allen Shankles Mainstage, 2019 Civic Circle; Patsy: July 29 to Aug. 8, Allen Shankles Mainstage) HEY AMARILLO BEER FEST: Nearly a dozen different local breweries, along with craft beer lines from all around the Lone Star State, are available for sampling for the buzzy second round of this familyfriendly party, put on by Brick & Elm cofounder Jason Boyett’s podcast. Stick around for tunes by Def Leppard tribute band Def Leggend. (5 p.m. July 31, Starlight Ranch Event Center, 1415 Sunrise Drive)

August TEXAS: The outdoor musical wraps up its 55th season in Palo Duro Canyon State Park with performances six nights a week through Aug. 14. (8:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, Pioneer Amphitheatre. 806-655-2181) MERCYME: The phenomenally popular contemporary Christian band returns to town for a show with Austin French in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex Coliseum, 401 S. Buchanan St. I can only imagine that they’ll play all of their big hits, as well as new tunes from inhale(exhale). (7 p.m. Aug. 12. 806-3783096, panhandletickets.com) RESPECT: Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) takes on her biggest acting challenge in this biopic of the iconic soul diva Aretha Franklin. The trailers look sensational, and Franklin herself tapped Hudson for the role. (Opens Aug. 13) PAMPAFEST: Amarillo-born Texas country greats Cooder Graw will headline this festival, which also features Zac Wilkerson, Travis Roberts, Velvet Funk and The Michael D. Coon Band, with master of ceremonies Ed Montana.

Look for food trucks, vendors, cornhole and volleyball tournaments, a beer and wine bar, and more. (9 a.m. Aug. 21, downtown Pampa; tickets $25 advance, $35 at the gate; 806-664-8282) JIM GAFFIGAN: The wryly hysterical, Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning comedian brings his Fun Tour to Amarillo for his first performance in the Civic Center Coliseum. This is one of the biggest shows in town in recent memory for comedy fans, so here’s hoping it’s a huge hit and we get some huge followups. (7 p.m. Aug. 26, 806-378-3096, panhandletickets.com)

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Visit brickandelm.com for Chip’s expanded event coverage and movie reviews.

Better yet, subscribe to our newsletter, Brickly, for breaking entertainment news every week!

C H I P C H AN D L E R Chip is the city’s arts and entertainment expert, having covered area events since 1998. Stay up to date on local happenings with Chip’s Can’t Miss picks in every issue.

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ART OUT LOUD

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Panhandle-Plains Museum hosted Art Out Loud on May 1. The fundraiser included a mural by well-known local artist Jon Revett, a poetry reading, silent and live auctions, and dancing. (provided photos)

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LEADERSHIP IN ACTION: A CONVERSATION WITH ALEX FAIRLY

Elevate Amarillo hosted Leadership in Action: A Conversation with Alex Fairly at Hodgetown on May 6. Held on the Club Level at the ballpark, the event was sponsored by the Lemieux Company. (provided photos)

social seen BRICK & ELM L AUNCH PARTY

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On May 8, we hosted a meet-and-greet event at From 6th Collective to celebrate the launch of the new magazine. We’re grateful to everyone who stopped by to see us and show their support! (photos by Angelina Marie, Short Eared Dog Photography)

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HPFB KIDS CAFE CLASSIC The High Plains Food Bank hosted its annual Kids Cafe Classic on May 14 at the Ross Rogers Golf Complex. Presented by Amarillo National Bank, the tournament included lunch and dinner, door prizes and hole-in-one contests. (provided photos)

SYMPHONY BALL

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The Amarillo Symphony Guild hosted the annual Symphony Ball on May 16 at The Amarillo Country Club. This year’s ball was themed “A Gatsby Affair,” and featured premier Dallas band Party Machine along with the presentation of the 2021 Belles and Beaux. (provided photos)

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Weʼre passionate supporters of the city‘s nonprofits! If you host an event that you’d like to see in Social Seen, submit a press release and photos to mm@brickandelm.com.

Fo r wa r d WITH PATRICK MILLER

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e’re finally back.” Following a turbulent summer of social and political upheaval during a once-in-a-century worldwide pandemic, thousands of educators across the Amarillo Independent School District returned to their classrooms.

That was just the beginning of our journey.

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We were forced to implement safety measures to meet COVID-19 protocol. Imagine arranging a socially distanced classroom while preserving space for a classroom library, learning centers, or guided reading. All grade levels faced this challenge.

Sanitation took on an entirely new meaning with masks, sanitizing stations, air purifiers, surface cleaning, and hand-washing breaks.

Nevertheless, returning to school made it all worthwhile. Despite having less than a month to plan the adoption of a new Learning Management System, our teachers created innovative, rigorous, engaging lessons to ensure the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) would be fully covered.

Despite these parameters, we knew some parents would elect to keep their children at home for virtual instruction. Our schools would be open anyway. Educators seldom speak of their personal sacrifices, but we all have families, too. The prospect of returning to our new normal brought a mixture of enthusiasm and anxiety. It took an abundance of faith, caution and resilience to carry us through the most difficult school year we had ever known.

The new school year began on Sept. 1, 2020. Though we could not physically see the smiles on students’ faces, their expressions and joy filled our hearts with hope. Greetings with a high-five, handshake, or fist-bump were supplanted with a thumbs up (or down) to signify students’ mood as they entered our schools again. Walking single file on one side of the hallway is a rudimentary skill. Teaching 4-year-olds to stand on socially distant vinyl dots on the floor— then maintaining that distance when walking—was easier said than done.

Our youngest students could no longer “meet at the carpet” for fundamental instruction and were relegated to their desks or table side seats. A year ago, they might have reached across a table to share a paper. Now they had to request their own individual items and speak behind desk shields, with masks muffling their voices.

Yes, we were safe. But concerns lingered about the social and emotional impact this was having on our students. Many schools quickly adopted social and emotional curriculum to address the previously unknown effects of teaching during a pandemic. We all had to learn more than we expected.

When positive COVID-19 cases increased exponentially in the fall, class sizes took a precipitous decline. Students who once interacted directly with teachers now raised their hands from behind a desktop or laptop camera. In some cases, teachers instructed 15 students in-person while responding online to the needs of eight others.

Meanwhile, COVID caused a substitute teacher shortage across the entire district. Despite the support of personnel from the Rod Schroder Education Support Center, there was no replacement for the bond our students had with their teachers. We all kept doing what we thought and knew best.

Nothing can truly prepare you for the inevitable part of life. The news of each COVID-19 related fatality devastated us, and we continue to give our utmost respect and sincere condolences to their families. Regardless of age, ethnicity or background, they were all part of the Amarillo ISD family. We cherish the memory of their lives and embrace their legacies of love for as long as we shall live. It was a dark autumn made even darker by the abyss of winter. But the completion of one full semester and the ringing in of a new year reignited hope, which would persist throughout the spring.

As vaccinations became widely available, our schools began filling up again. Virtual students returned to campus. Teachers began preparing their students for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and the completion of the school year.

Uncertainty was supplanted by realistic expectations that we would finish the school year—and finish we did. We never lost sight of the AISD mission: to graduate every student prepared for life and success beyond high school. With each twist and turn of living and teaching through a pandemic, we learned invaluable lessons of faith, resolve, and persistence.

We would not have completed the 2020-2021 school year without the support of parents, dedicated nonprofits and faith-based groups, heroic health care professionals, and the exemplary students we have the privilege of serving. Thank you for trusting us—as you always have—to provide children with a safe learning environment. In May, we officially closed the books on the 2020-2021 school year.

As we prepare to return, let us remember to extend the same measure of grace we shared with one another as our lives were shaken during the worst of the pandemic.

Some things have changed forever.

We must embrace these changes PAT R I C K M I L L E R with the same faith and resilience A passionate local educator and we discovered within ourselves last President of the Amarillo Branch school year. We anxiously await the NAACP, Patrick writes in every issue about education, faith and opportunity to welcome all students forward momentum. back for the 2021-2022 school year.

We are ready to prove last year’s success was no fluke.

Since 1899...

Bo Wulfman CCIM

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spotlight

PROVIDED PHOTOS

AMARILLO GLOBE, 1945

KIDS, INC.

A N A M A R I L LO I N S T I T U T I O N FO R K I D S A N D PA R E N TS A L I K E

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sk any Amarillo athlete when they began playing competitive sports and you’ll hear the same answer: Kids, Inc. It doesn’t matter the sport. And it doesn’t matter the athlete. It could be a Division I volleyball player or a state champion sprinter, a highly touted baseball prospect or a once-in-a-generation football or basketball talent. Statistically, all of them are likely to have first worn an “official” sports uniform on an elementary school team courtesy of Kids, Incorporated.

Like so many other Amarillo institutions, Kids, Inc. originated in the mind of Cal Farley, a successful local business owner and radio host.

During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Farley and two colleagues had noticed that Amarillo’s streets seemed to be overrun by unsupervised boys. They created the Maverick Club to address the delinquency problem.

A few years later, in 1939, Farley created Boys Ranch for boys who came from broken or destabilized homes.

By the end of World War II, the Maverick Club was operating at full capacity but Farley was still seeing too many boys with nothing to do but get in trouble after school. So in 1945, he and a few friends decided a city sports program could provide a solution to that problem. Farley enlisted C.C. “Bus” Dugger, a young salesman and a former college athlete, to help him with the project. At the time, Farley was calling it the Amarillo Recreation Association.

With Dugger acting as the first coach, the duo recruited 11 boys from Glenwood Elementary School to form the “Glenwood Basketeers” (see photo top left). The team practiced after school and began to play other basketball teams from the Maverick Club, Boys Ranch and even a team from Channing, Texas.

Before long, the organization had been renamed Kids, Incorporated and teams were forming across the city. The Amarillo Globe newspaper began publishing game results and player statistics in its Sports section. Farley told the newspaper that “if you give a boy a ball to chase, he will stay out of trouble.” The organization expanded to include girls, of course, and soon offered a full roster of sports.

Kids, Incorporated had arrived. It remains an Amarillo institution.

Tens of thousands of Amarillo children have now grown up playing Kids, Inc. sports. Participants play flag and tackle football, volleyball, and outdoor soccer in the fall, followed by basketball in the winter.

School-based cheerleading squads root for the players. The spring months bring indoor soccer, track, tennis, T-ball, softball, and another outdoor soccer season.

Last year, 2020, was supposed to be the organization’s longawaited 75th anniversary celebration. The pandemic dampened that milestone, of course, and Kids, Inc. had to cancel its spring season, resulting in $400,000 of lost revenue. Thankfully, the organization was able to resume activities last summer and has fully returned to normal today.

Beyond “staying out of trouble,” today’s players continue to get exercise, deepen friendships, and learn good sportsmanship on Kids, Inc. teams.

But the community benefit isn’t limited to boys and girls. The organization also serves as an early opportunity for players’ parents to volunteer in the community. Moms and dads serve as coaches and even officials for the youngest participants. Regardless of the sport, these parents become early mentors and examples for the young athletes on their teams.

“Not all kids have that,” says Jimmy Lackey, Kids, Inc. president and CEO, who has been with the organization since 1995. “That’s why our coaches have such a tremendous opportunity to be an adult mentor to young kids. In this day and time, they need adult mentorship more now than ever. For those kids that don’t always have that [example] at home, coaches can play a big role in their lives.”

He says the program simply wouldn’t exist without its volunteer coaches, but also points out that involvement in Kids, Inc. is beneficial for players’ families—even if they’re just spectators or providing post-game refreshments. “You make friends with the other parents,” Lackey says. “Those can become lifelong relationships. I like to tell families to take advantage of our games. You’re supporting that kid on the field or the court, and there are a lot of life lessons involved in that. But you’ll also make some of the very best friends you’ll ever have the rest of your life.”

Kids, Inc. fields teams all year long for public elementary and middle schools in Amarillo, Canyon and Hereford, along with schools in surrounding school districts including Bushland, River Road and Highland Park. Private schools also participate. To donate to the organization, form a team, register a player, or otherwise get involved as a coach or volunteer, visit kidsinc.org.

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY:

Coming soon: Listen to Jimmy Lackey‘s interview on the Hey Amarillo podcast.

A HALF-CENTURY OF EYE CARE

Broome Optical

Life is worth seeing!

3408 OLSEN BLVD | 806.355.5633 | WWW.EYECAREAMARILLO.COM

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After 56 years in optometry, our own Dr. Dean Beddow is retiring. Over the years, he helped build Broome Optical into the one of the longest running optometry practices in the state of Texas, and we have learned so much from his years of service, compassion and wisdom. What a legacy! We are so grateful and wish you the best, Dr. Beddow.

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ARE YOU READY TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS? Since 2001, we have been helping local entrepreneurs build great companies. Through our programs and resources, business owners gain the support system needed to take their business to the next level. Let’s get started on your business.

2300 N. Western, Amarillo

806.374.9777

Business Coaching Entrepreneur Community Learning Opportunities Coworking Office Space

wtenterprisecenter.com

THE BARFIELD, AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION | FRIDAY AUGUST 6 | DOORS OPEN AT 5:30 | TICKETS $75 - TEACHERS $50

Tickets can be purchased at windowonawiderworld.org /events

Join us for an exclusive WOWW Learning Experience with a night of musical mastery featuring musicians from the Amarillo College Music Department performing this unique musical showdown.

A multi-level experience of music, dancing, drinks, and dinner stations from the underground speakeasy to the rooftop patio at the brand-new, historic Barfield hotel. Enjoy specialty cocktails throughout and roaming fine dining from The Barfield’s Chef Joey Guzman.

Don’t miss this opportunity to support arts education for our students of the Texas Panhandle!

THE BARFIELD, AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION FRIDAY, AUGUST 6 | DOORS OPEN AT 5:30 P.M. TICKETS $75 – TEACHERS $50 Tickets can be purchased at windowonawiderworld.org/events SPONSORED BY:

biz AMARILLO

Education Credit Union will open its seventh branch at AmTech Career Academy.

The branch will be student-led by senior apprentices from AmTech’s School of Business, Marketing and Finance.

The Amarillo Symphony was awarded a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant in the NEA’s Grants for Arts project category. The grant will support the symphony’s Class Act Education Program.

Holton L. Westbrook recently joined Sprouse Shrader Smith as a new associate attorney. His primary focus will be assisting clients with civil litigation issues.

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Martha’s Home announced its new Director of Development and Public Relations this past April. Sharon Miner will be responsible for leading all fundraiser efforts and marketing for Martha’s Home.

The Amarillo National Center (ANC) hires Brady Ragland as its chief strategy officer. He starts July 15.

Ragland will oversee the development and execution of the facility to lead it into the future.

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RIB BON- C U T TI N G S

| COMPASSION AT HOME |

| LOREC RANCH BOUTIQUE |

| SHOPPAS |

| TURN CENTER |

| BRICK & ELM MAGAZINE |

biz CANYON

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Lora Haasl was named West Texas A&M University’s Employee of the Year at an all-staff service award ceremony on June 8.

Haasl is an 18-year veteran at WT.

The Charles W. “Doc” Graham ’53 DVM, The Texas A&M University System Center officially opened on the West Texas A&M University campus on June 3. The center—located in the northeast corner of WT’s Canyon campus—is home to both the Veterinary Education, Research, and Outreach Building and the Charles W. Graham DVM Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory Building.

R I B B O N - CU T TI N G S

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| MARSHA CLEMENTS ART |

|CRIMSON STONEWORKS |

UPCOMING EVENTS WT ENTERPRISE CENTER— 20TH ANNIVERSARY See CELEBRATION p.46!

July 20, 2300 N. Western St., 4:30pm Visit wtenterprisecenter.com for details.

CANYON INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION July 3 The all-day event will include a Fair on the Square, parade, live music and fireworks. This year’s parade will be themed “Aloha, Canyon.”

22ND ANNUAL CHAMBER OPEN GOLF TOURNAMENT July 22, Tascosa Golf Club Contact Denise at 373-7800 or denise@amarillo-chamber. org for details.

WOMEN IN BUSINESS BREAKFAST Aug. 4, 8:30 a.m.

Proceeds will benefit the Canyon Chamber of Commerce Scholarship Fund.

We want to hear from you! To highlight your business, promotion, awards and ribbon-cuttings in this section, email a press release or your business brief to mm@brickandelm.com.

Saturday, July 31, 2021 Tri-State Fairgrounds - 5pm-9pm Win a 2021 Harley Softail Slim or $15,000 Visa Gift Card!

Live Music provided by The Buster Bledsoe Band, Touching Voodoo & Red Dirt Rockers Tickets: $90 (admit 2) - Fun Run $20 per bike Tickets available at Trippʼs Harley-Davidson, Family Support Services, or online at fss-ama.org/Harley. For information, call 806.342.2503.

Thank you to our Sponsors: Trippʼs Harley-Davidson, 47th District Attorneyʼs Office, AIG, Amarillo National Bank, Custom Specialties Collision, Xcel Energy, NWTH - Behavioral Health, Plains Dairy, Ben E. Keith, Walk-Ons Sports Bistreaux, Open Air Imaging Center, Rounders Club, Amy Upton Family Practice, Genesis Financial, Edʼs Liquor, Happy State Bank, Merrick Pet Care, Amarillo Grain Exchange, Broken Spoke Lounge, Insurica, Duke Electric, Riney & Mayfield, Street VW, Texas Panhandle Centers, Alice Brooks Insurance, Royal Glass, Joe Marr Wilson Law Firm, Peopleʼs Federal Credit Union (through 6-15).

WA L K I N G A N D CHEWING GUM

the chase

Clumsy (klum-zee), adjective — awkward in movement or action; without skill or grace.

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have always wondered if there was a record of the world’s clumsiest man, so I went on a little bit of a quest.

There was, of course, the obligatory check of the Guinness book.

Not really anything substantial there. There were also scattered tales in books of folklore on the subject, but surprisingly few. Asking friends only yielded anecdotal material, but not the world-class kind of clumsy I was looking for. I even checked the Bible for clumsy people. There’s a great account of this dude that fell asleep sitting in a window he subsequently fell out of during a warm summer evening revival meeting. He REALLY had to be revived! I have been to a few services like that and can fully relate.

The reason for my interest in the subject is that I actually think that I might be the clumsiest man in the world. One of those unfortunates who has the ability to trip over his own shadow. I come from an ancient line of bulls-in-china shops. Oh, believe me when I say that it’s not something I am proud of in the least. There are lots of other things I would much rather be best at, or famous for. So far, it’s just a local secret. Another reason I am in love with Amarillo. Everyone in this town just smiles and looks the other way. Sometimes they offer to help, if I or whatever I am carrying winds up all the way on the ground.

So, I have to say that I have developed an obsession, maybe a morbid interest, in clumsiness and the clumsy. Call it self-realization.

Some synonyms for clumsiness that I particularly enjoy are: bungling, ungainly, gawky, maladroit, lumbering, oafish, lummox, lout and the list goes on ...

Remember when Gerald Ford was president? Most people of a certain age, myself included, can only recall that President Ford was always tripping, stumbling or falling over something. One time it looked to me like he almost took a fatal spill on the steps of Air Force One. It’s kind of a drag to be consigned to history as The Guy Who Always Fell Over Stuff, but try as I might, I can’t think of any of his other accomplishments. Maybe pardoning Nixon, which also must have been a bit awkward. I remember Chevy Chase, back in those days, having an absolute field day taking pratfalls during his Saturday Night Live skits that lampooned Ford. He always jumped back up looking very presidential, if a bit sheepish.

What may have happened to me, in retrospect, was the heartbreak, the ruination, the ravager of my generation: television.

In the “black-and-white” days of TV, the Dick Van Dyke Show was a staple of family viewing. The slapstick show theme music included a whimsical stop when Dick Van Dyke fell over the hassock, ottoman, footrest or whatever the word would have been in those days. He

was an early pioneer of popping back up looking for all the world like nothing had happened. I always laughed my little 2-year-old rear end off at that, because, well, it was funny.

My theory, however, is this: What if I was watching Dick Van Dyke while I was trying, in my developmental stage, to learn how to walk?

That would explain a lot.

Or it could be my arthritis. The cartilage in my knee joints is disappearing, and knee replacement surgery is more than probable for me—it is inevitable. I tend to wobble like a drunken sailor when I walk, often reminding me of Charlie Chaplin. Of course, I was clumsy way before any arthritis began.

Enough of the excuses and rationalization. I hang around with clumsy people so I don’t look quite as bad, but the truth is, they probably hang with me for the same reason. My girlfriend in high school told me I was the worst dancer in the swing band, and I could provide no argument; she was my partner in the swing band.

I do have some friends who are dancers. Their entire family dances.

Ballet, ballroom, all kinds of dancing. They are graceful, beautiful, vivacious and totally amazing human beings, angelic to observe. My goal is to be more like them, but I would honestly settle for a trip to Market Street that doesn’t involve me chasing avocados down the produce aisle.

Last time it was an avalanche of hair products that came down in a multicolored cascade into, and all around, my shopping cart—in front of a bunch of what looked like the Your Mom and All Her Friends Club.

They offered to help me pick it all up.

I guess, in the grand scheme of things, you just can’t have it all.

Some people have extraordinary AN DY C H A S E C U N D I F F and obvious gifts, some people’s Andy is an artist, singerare more subtle. Some people move songwriter, music producer through space with style and grace, and musician. In every issue, his column explores the parts of his and some of us stumble-bumble life that don’t always make it into around like we can’t figure out which his songs, accompanied by his way the sidewalk went. own illustration.

AMARILLO, TX | ROCKWOODFURNITURECO.COM

retail therapy

SKEETER D E F E AT E R S

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t’s mosquito season in the Texas Panhandle, and the May and June rains gave perfect opportunities for these pests to proliferate.

We don’t love applying DEET just to enjoy the back porch, and citronella candles aren’t always effective. Neither are the scented, geranium-type plants marketed for their repelling abilities. Are there any other natural, non-chemical ways to fight these insects? These solutions from local retailers are worth a try.

PRANARŌM ESSENTIAL OIL DEFENSE SPRAY $6.99 AND ROLL-ON $9.99 EAT-RITE HEALTH PROMOTION CENTER Available in spray or roll-on form, uses 100-percent pure, certified organic essential oils to discourage flying pests. Adults only.

PHOTOS BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

DANDELION HERBAL BUG OFF ROLL-ON $8.95 FLUFFAHOLIC This roll-on, DEET-free mosquito repellent is made locally in Pampa.

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PARA KITO DEET-FREE MOSQUITO REPELLENT BAND $22 PURPOSE + PASSION BOUTIQUE The wrist or ankle band contains an essential oil pellet, which diffuses a lemongrass scent known to repel mosquitos. These are waterproof, last for 15 days, and made for kids ages 3 to 7.

TERRAFLAME CLEAN BURNING FIRE GEL $8; CLAY BOWL $42 PETE’S GREENHOUSE We saw this tip on Instagram! Place a Sterno can or fire gel in a deep bowl. Light it and place fresh rosemary above it. Apparently, the smell of burning rosemary is unpleasant for mosquitoes and they avoid it.

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the Roses

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t started with the steady rain in March. Then came the sustained moisture in late April and early May. Roses bloom multiple times per season, but the conditions were right this year for a spectacular rose bloom—all over the city—before the triple-digit temperatures put a stop to it in June. Luckily, we were able to capture some of these local rose bushes at their peak. We’re looking forward to seeing them flower again this fall. Warren Reid of Coulter Gardens shared with us the varieties of roses that perform well in the local climate.

Classic Varieties HYBRID TEA ROSE Celebrated for their long-stemmed cut flowers, these are some of the most fragrant and recognized flowers in the world. They produce a single large bloom per stem and the bush can grow up to 8 feet tall. These roses prefer full sun (5 to 6 hours a day) and can be finicky, but reward patient gardeners with beautiful blooms for arrangements, especially when temperatures are between 65 and 95 degrees. Reid cautions that the strong fragrance of this rose makes it more susceptible to disease.

Care tips: “Supplement the soil with Down to Earth organic compost and gypsum,” Reid recommends. Water when the top inch of soil feels dry—around once a week in summer and once a month in winter. “Severely prune them at Easter and deadhead weekly,” he adds.

Reid also recommends feeding and spraying every month from April to October.

Best for: Hobbyist gardens FLORIBUNDA ROSE This variety produces shorter stems than Hybrid Tea, with clusters rather than a single bloom. That makes these less attractive for cuttings but full of color. Less fragrant, these also require less maintenance.

However, they are still susceptible to disease. Floribunda roses require a similar amount of feeding, water and care as recommended above.

Best for: Sun areas

PHOTOS BY ANGELINA MARIE, SHORT EARED DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

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Best for: Giant, showy blooms CLIMBERS These varieties require training to climb, but can bring beautiful color and vertical height to a garden. “Some varieties bloom best when growing horizontally,” Reid says. In vertical rose bushes, the top bud on a branch secretes hormones to repress bud growth below it. But this doesn’t happen on a horizontal “branch,” allowing for multiple blooms. Note that it can take one-to-two growing seasons for climbing roses to bloom, because they are expending so much energy to grow to full height.

Best for: Trellises, fences, and pergolas ENGLISH ROSE Delicate and fragrant, the large double blooms of English roses are becoming trendy once again. Reid often points customers to the award-winning David F. Austin rose variety, with a caveat: “It produces lots of thorns, making it difficult to touch,” he says. But this hardy rose is less susceptible to disease and requires less maintenance—and very little pruning.

Best for: Low-maintenance gardens

Modern Varieties SHRUB ROSES Gardeners have fallen in love with a new generation of roses, including the popular Knockout. Its flat, clustered blooms add grace and color to a garden, making it ideal for beds and borders. These roses grow fast and bloom frequently, but are less attractive for cuttings. According to Reid, Top Gun shrub roses are a very are an attention-getting new variety. These roses require less maintenance and grow quickly.

DRIFT ROSES A cross between Knockout roses and other spreading, low-growing ground cover varieties, Drift roses are smaller than Knockout and beloved for adding color to borders and beds. “These are more pest-resistant because they’re not as fragrant,” Reid says. They require less maintenance and can grow waist-high.

CARPET ROSES “These are one of the newest trends in roses,” says Reid.

Growing knee-high and producing a carpet of blooms in ideal conditions, these are miniature versions of Shrub and Drift roses. Gardeners love carpet roses as ground cover in flower beds. Reid says these less fragrant varieties are extremely pest- and disease-resistant.

Special thanks to the Amarillo Botanical Gardens for allowing us to photograph their beautiful roses.

Every Rose Has Its Thorn(s)

Roses may be beautiful, but that beauty is hard-won. These flowers require regular maintenance and are susceptible to a variety of diseases and pests. Pruning and fertilization can help, but local rose enthusiasts are always on the lookout for powdery mildew, leaf rust, black spot disease and stem cankers. “Winter damage is common,” Reid says. Several fungal pathogens can survive the winter cold.

Insects also present problems. Thrips can cause damage in May. Aphids often arrive when roses are in bloom. Dry heat brings spider mites and cutter bees are attracted to rose bushes in the late summer. The fall brings rose cane borers, which lay eggs in cut ends of roses and can cause extensive damage.

To prevent these pests, Reid recommends once-monthly feeding, from April to October, with Fertilome Rose Food. Additionally, he says, “systemic spraying once a month with Fertilome Triple Action prevents 90 percent of the most common problems on beautiful roses.”

One disease that has worried local gardeners like Reid, however, is not as easily avoided. First reported in California and parts of Canada in the 1940s, the rosette virus (“Rosa multiflora”) has slowly spread across the United States and has recently been confirmed in our region. Tiny mites transmit this virus, which deforms and destroys the vascular system of the plant. It results in excessively thick and thorny stems, distorted flowers, and sometimes tiny clusters of blooms—these “rosettes” are what give the disease its name.

“I’ve been worried about [this disease] for years,” Reid says. Only nine states have so far avoided infestations, and southern states report the highest incidence of the virus. If you suspect the disease on your roses, first report it at roserosette.org, a USDA-funded site which helps universities study the disease. There, you can upload photos and receive expert confirmation of the virus.

Once confirmed, you’ll be given instructions about removal. Unfortunately, you’ll need to remove the plant entirely, containing it in a plastic bag to prevent additional spread.

Pesticides won’t help. Don’t replant roses in the same spot either, because any roots remaining in the soil can also remain infected, Reid warns.

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GRANDIFLORA ROSE The huge, eye-catching blooms of this heirloom cross between Hybrid Tea and Floribunda aren’t currently as sought after as they once were. But the clusters on long stems make these roses lovely for cut flower arrangements. This fragrant rose is also susceptible to disease.

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TREE’S COMPANY

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n some parts of the country, like the Pacific Northwest, tree care means removing trees from a property. Here in Amarillo, arborists play a different role. They’re trying to preserve trees.

From the soil to the wind to the extremely dry climate, ours is an environment that’s not always welcoming to trees.

Jake McWhorter is the Texas Panhandle’s only International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) board-certified Master Arborist. Through his company, Jakob Tree Inc., he helps local homeowners feed, trim and otherwise keep their trees healthy. The extreme cold of this winter was tough on the city’s trees, and McWhorter has been busy.

Despite the weird winter, some trees just aren’t ideal for this environment.

McWhorter wants homeowners to put the right tree in the right place for the Pro tip: Don’t right reasons. “Trees will generally outlast the planter,” he says. So when choosing bury too deep! “If to plant a tree, think ahead. Do you want shade or do you want to make a visual you bury the root statement? How tall might the tree get? Will it grow into any power lines or drop flare, the tree will debris into your pool? struggle—no matter “There is a perfect tree or shrub for every location,” says McWhorter. And trees the variety,” says live a long time. So don’t be too hasty putting them in the ground. “Calm down and McWhorter. think about what you need in 50 years—not tomorrow,” he says.

Here are his expert suggestions for the kinds of trees that thrive in this area.

JAK E M C W H O R T E R Jake is an ISA Board Certified Master Arborist and the owner of Jakob Tree Inc. Working with trees is Jake’s passon. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children and enjoying the outdoors.

THINK TWICE ABOUT THESE TREES: ANYTHING MULTI-TRUNK: Multi-trunk trees look nice, but “a single trunk will always grow taller, faster, and live longer,” McWhorter says.

COTTONWOOD: These grow fast and, in some West Texas riverbeds, can hit 100 feet tall. The heavy limbs can be dangerous. “I love wild ranch cottonwoods,” McWhorter says. “But they are a hazard within 50 feet of any structure.”

ORNAMENTAL PEAR: You’ll love the spring flowers produced by these trees, but they’re finicky. “They need constant fertilization,” he says. That can be costly.

PURPLE ROBE LOCUST: These are advertised as hardy and drought resistant, but McWhorter says they are prone to split in our climate.

“I’ve never seen one make it to maturity,” he says bluntly.

PIN OAK: This tree impersonates a hardy Texas Red Oak, but don’t be fooled. It’s intolerant of our soil.

MAPLE: This isn’t Canada, McWhorter says, so beware. These are “oh-so-pretty but oh-so-expensive to feed,” he says. They don’t love the Panhandle soil.

ASH: Local boring insects love all varieties of this tree, and the deadly emerald ash borer has made its way to Texas from Asia. That makes ash trees a strong “Don’t plant.”

HACKBERRY: McWhorter loves the wild version of this tree as much as he loves wild cottonwoods. “But they are prone to root rot at maturity,” he says.

SIBERIAN ELM: “Let’s just call this the Wolflin elm,” says McWhorter about the neighborhood where they’re most prominent. Beautiful and fast-growing, they can be brittle at maturity.

FRUIT TREES: McWhorter is ambivalent about these trees, regardless of the fruit. “Go ahead and try them,” he says. “They get borers and rarely produce fruit in our area.”

BLACK WALNUT: Native to East Texas, these large trees can become brittle at maturity and therefore don’t tend to survive long.

AUSTREES: This hybrid willow grows fast, making it great for windbreaks on farms—but little else. “They grow way too fast and break like willows,” McWhorter says. “Just don’t.”

STOCK PHOTOS

AMERICAN ELM: A common street tree across the country, these provide wonderful shade (and cool magazine names). Thankfully, a few varieties are now bred to resist Dutch elm disease.

WASHINGTON HAWTHORN: This ornamental tree boasts white spring flowers and great fall color. The flowers attract insects and hummingbirds, which makes this tree a favorite for birders.

CEDAR ELM: There are few negatives to this fast-growing shade tree, which is the most common variety of elm in Texas.

TEXAS RED OAK: Native to Texas, these popular, stately trees grow slowly but are extremely showy during the fall.

LACEBARK ELM: The unique peeling bark adds visual interest to this tree, but its best quality may be its growing speed.

A wonderful shade tree.

SYCAMORE: McWhorter loves this tree, which is one of the few shade trees mentioned in the Bible. “It’s a unique specimen or spotlight tree,” he says.

CHINESE PISTACHE: A midsize landscape tree, locals grow these for shade or ornamental appeal. “They have a great shape and fall color,” says McWhorter.

PECAN: “These grow great here,” he says of the state tree of Texas. “But there are many varieties, so do your research.”

BUR OAK: McWhorter loves the durability and huge leaves of this shade tree. He’s less of a fan of the humongous acorns it drops.

PIÑON PINE: This slow-growing tree stays relatively small, which makes it great for edges and wind screens.

REDBUD: “The Oklahoma variety is the best ornamental tree for this area,” he says. It’s one of the first trees to flower in the spring, with bright pink or purple blooms.

AFGHAN PINE: These can grow tall, so choose the location wisely. They withstand hot, dry conditions. Be careful not to overwater, says McWhorter, who recommends them for xeriscaping.

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PLANT THESE TREES:

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PHOTOS BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

’S O L L I AR NE M A G K SCE N I R O E X P LO D T R U C FO

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SIGNATURE BURRITO

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TACOS KALIFAS

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LOUIS, LUIS AND SANDRA GARCIA

ASADA HUARACHE

From Mexico to Los Angeles to Amarillo: That’s the journey of Luis Garcia, the 52-year-old father who brought Tacos Kalifas and its unique style of Mexican food, to Amarillo.

After several years in Los Angeles, Garcia moved to Amarillo in 2013. He spent several years working for the Amarillo Independent School District and also operated his own catering business, feeding large parties, weddings and quincerañeras. “Many people used to tell him that he should get a food truck,” says Sandra García, Luis’ oldest daughter and the manager of Tacos Kalifas.

When the family saw a small trailer for sale on Facebook Marketplace, they took the leap. The “Kalifas” in the name is a reference to their California roots—the graffiti-style artwork even comes from a family friend based in L.A.—and it’s a family business through and through. Luis prepares the meats, his wife, Yudy, is in charge of the salsa, and son Louis helps maintain supplies.

The family teases Yudy that her preference for spicy sauce reflects her personality. “They are always really hot,” Sandra says.

We couldn’t get enough of this Los Angeles-style street food, especially the tortas and flavorful mulitas. The quesadillas were also amazingly good. Sandra says Tacos Kalifas’ signature burrito is the top-seller. “It’s not the traditional burrito with lettuce and cheese. Ours comes with beans, rice, your choice of meat, onions, and cilantro— because that’s how we do it out there on the West Coast.”

806.410.7216 B&E recommends: Sandra is right—the sauces are hot. But not so much that the heat dominates the flavor.

The green sauce has a slow, smoky burn and we loved it.

JOSH AND CASSANDRA STURGEON

THE PICK 2 BOIL WITH SHRIMP AND CRAB

Josh Sturgeon is the “J” behind Fry Daddy J’s, and he’s been cooking professionally for at least two decades. A few years ago, he owned a Hereford restaurant under the same name, until health issues forced its closure. Now that he’s in Amarillo, the food truck scene has won him over. “I don’t like being stuck in one spot all the time. I like to travel,” he says. “I like to see new faces, new scenery. It’s easier to move around to where you’re requested.”

He and his family-owned food truck—his wife, Cassandra, and kids Angel and Justin all work together—typically park at 45th and McCarty but anticipate plenty of new scenery this summer. Sturgeon describes his summer plan as “touring.” On short Panhandle road trips, the truck will be rolling into destinations like Perryton, Pampa, Borger and Clovis. He expects those cities will represent promising new markets for his fried shrimp, fish and gator baskets, along with his extremely popular boiled shrimp and crab.

Sturgeon also loves parking at charity events, which allow him and his family to give back from their sales.

“I’m a mom-and-pop,” he says. “I’m not a food chain. I‘m not a big corporation. I take care of my family with this [food truck].” Typically, Fry Daddy J’s opens Tuesday through Saturday during the lunch and dinner hours.

B&E recommends: 806.346.1098 We loved the huge portions—the boils are are definitely shareable.

We also loved the spice on the fries and had no intention of sharing them.

PURPLE FL AMINGO POPS “I do not want to make popsicles.” That’s what Cherie Scholz told her brother, Brian Singleton, when he pitched her the idea of a gourmet popsicle business. But seeking a career change after years managing food quality in the dairy industry, Scholz agreed to do it. Four years later, the experiment has been nothing but a success.

“We’ve made 10,000 popsicles since April,” says Scholz, standing in the shade of Purple Flamingo’s converted ambulance on a hot Wednesday evening in June at Sam Houston Park.

She’s sold more popsicles the past two months than she did in her entire first year.

Scholz and her family have fully embraced the food truck culture. What started as a simple operation now includes the original trailer, an ambulance, and a permanent storefront in Wolflin Village. All are essential as Purple Flamingo caters at festivals, concerts and private events on a weekly basis. “The mobile aspect of this business is huge,” Scholz says. “Ninety percent of our business is catering.”

We estimate 100 percent of their flavors are worth trying—even the weird ones. (A surprising number of customers love the pickle pops, including adults.) Cookies-and-cream is by far its best-seller, but Purple Flamingo’s fruit-based treats, like the mango/pineapple flavor, are just as refreshing on a hot summer day. The Wolflin shop keeps regular business hours, or look for the purple-and-white ambulance or bright yellow trailer at events like the Amarillo Community Market. purpleflamingopops.com, 806.517.2131

CHERIE SCHOLZ AND DAUGHTER RYLEE

B&E recommends: The blueberrylemonade combination of the namesake Purple Flamingo popsicle is worth a try. We were also drawn to the creamy coffee pop.

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FRY DADDY J’S

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A COLORFUL BUBBLE WAFFLE TOPPED WITH SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK, CHOPPED MANGO, COCONUT FLAKES, WHIPPED CREAM AND POWDERED SUGAR

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THE POOKIE BEAR CREW: KERI BALENTINE (THIRD FROM LEFT), SISTER-IN-LAW VICKY RIVERA (FAR LEFT) AND DAUGHTERS LAYLA AND ABBY HERNANDEZ

POOKIE BEAR SMOOTHIES This is definitely the cutest food truck in the city. Regularly stationed at the corner of Williams Street and Amarillo Boulevard, just east of North Mirror, Pookie Bear sports polkadots, a brighteyed panda logo, and a menu of aguas frescas, smoothies and boba tea. Owner Keri Balentine has a background as a dessert cook and isn’t afraid to make a sweet impression. “People see the panda and say ‘Oh that’s the boba truck!’” she says.

Balentine opened the truck last August after impressing her sister-in-law with a boba tea recipe. “I made it, and she was like, ‘Girl you should sell it. I think you would do good,’ Balentine remembers. She couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities.

“She kinda gave me the idea, and I went from there,” she says.

Pookie’s top seller is the Blue Dream, an antioxidant tea that combines blueberries and cream—and tastes as amazing as it looks. But lately, Balentine has begun introducing food in addition to her popular drinks. “We just started the bubble waffle,” she says.

Yes, it’s a real, actual waffle, but with a bubbly sort of appearance.

Then there are the toppings. “You can pick fruit and a sauce to go on top. Then you can add powdered sugar and whipped cream,” she says. Definitely do those things. We advise it.

Balentine makes her smoothies from scratch, mostly from puréed fruits, and can make non-sugar and non-dairy versions of her menu. Just don’t ask too many questions about her ingredients.

Some of them are confidential. “I have the secret sauces,” she says.

“I’m Pookie Bear.” facebook.com/pooki3b3ar

B&E recommends: Not into the texture of classic boba? Balentine offers a number of drinks that use spherical juicy poppers instead.

THE BLUE DREAM

ASADA FRIES

Annalisa Ramos, a single mother of three, always had a passion for cooking. So when her kids were grown up and she had more time available, she opened Cocina on the Go. This brightly colored food truck offers Mexican food from the grill. “I wanted Hispanic culture to be recognized,” she says. “I wanted the name to be catchy and it says what it is—a kitchen on wheels.”

That kitchen features a variety of classic, fresh Tex-Mex dishes like tacos, nachos and quesadillas. The carne asada fries are the Ramos family’s specialty. “We have a combo box that has half asada fries and half queso tacos. Those are our two top items,” she says.

It’s not all fries and queso, though. Cocina on the Go offers healthier options, including spinach quesadillas. Ramos used to cook for the Good & Healthy Cafe in the Medi-Park area and owns a catering business called FreshBox. “I’ve always been attracted to throwing something healthy in there,” she says. “That’s why I chose the spinach quesadilla.”

Ramos and her family live up to their truck’s name, taking Cocina on the Go pretty much everywhere. They have a few regular spots around town on different days of the week, like Lone Star Liquor (Washington Street) on Tuesdays and almost every Thursday at Pondaseta Brewery. The Curious Loft on 45th is also a favorite base.

But the family doesn’t stay anywhere for long. “Some people ask me, ‘Where are y’all at?’ and I say, ‘We are on the go, baby!’”

806.651.9313

MARCOS RAMOS, ANNALISA RAMOS, ALISIA RAMOS, ALIJAH RAMOS AND GABRIEL GONZALEZ

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COCINA ON THE GO

B&E recommends: There’s a reason those asada fries are a bestseller. The meat is just incredibly tender. If you don’t want the fries, get the asada tacos.

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PORK N THINGS “I’ve been cooking all my life,” says Denny Antel, as smoke from his cooker wafts over his blue trailer. Around 10 years ago, he entered the world of competition barbecue, traveling across Texas and as far away as Kansas City to see how his ribs, brisket and burnt ends stacked up against the best. Antel found success in that arena, with several high finishes. His barbecue literally is award-winning.

But after 2020, this former surgical first assistant decided it was time for a career change. He transformed his competition trailer into a food truck.

Pork N Things is the result. We caught up with Antel on a Saturday at Cadillac Ranch, but much of his weekdays require more of a drive. “We go out of town a lot,” he says. Food trucks can do big business in places like Claude or Vega, where the limited restaurant options bring steady crowds.

Accustomed to cooking for barbecue judges, Antel seeks to impress customers with his Kansas City-style ribs. “I want people to go, ‘Wow, that was the best thing I ever had,’” he says. We obeyed, gladly. The ribs were juicy and the brisket had just the right amount of smoke. Don’t miss the sides, either.

806.433.5666

DENNY ANTEL

TWO MEAT PLATE WITH BEANS AND MACARONI AND CHEESE

B&E recommends: If it’s on the menu that day, try the Green Chile Hominy.

TONY AND DONITA TERRY

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GL ADYS’ RIB SHACK

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Tony and Donita Terry opened their barbecue truck 18 months ago after decades in the fast food world. Donita’s background includes lengthy stints at local Sonic and Wendy’s franchises, so the husband-and-wife duo are no strangers to commercial kitchens.

That comes in handy at Gladys’ Rib Shack, named for Tony’s grandmother, a legendary family cook who passed away in 1995. Tony inherited Gladys’ skill at the grill and smoker, and after so many years in quick-turnaround environments, the couple decided to work at their own pace. “We wanted to leave a legacy for our family,” she says, including their three children and one grandchild.

Regional styles divide the barbecue world, but Donita refuses to align with any camp. “Ours is Tony-style,” she says, laughing. What’s the secret to Tonystyle ribs? “It’s his passion.”

From Wednesday to Friday, they sell that passion in the parking lot of Window World of Amarillo on the Boulevard, from 5:30 p.m. until they sell out.

Otherwise, the truck regularly ventures to new locations.

The ribs are as incredible as advertised, along with the potato salad and chopped brisket fries. Donita says her customers love supporting local. “Instead of people just going to this [chain] restaurant, people want to buy from their hometown, if they have that option,” she says.

806.881.6222

B&E recommends: The smoked cabbage is a unique, flavorful side you don’t often find at other barbecue joints.

TWO MEAT PLATTER WITH POTATO SALAD AND SMOKED CABBAGE JOSHUA AND JADE GONZALES AND DAUGHTER CORA

CHEESECAKE HSTL When Joshua and Jade Gonzales’ children opened a weekend lemonade stand near Tradewinds Elementary in 2019, the family had so much fun Joshua began adding a few baked goods to the menu. “Joshua has always made really good cheesecake,” his wife says. The neighborhood quickly agreed, and Joshua found himself having to take B&E recommends: time off from his job at a local prison in order to fulfill orders from friends and family.

Joshua and Jade “I was like, ‘I gotta go do my cheesecake hustle,” he says. The couple’s food truck, occasionally offer a Cheesecake HSTL, grew from that humble start. In January, Joshua quit his job to “Nacho HSTL” side menu. take the hustle full time. “We went into this head-first, all risk,” he says. “We’ve Toppings include been flying.” pulled pork and cool When we found the truck at Street Volkswagen, the line was five deep despite the avocado drizzle.

95-degree heat radiating off the parking lot. The simple Dulce de Leche is a customer favorite, but we were drawn to a slice of Eat My Shorts, a secret menu item that combines chocolate and caramel sauces with crumbled Butterfinger. The wait was worth it.

There still aren’t too many dessert-based food trucks in the city, so if you see this one around town, hustle over and grab a slice. cheesecakehstl.com

EAT MY SHORTS CHEESECAKE

CHRIS AND MEGHAN KIZER

“I was a little apprehensive about the name,” says Chris Kizer, who owns Dirty Uncle Monty’s with his wife, Meghan. She came up with B&E recommends: the name while telling their friend, Montgomery, about the 31-foot, The Spicy Chicken 1971 Airstream Sovereign they noticed for sale along Interstate 40.

Sandwich, breaded with No one wants “dirty” associated with food prep. “I fought it for crumbled pork rinds, about six months,” Chris admits. has an unforgettable Eventually he came around, hoping the classic RV’s enormous bite thanks to the corn windows and exterior gleam would dispel misconceptions about relish topping and ghost hygiene. Kizer has a culinary school background and executive chef pepper aioli. experience at local country clubs. His high-end approach to food also upends expectations. In fact, he envisioned the truck as more of a mobile kitchen designed to cater weddings. He’s used it to prepare and serve five-course dinners.

The food itself—almost entirely organic—looks and tastes upscale at an approachable price point. The fresh-made, D.U.M. Sliders feature Black Angus beef cooked in a cast-iron skillet, topped with smoky aioli. Chris and Meghan describe their truck as “Amarillo’s first fine-dining Airstream.” Fact check: Accurate. dirtyunclemontys.com, 806.410.4656

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DIRTY UNCLE MONTY ’S

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B&E recommends: Order the Mac Attack, which is mac-andcheese topped with crispy bacon. Then add chicken and chopped jalapeños as add-ons.

You’re welcome.

YOLOS

YOLANDA GRAZIER AND STACIE HALL

First things first: The name isn’t really #YOLO, as in “you only live once.” (Though that’s the only excuse you need to try the indulgent PB&J French Toast served from this bright red, 16-foot trailer.) “Yolo” actually combines the names of owner Yolanda Grazier with her husband, Logan. After a long career managing restaurants for national chains, “I got tired of climbing someone else’s ladder,” Yolanda says.

Two years ago, she realized Amarillo’s food truck scene lacked any breakfast-focused trucks. That became Yolos early specialty, with customers returning for the enormous Palo Duro Burrito. “Breakfast appeals to all people,” she says.

Lately, though, customers have been enjoying lunch options like the Chicken Lil Fries, which put a West Texas spin (cream gravy and fried chicken bits) on classic Canadian poutine. When not working a private event, Grazier and Stacie Hall dish it out at the corner of 45th and Georgia every Friday and most Saturdays.

In early June, Yolos impressed at the invitation-only Food Truck Championship of Texas in Graham, as one of 43 trucks serving 3,000 people. “It was a nonstop line for seven hours,” Grazier says. That’s a lot of breakfast burritos.

806.626.9813

THE HOT DOG SHACK GRACIE HOMER, ALIC AND WHITNEY ESPARZA, AND DAUGHTER AMELIA

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B&E recommends: We loved the crunch of the Hot Cheetos Dog, an all-beef dog topped with nacho cheese, Hot Cheetos and mustard.

Not a hot dog fan? The Frito Pie is delish.

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Not everyone will admit it, but Alic Esparza doesn’t care. He has always loved Wienerschnitzel. When he, his wife Whitney, and his mom, Gracie Homer, began thinking about launching a food trailer, he couldn’t stop thinking hot dogs should be their focus. But not just any hot dogs. These are alpha dogs.

The name “Hot Dog Shack” doesn’t suggest a deluxe menu, but that’s exactly what you’ll find. The family-owned trailer is one of the resident weekend trucks at Starlight Ranch Event Center (see sidebar), and their over-the-top, colorful approach to the simple hot dog has won rave reviews from concertgoers as well as Starlight owner Bobby Lee. “We try to be creative,” Alic says. “We want to make our mark.”

For instance, instead of serving food in a closed container, all hot dogs come in an open boat to show off the fresh vegetables and presentation. “The colorfulness is very appetizing,” says Gracie. “There’s so much competition [at Starlight] that we want it to look so good.” It also tastes so good, from the heat of the Junkyard Dog—which is topped with Fritos and fresh jalapeños—to Alic’s version of the classic chili-cheese dog.

806.681.0532

REAGAN’S BRICK OVEN

THE HALE FAMILY: SAMUEL, TAYLOR, TATE AND JENNIFER

Don’t call it a food truck. This is, in the words of owner Samuel Hale, “a restaurant that can move.” He and his wife, Jennifer, launched their business six years ago. They worked with Greg Hudspeth at City Machine & Welding to customize a 20-foot shipping container with enormous windows and a wood-fired brick oven.

Hale says the vehicle is one of maybe 10 shipping container food trucks in the world. It’s definitely the only food truck on the radar of The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, which gave the Hales written permission to use the late president’s face and name in their marketing. “It’s not political,” Samuel says. “It’s time-based. We think of the eighties as a slower time. There weren’t mobile devices. Families sat down and ate together at the table.”

Around Reagan’s, those tables are a little unconventional. The Hales’s teen sons, Tate and Taylor, set out vintage ironing boards to give patrons a place for drinks and pies. The tight family makes a tight crew. “We can make a single pie in four minutes,” Jennifer says. Samuel estimates they send 90 pies an hour through their oven. That includes the popular Honey Badger, a pizza with Italian sausage and pepperoni, drizzled with hot honey. reagansbrickoven.com, 806.433.5793

ANTONIO SAN MARTIN, MARTHA BARRAGAN AND CARLOS MUÑOZ

MARGHERITA PIZZA

B&E recommends: Don’t want to wait? Call in your order ahead of time. During our photo shoot, multiple customers pulled up to grab already-prepared orders.

B&E recommends: Simple is good, and Reagan’s basic basil-and-mozzarella Margherita pizza tasted as satisfying as pies we’ve had in New York’s Little Italy.

Let’s get this out of the way first: Carlos Muñoz owns Hibachi Kingdom, Amarillo’s first Hibachi-style Japanese food truck. Muñoz is not Japanese, which sometimes surprises customers who peek in the window to watch their food being prepared. But Muñoz is no stranger to the open, teppanyaki cooking style.

Muñoz hails from Monterrey, Mexico, where he started cooking in 1989 at the first Japanese restaurant to open in that city. The six members of his team also boast extensive backgrounds, including Antonio San Martin, who learned under Muñoz at Kabuki in Amarillo.

This family-owned truck opened in November 2020 and is parked full time at 10th and Buchanan, a block south of the ballpark. “It’s a busy street, lots of office traffic, the stadium,” Muñoz says. “There’s no need to move it.”

Even so, he’s planning on introducing a second truck next summer to take his flavorful dishes to another part of town. We loved the House Special, which adds shrimp, chicken and beef to traditional fried rice with just a hint of garlic.

806.316.1487

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HIBACHI KINGDOM

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TANKS

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You won’t know it from the name, the menu, or really anything in the marketing of this hamburger-focused food truck with a simple menu. But owner Robert Kisselburg is practically Amarillo restaurant royalty. His grandparents were Denzel and Ann Arnold.

That’s right: He’s heir to the Arnold Burgers legacy.

Fans of that classic Washington Street dive will see and taste it immediately in the juicy, misshapen cheeseburger Kisselburg cooks. He has a lengthy background as a chef in area restaurants and customized his food truck from scratch, opening in early 2020. “Tank has always been my nickname,” he says. “I was ready to be my own boss and set my own hours.” But owning a small business isn’t always easy. With a food truck, he says, “I also have to be my own mechanic.”

We found him at lunch on a weekday near Affiliated Foods, where a steady stream of regulars crossed Washington Street to order the Tank Burger and Tank Melt. “It’s a standard burger,” Kisselburg says. If so, that standard was set by one of the most iconic burger joints in Amarillo history, and these Kisselburgers definitely stack up. tanksfoodtruck@yahoo.com

B&E recommends: Don’t hesitate to go for the add-ons, like mushrooms and freshroasted jalapeños.

Don’t hesitate to get napkins, either.

ROBERT KISSELBURG

THE TANK BURGER

FO O D E N T E RTA I N M E N T Over the past few years, Starlight Ranch Event Center has become the most consistent source of live music in Amarillo, from recent concerts featuring Asleep at the Wheel and Aaron Watson to events like Muttfest and this month’s Hey Amarillo BeerFest. But on any given weekend, it’s also the place to find some of the best food truck fare in Amarillo.

Starlight owner-operator Bobby Lee—no stranger to food as one of the family members behind The Big Texan—has spent several seasons experimenting with the best way to feed concert and festival attendees. This summer, he began offering long-term residencies to a handful of carefully chosen food trucks. It’s been an enormous success.

These include the gourmet street-style tacos of Taco Guapo, unique hand-held comfort food from Yum in a Bun, and what Lee calls “designer hot dogs” from The Hot Dog Shack. (Lee describes that truck’s chili-cheese Junkyard Dog this way: “It’s not food. It’s art.” Read more about The Hot Dog Shack on page 42.)

“The level of the food makes for a really good experience with people going [to Starlight events],” Lee says. “It’s been fun and profitable for them. As our crowds get larger, their sales are increasing every week.”

The amount of volume these trucks manage on Friday and Saturday nights at Starlight is significant. In fact, the event center has a waiting list of trucks hoping to gain a spot on the residency list. “I love having my food truck at Starlight,” says Yum in a Bun owner Tanya Mabe. “We get to meet everyone, get to hear the band. We’re in between the bar and the bathroom, so I’m going to get [customers] either way.”

Lee has high expectations for the mobile businesses he chooses to showcase. “I’ve eaten at a lot of different food trucks around town,” he says. “The one thing I really emphasize is that they’ve got to have great food and they have to get it out quick. Otherwise, you’re not going to be able to get the volume you need. You have to turn that food before the show or between acts.”

Food trucks thrive on limited menus and over-the-top presentation, and that visual appeal works well at an event or concert. “When people see these food items going out, that’s what sells it,” he says. The trucks have proven to be so popular, Lee now locates each band’s merchandise booth in the middle of the food trucks. “It makes it more like a carnival midway,” he says.

In fact, thanks to a new kettle corn purveyor on site, it even smells like a carnival midway. That’s all part of the experience, Lee explains. “I call it food entertainment, because that’s what it is.”

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PROVIDED PHOTOS

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(BACK ROW): JEFF REID, KYLA FRYE, AND DAVID TERRY; (FRONT ROW): TAYLOR NEWCOMER, BRITTNEY LEE AND DEBBIE HOLMES-BOWLING

20 YEARS AND $200+ MILLION WT Enterprise Center celebrates its 20th year

BY JASON BOYETT

“W

hen we started, entrepreneur was not even a word most people understood,” says David Terry. “But now, in the ‘Shark Tank’ generation, people understand it. They know that’s where real wealth is being built.”

On the cusp of the organization’s 20th anniversary, Terry is talking about the founding of the WT Enterprise Center in 2001.

Back then, it was named the Rural Agricultural Business Incubator and Accelerator, the product of a $1.5 million appropriation from the State of Texas and a partnership between Terry and his mentor, the late Don Taylor. Taylor had been the director of the Small Business Development Center and the author of the best-selling book Up Against the Walmarts. He also syndicated a weekly newspaper column about business. Terry was a young financial consultant who’d started collaborating with Taylor to give presentations and lead seminars for small business owners.

In the process, the duo kept encountering rural leaders— enterprising farmers and ranchers like Gary Sage—who turned out to be natural problem-solvers with creative product or service

ideas. “They had things they were working on but didn’t quite understand the commercial value of [what they had developed],” Terry says. “First we were looking at manufacturers. I remember Don saying he had a vision for a place where they could come together and grow. There was a lot of entrepreneurial capacity here.”

That vision evolved into a community far bigger than rural applications and manufacturing. Over the next two decades, this business incubator gave rise to a variety of local businesses, from inventors to financial consultants to mechanical engineers.

It helped launch global enterprises, technology companies and food products. But more than that, it became a central player in an entrepreneurial ecosystem that continues to transform the economy of Amarillo, Canyon and the larger Panhandle.

This summer, despite multiple changes in leaders, the WT Enterprise Center celebrates two decades of influence. Founder Don Taylor passed away in 2006 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Terry took his place, serving as executive director for the next 10 years (he’s now the CEO of the Paul F. and Virginia J. Engler Foundation). Jeff Reid succeeded Terry as executive director

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

What does that “something” look like? It looks like an upstart business owner enrolling in the 18-month Growth Academy, opening the door to access to CEOs, mentors, business assessments and other resources designed to educate entrepreneurs on all the things they don’t already know.

It looks like technology startups from other parts of Texas relocating to Amarillo for three months as part of WTEC’s successful WIRE Accelerator cohort, a hands-on training program that helps early stage companies solve problems, embrace opportunities and even get access to financial capital.

It looks like the dozens of clients who have taken advantage of the Enterprise Center’s 40,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space, training and conference rooms, warehouse, and even a shareduse commercial kitchen—all while benefiting from ongoing coaching and support.

It looks like the busy collaborative atmosphere of Revolution at 800, a coworking space on Polk Street, where clients can rent private offices and dedicated desks, with access to all-important coffee and wifi in the heart of downtown Amarillo.

It looks like the now-legendary Amarillo EnterPrize Challenge, a community business plan competition that actually predates the Enterprise Center itself. This 25-year-old partnership with the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation and local banks allows budding entrepreneurs to submit business plans to a panel of judges.

Winners receive a share of $500,000 in forgivable capital to inject into their businesses.

In fact, three of the center’s core programs—Growth Academy, WIRE Accelerator, and Revolution at 800—are new. They launched in 2019 and weren’t part of the organization at the beginning. That shows how, like any entrepreneurial experiment, the Enterprise Center itself has evolved, expanded and refocused over the years.

THE TAYLOR LEGACY

“We didn’t have all those resources when we started,” Terry says.

What they had was Don Taylor’s energy and drive. This educator and business consultant had a passion for walking alongside entrepreneurs as they started a business, or as they attempted to grow an existing business. The early Enterprise Center attracted

Like mortgage and connoisseur, the word entrepreneur is borrowed from the French language. It derives from the French verb entreprendre, which means “to undertake.”

It made its first entrance into English usage around the 18th century, often in the same context as the term adventurer. Entrepreneurs were seen as risk-takers who saw opportunity in new markets. Like the explorers of old, they were comfortable traveling in the direction of uncertainty.

clients who knew there was a portion of their business model they couldn’t quite get their hands around—for instance, an inventor with a great product but no idea how to market it, or an excellent salesperson who got tangled up with the accounting or management side of a business. Taylor, Terry and their successors helped companies like Sage Oil Vac and Altura Engineering get their business ideas off the ground (see next page). Today, existing clients like Skip’s Salsa and Kids Faith Krate are benefiting from Frye’s leadership and the WTEC ecosystem.

“From the very beginning, we knew we had the resources in Amarillo to help entrepreneurs. But there have been new programs, new ideas and new innovations still coming available. The script is still being written,” Terry says.

Despite the changes, he says Don Taylor’s character still flows throughout every part of the organization. “Don used to always say, ‘Use it up, wear it out, make do and do without,’” Terry remembers. “[The Enterprise Center] still operates with that mentality. We learned to use the strengths of the people that we had, from Don to me to Jeff to Kyla in all the transitions of leadership. Being a part of the community, having a heart for people and that open-door policy, listening to people—those are all the things Don Taylor strongly believed in.”

Aaron Sage is the CEO of Sage Oil Vac and the son of Gary Sage, the very first Enterprise Center client. He and his father met with Taylor on a regular basis in the early days, even officing next to each other at the WTEC. “Don didn’t mince words,” Aaron Sage says. “He would find a great way to challenge you if you were going about something the wrong way. He would say, ‘Gary, do you want to go from building junk in the barn to having a real manufacturing business?’ It was his way of saying you’ve got to step on to the next level in your business.

You can’t think of it the way you did out on the farm.”

That was 20 years ago, but more recently, that perspective remains central to the day-to-day incubation and operation at the Center. Altura Engineering started in 2013 and maintained offices at the Enterprise Center until 2019. “Being in that ecosystem, there was always some event going on,” says David Salas, one of Altura’s three founders. “Advisors would show up for meetings or you would just run into them in the hallways. It didn’t matter what industry you’re in—whether you’re a service company or you’re producing a

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in 2017. The current leader of the Enterprise Center, Kyla Frye, has been with the organization since graduating from West Texas A&M University. She worked her way up from client services coordinator in 2012 and took the reins of the organization in 2019.

The organization’s leadership, programs and focus have changed over the decades, but the larger purpose of the Enterprise Center remains intact. “We provide resources to every single entrepreneur in the journey, from the startup stage to succession mode and handing it off to a family member. Wherever they are in that journey, we have something to help them,” Frye says.

WHERE DID THE WORD ENTREPRENEUR COME FROM?

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A FUEL AND LUBE TRUCK PRODUCED BY SAGE OIL VAC

product—having access to an advisor makes all the difference.”

TIMES OF TRANSITION

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SAGE OIL VAC

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The very first client of Don Taylor and David Terry’s organization, Sage Oil Vac had its origins on a farm outside Dalhart. Farmer Gary Sage was frustrated with the mess that resulted when he changed the oil in his irrigation engine, so in 1993 he came up with a lube exchange system that kept the process clean. Impressed, his contemporaries throughout the Midwest began asking him to create oil vacuum systems for use on their farms.

“He would farm during the farming season, and then the farm hands would get in the shop and build 10 to 15 units in between,” says his son, Aaron, now the company’s CEO. “It was his vision to grow from changing oil on tractors and irrigation engines in the Panhandle to changing oil on tanks, bulldozers and trucks.”

A faithful reader of Don Taylor’s GARY SAGE’S ORIGINAL OIL VAC syndicated column, he called the business consultant out of the blue and asked him for advice on his side venture. As the relationship grew, Gary moved to Amarillo in 2001 and decided to pursue the business full time. Aaron followed him, joining the new business a few months later. They officed next to Taylor and David Terry at the newly formed Enterprise Center. “Dad was the inventor and product developer, the key to the mechanical side of the product. I was the business manager, the one having the conversations about financial management, planning sales and marketing,” says Aaron.

Their proximity to Taylor and Terry proved critical during those early years. “It was a unique situation. We had such access to them, and we wore them out,” Aaron remembers. “We would talk about marketing strategy and sales strategy. We asked about every single aspect of our business in 2002, every detail.”

Sage Oil Vac operated out of the Enterprise Center until 2005. But Aaron Sage maintained a monthly coaching relationship with David Terry for another five years. Aaron says that mentorship filled in the knowledge gaps he and his father lacked. “If you are an entrepreneur, most of the time you’re going to have a bent toward one part of your business. My dad was very mechanical and into the technology and equipment, but he didn’t have as much interest in the long-term planning of the business. That wasn’t his thing. What the Enterprise Center did was provide a balance.”

Gary Sage retired in 2016 and Aaron took over as CEO. Today, this familyowned business operates out of its own facility on Lakeside Drive, producing custom lube trucks, trailers and carts, with dealers all over the United States and clients including the Army Reserve. In 2007, Sage Oil Vac expanded into wind energy by developing a gearbox oil exchange system that’s now used all over the world.

Frye says one of the most impactful elements of that evolving ecosystem is a brand-new program called the Founders Club. Launched in 2019, this group is the Enterprise Center’s effort to provide services to companies who have already “graduated” from its program. These former clients must have more than $500,000 in annual sales revenue and at least five fulltime employees. “It’s serving second-stage entrepreneurs,” she explains. It gives successful business owners a platform to engage with their peers. “They can talk about challenges, help each other and have that bond. Entrepreneurship is a hard road. It’s not easy. It takes a lot of highlevel risks, so it’s important for them to make that connection.”

Importantly, these Founders Club members continue giving back to the Enterprise Center.

They serve as mentors for other WTEC programs, participate in CEO roundtables and interact with new entrepreneurs.

“That’s one of the things that distinguishes Amarillo from other communities,” adds David Terry. “It’s not a community where everybody has to take credit. We all play really well in the sandbox together. The Enterprise Center has played a part in championing that entrepreneurial spirit and innovation.”

Observing the ways WTEC has expanded since those early days, Terry points back to that same innovative mindset. “We’ve adapted and overcome,” he says. “We haven’t been at the forefront of any great idea. We just packaged a lot of really good programs into something that

2018 ENTERPRIZE CHALLENGE WINNERS

ALTURA ENGINEERING & DESIGN David Salas, Jacob Moreno and Chris Lopez first met while working at the Phillips 66 refinery in Borger. They eventually spread out among different employers, but realized that those Texas Panhandle companies were always hiring engineering design firms from bigger cities like Houston. There were plenty of talented technicians and engineers in the Panhandle. Why shouldn’t those nearby refineries and petrochemical industries hire a local project development and design firm instead?

The trio teamed up in 2013 and pitched their business in that year’s EnterPrize Challenge, winning a $100,000 grant for their business model. The three principals began hiring and spent the next several years operating out of the WTEC headquarters on North Western Street. By 2017, they had 22 employees and a rapidly expanding client base. By 2019, they outgrew that original office space and moved to a location in the FirstBank Southwest Tower. Today, Altura Engineering & Design has more than 40 employees and just opened a satellite office in El Paso.

“The Enterprise Center has been so important to us,” says David Salas on a hectic Thursday afternoon. “We were all working full-time jobs, but they gave us that opportunity and, by getting the grant, we had something worth trying. It motivated us to take that leap of faith.”

Altura made the annual Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies every year from 2017 to 2020, and has begun to diversify its client base beyond the oil and gas industries. “We’ve had periods where our growth has been a little faster than we wanted to, but the foundation we built at the WT Enterprise Center helped us navigate through that,” says Salas.

He, Moreno and Lopez stay involved with the Enterprise Center as mentors, while continuing to rely on coaching as Altura evolves. “When we get into situations where we’re thinking, ‘What do we do next?’ we know it’s time to bring in an advisor. The WT Enterprise Center is always a part of that.”

He points out that 45 percent of new businesses fail within the first five years, an outcome he and his co-founders were grateful to avoid. “That’s significant. But by being involved in an incubator, you’re giving yourself a better chance to make it,” he says. “The problems you have in any business are similar from one company to another. If you’re willing to be coached, incubation makes all the difference.”

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JACOB MORENO, DAVID SALAS AND CHRIS LOPEZ

PHOTO BY ANGELINA MARIE

worked for Amarillo. That’s entrepreneurial in and of itself.”

After navigating the closures and challenges of 2020, Frye says she and her team are continuing to put a lot of thought into what comes next. “What we want to focus on is getting really good at what we do,” she says. Having spent the last couple of years introducing new programs like WIRE Accelerator and Founders Club, the Center is now refining those existing resources. “We want to make them great, so our members get a lot of value. At the heart of it, we’re providing entrepreneurs with the resources they need, and the adaptability to lean in and figure out where to go from here.”

In looking back at the organization’s history, Terry keeps returning to the biblical story of Moses and Aaron. Moses died while the Israelites were wandering in the desert, so Aaron, his right-hand man, ended up being the one to lead Israel into the Promised Land. The organization started with Don Taylor, but Taylor got sick before it truly reached its stride. “Don was not able to see it through, but he invested in me,” says Terry. “I had to turn it over to someone like Kyla, and certainly she’s got a different skill set than me. But she’s in a good place, ‘for such a time as this,’ to take it to another level. I’ve seen enough transition and understand the need for organizations to change and grow.”

Like Amarillo itself, the Enterprise Center has come a long way since 2001. The business world keeps changing and the needs of its clients keep changing, too, so the organization has grown in tandem with the city. Amarillo won’t be the same in 20 years. Neither will the local business community. But if we’re lucky, the Enterprise Center will still be innovating as it provides resources, coaching and opportunities for these homegrown entrepreneurs.

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LEAP OF

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F R O M TA N Z A N I A TO PA LO D U R O, A YO U N G ENTREPRENEUR PURSUES THE AMERICAN DREAM

decided to bet on myself,” says Aloni Ndihokubwayo.

This 2019 Palo Duro High School graduate is currently interning for a large clothing brand based in Dallas. He’s gaining exposure to every step of the retail process, from design and manufacturing to fulfillment and business management.

But unlike most interns, he’s not doing it because he hopes to someday be in the clothing business. Aloni is already in the clothing business. He has established a popular and rapidly growing clothing brand.

He is doing it, now, today. He’s just trying to learn how to do it better.

Also, Aloni Ndihokubwayo is just 21 years old. But the rarity of a recent graduate launching and managing a successful clothing line is only part of the story. First, some history.

BY JASON BOYETT

CULTURE SHOCK

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For more than a decade starting in the 1990s, a civil war rocked the east-central African nation of Burundi. Hundreds of thousands died, and many desperate families fled the conflict only to end up in refugee camps in Tanzania. Aloni’s family was among them. He was born into one of those camps in 2000 and spent the first six years of his life there.

A connection to European Christian missionaries eventually helped Aloni’s father, Arthur Rukundo, find his way into the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program, and in 2006, the family arrived in Dallas, Texas. “It was a culture shock,” Aloni says today. “Growing up in Africa, I just had not really seen buildings and cities and things of that nature.”

In fact, he’d only seen the temporary buildings of refugee camps. That’s all he knew.

The family spoke Kirundi and French and struggled to learn English, but a local refugee host family in the Metroplex took Aloni, his parents, and a younger sibling under their wing.

Rukundo and his family began to adjust and find their place. A few years later, in 2012, Arthur heard about a job opportunity in Amarillo at the Tyson plant. “Because of the language barrier, it’s really hard for refugees to find a job, even if you have a degree,” Aloni explains.

But Aloni’s father took a chance on the job opportunity and moved to Amarillo on his own for a few months, where he connected to other families with ties to Tanzania or Burundi.

“There were a lot of people within our community, people that our parents knew early. It was very comfortable moving here,” Aloni says. Eventually, he and the rest of the family joined Arthur, moving into an apartment complex in north Amarillo.

Aloni ended up at Travis Middle School. He had established close friendships in Dallas, but struggled to connect with

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Part of that influence came from an entrepreneurship class he took at Palo Duro during his junior year, taught by Russell Camp.

Early in the semester, Camp asked class members to come up with an idea for a business they would like to start. Some students might not have taken this assignment as literally or seriously—most just want to turn in their homework and move on—but Aloni turned the question over and over in his mind.

From Tanzania to Dallas, he’d watched Arthur, his dad, casually buy and sell things. Aloni really admired that spirit. But what might that look like for him, as a high schooler?

What would he pursue, if given the chance? “That question just was on my mind all day. Everybody else was, like, ‘whatever’ but I really wondered what I could do,” Aloni remembers. He asked a friend about it, and the friend pointed out that Aloni had always enjoyed clothing and fashion. “What about T-shirts or a clothing brand?” the friend suggested. Aloni lit up at the idea.

Again, this was just homework. The “clothing brand” was a theoretical business idea for an entrepreneurship class. Aloni completed the assignment.

But Aloni says the intensity that drove him in that assignment

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peers in Amarillo. Even so, his English improved quickly.

He got involved in school athletics. He became more confident, and began to understand how the move had been good for his family.

But it was not until Aloni entered high school, attending Palo Duro, that he really began to come into his own.

“He has an effervescence,” says Tricia Evans, the English/ Language Arts learning leader at Palo Duro. She’s been teaching for more than two decades but says she has rarely encountered a student as mature as Aloni—and she didn’t even have him as a student. “He’s just a kid that people are pulled toward. I noticed him in classes, in hallways. You can’t help but notice the sparkle,” she says.

Palo Duro has a high concentration of students from refugee families, and Evans typically encounters them because of the language barrier. But Aloni stood out because he learned and grew so quickly.

Aloni said going to school in the presence of other refugee students was a big part of his education. “PDHS really influenced me to take pride that it’s OK to be different,” Aloni says. He interacted with other refugees there, students from Thailand, China and other parts of Africa. “I think the culture that’s being cultivated there is strong. It’s something I wish every high school had. When you’re young and exposed to different cultures, it helps you see from a different perspective. I didn’t know there could be such a huge difference in our stories. That’s something our community and our nation needs. It really influenced me.”

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comes from a mindset unique to refugees like him. “[Being in] the United States definitely has given us opportunities to really, really do something better for ourselves and for our family. By taking advantage of education, by taking advantage of the things that are free here, we are able to succeed. When immigrants come here, they are not playing games. They’re driven. They are hungry,” he says.

Aloni was hungry, too, and he just couldn’t let go of the clothing company idea. It outlasted that assignment and that semester’s entrepreneurship class. He designed a few T-shirts and started selling them from his car and backpack, making personal deliveries to friends and family members.

That’s when Evans first encountered Aloni. She remembers hearing him talk about his clothing company aspirations when he started selling shirts. “These weren’t the typical dreams that weren’t very well thought out. He had plans. He was amazing to listen to and so enthusiastic as he spoke of them. That was impressive,” Evans says.

But a few sales from his backpack weren’t close to the culmination of his idea. Entrepreneurship—especially related to clothing and fashion—started to feel like a calling. That’s a religious word, and for Aloni, it was religious.

His family had been Catholic, but during his teenage years, Aloni began attending Messiah’s House, an evangelical Christian church in Amarillo. “I fell in love with that form of Christianity,” he says. “Seeing from a different Christian perspective sparked something in me—a curiosity for Christianity and a passion for Jesus.”

It also sparked within him an interest in the places where faith and fashion intersected. Within the national culture, however, that intersection mostly disappointed him. “I was frustrated with the lack of creativity within Christian retail. I’m a firm believer that, as believers who have a relationship with the Creator, our creativity should really be set apart,” Aloni says. “I decided that, if I can’t see [a clothing line] that is what I want, then I’m going to create one.”

Aloni graduated from Palo Duro in 2019 and enrolled at Oral Roberts University, a private, evangelical university in Tulsa. He had applied with an intent to major in international ministry.

But quickly he changed his major to entrepreneurship, came up with a name for his potential clothing line—F8TH Industry— and sketched out a cross-shaped logo.

Then in 2020, during the pandemic, Aloni took even more tangible steps. He bought f8thindustry.com. He started putting the logo on shirts and hoodies. He built a sophisticated website to sell them, promoting F8TH Industry as a line of products to give modern believers a unique way to express their faith. “My heart is for people to be empowered when they wear my stuff, to be able to walk and live out their faith in every aspect of life— not just in the church, but to take the church out into the world and make it a conversation,” he says.

He hired professional photographers and enlisted local models to showcase his products, filling the F8TH Industry social media feeds with high-end promotions. Orders began

KNEE PROBLEMS? to roll in, so Aloni set his sights even higher. He didn’t just want to sell T-shirts. He wanted to build a lifestyle brand and a global, faithbased movement.

EDUCATION AND BELIEF

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That brings us to today, just a year after Aloni launched F8TH Industry. He’s still fulfilling online orders from across the United States. But he’s doing it while taking a deep dive into the fashion world during his internship in Dallas. This fall, he intends to pause his college education so he can focus on his business. “You can teach people to run a business, but entrepreneurship comes from the inside,” he says. “It’s a fire that’s birthed from the struggle, through the trenches. Many of the things I’m learning within my own business have come from personal experiences.”

In other words, not from the classroom, where he didn’t always get satisfying answers to his specific, road-tested business questions. “I’m still an advocate for education,” Aloni insists. “That’s why I’m here learning. But I’ve decided to take a chance on my own dream and a chance on the business God has put in my heart.

College is not going anywhere.” In other words, it’ll still be there when and if he needs it.

Despite the demands of his internship, F8TH Industry is still expanding and finding new fans. “It’s a very humble experience for me, honestly, to see how quickly it’s grown,” he says. “I do believe God’s hand is on it. ” As F8TH Industry becomes more profitable, Aloni hopes someday to launch a physical storefront back in Amarillo. But ultimately, he wants to use any profits to help other nonprofits and missionfocused enterprises whose goals line up with his own brand. “I want to extend the boundaries of just being a clothing brand. I want [F8TH Industry] to be something so much bigger than that at the end of the day. I hope my brand reaches a place where it can just speak for itself,” he says.

Tricia Evans has no doubt that day will come. “We’re all going to look up someday and say, ‘We knew Aloni.’ He’s just so formulaic about how he pursues every little iota of his business plan. Nothing about it is haphazard,” she says. “That’s why so many people are cheering him on.”

After arriving in Texas with little more than the shirt on his back, Aloni Ndihokubwayo is now in the business of putting shirts on other people’s backs. Those shirts have a message of faith, but Aloni himself displays another inspiring form of belief.

He believes in the value of experience.

He believes in the opportunity he’s found in America.

He believes in himself, his product, and his calling.

Entrepreneurs are risk-takers. Faith itself only exists in the presence of uncertainty. But if nothing else, Aloni Ndihokubwayo is sure of at least one big thing: “Betting on yourself,” he says, “is never a risk.”

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WAYNE SNIDER (RIGHT) AND MARVIN CARR OF WAYNE’S WAGON WORKS.

BY JASON BOYETT

D

orothy nearly died on March 13, 2021. That Saturday night, seven tornadoes touched down in the Texas Panhandle, including at least two that stormed the rim of Palo Duro Canyon State Park. One twister blew through Los Cedros Ranch, home of Cowgirls and Cowboys in the West. That’s Dorothy’s home.

SPLINTERS IN THE RUBBLE

P H OT O

The tornado sucked Dorothy out of a shed and tossed her out into a pasture, rolling her over several times. Dorothy is old, and the tornado just about killed her.

Thankfully, Dorothy survived—just barely. A 94-year-old man named Wayne made sure of that.

Dorothy is a 19th century Studebaker chuckwagon.

VI D E D

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HOW DOROTHY SURVIVED THE TORNADO

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PHOTOS BY ANGELINA MARIE

Seventeen years ago, Phyllis Nickum Golden bought an antique A FULLY RESTORED wagon from Wayne Snider, a local DOROTHY chuckwagon craftsman and the proprietor of Wayne’s Wagon Works. She used it on a weekly basis at Cowgirls and Cowboys in the West, her tourism company, where she introduces a regular stream of visitors—many from out of state and some from out of the country—to the stories and traditions of the Panhandle.

In addition to horseback riding along the rim of Palo Duro Canyon, Golden also hosts private chuckwagon breakfasts, dinners and more at her ranch. These are a vital part of her business.

Then the tornado tossed her beloved, vintage chuckwagon across the ranch.

“My barn and headquarters and windmill took a direct hit,” Golden says. Her ranch house and horses were spared, but the wagon wasn’t so lucky. “In the rubble, we found the chassis of our beloved 1800s chuckwagon. We found the frame out in the pasture, with pieces strewn over a mile away.”

The cast-iron frame withstood the violent winds, but the wagon’s time-aged wood components just splintered. Along with her employees and neighbors, Golden began picking up the pieces. Literally. “There were just hundreds of pieces, splinters of wood, from an inch long to four feet, but the only thing left was the chassis and wheels,” she says. “The force of that tornado was just amazing.”

That’s when she called her old friend, Wayne Snider. The proprietor of Wayne’s Wagon Works, Snider is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on chuckwagon restoration and repair, and just happens to live here in Amarillo. He’d sold her the wagon initially, and Golden reached out to him first.

If you’ve ever seen an authentic chuckwagon at a local ranch, museum or private Western collection, chances are good Wayne Snider has had his hands on it. He’s lived in Amarillo since returning from World War II, and spent decades working for Gulf Oil. From 1952 to 1959, he managed the Gulf Oil service station on Old Route 66 near Ninth and Bell, across from what is now the Thomas E. Creek VA Medical Center. After that, he spent a career as a petroleum wholesaler—otherwise known as a “jobber”—for Gulf Oil. Snider is also one of the longest-tenured members of the Will Rogers Range Riders. He joined the club in 1954, and in 1965 helped restore a chuckwagon for Range Riders events. Over the years, he ended up repairing and restoring that wagon multiple times. The process hooked him. By the 1980s, he was buying and selling wagons as his career wound down.

He retired from the oil company in 1991 and immediately started a new wagon business. That old Gulf Oil station was no longer in use, so 15 years ago, Snider bought it and turned its three garage bays into his workspace. Today, Wayne’s Wagon Works buys, restores and sells antique wagons to original condition. Since 1991, Snider has repaired more than 150 vintage chuckwagons. They can be found across the nation, with sales in 27 states, from California and Oregon to North Carolina.

It’s not just chuckwagons, either. On a hot weekday in June, Snider points to a wall inside his office featuring framed photos of almost all of the vehicles he’s restored. “There’s a military wagon.

That’s a hearse. That’s a stagecoach in Billings, Montana,” he says.

Nearby, Marvin Carr is cutting wood to restore a 102-year-old toy wagon. “This is the first toy wagon we’ve ever done,” says Carr, who retired a couple years ago after 50 years of truck and trailer parts sales at Tow Brothers Equipment. “The guy called and said, ‘I’ve got a wagon I want restored and painted.’ We were expecting a chuckwagon,” Carr says with a chuckle.

But they immediately got down to business, taking the antique,

“He was so important in the origination of the chuckwagon,” Phyllis Nickum Golden says before an event at Los Cedros Ranch. She’s talking about Charles Goodnight, the best-known rancher in local history— maybe even Texas history—who’s occasionally known as the “father of the Texas Panhandle.”

A legendary Texas Ranger, Goodnight turned to cattle after the Civil War, gathering feral Texas Longhorns into a herd and driving them to a New Mexico Army base with his business partner, Oliver Loving. Eventually, he and various partners would extend their cattle-driving territory from the Panhandle into Colorado and Wyoming. In 1876, Goodnight and John Adair founded the JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon, the first ranch in the Panhandle.

During his first cattle drive, Goodnight decided to add a gear and cooking box to the back of a standard wagon, already a workhorse on the frontier. “The [original] wagons were designed to carry 50 bushels of grain,” Marvin Carr says. “A bushel of grain weighed 60 pounds.

That’s standard.”

In adding the box, Goodnight invented the chuckwagon.

“It was the food truck of the Old West,” says Golden. This mobile cookstation became the centerpiece of any cattle drive and the gathering place of life on the trail.

A century before it transformed the life of Wayne Snider, this simple idea transformed how cowboys, loggers and others lived and worked in the West.

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TRUE CRAFTSMEN

THE FOOD TRUCK OF THE OLD WEST

PROVIDED PHOTO

She wasn’t hopeful. “I said, ‘Wayne, I don’t know if you can use all these pieces as parts for other chuckwagons, but they’re yours.’” Golden figured some of the undamaged parts could be used for another of Snider’s restoration projects, finding new life in an old vehicle.

Snider had other ideas. “The next day he called me and said, ‘Well, Marvin [Carr] and I think we can put this chuckwagon back together,’” Golden remembers. Marvin Carr is Snider’s assistant and a craftsman himself, handling the work that’s too physically taxing for Snider.

“And they did it,” Golden says. “They looked at all those pieces and knew exactly what they were. They put it back together.”

Barely two months later, Snider returned the restored chuckwagon back to Cowgirls and Cowboys in the West, just in time for the first chuckwagon event of the season.

She hadn’t named the chuckwagon before, but upon delivery, Carr suggested they call her Dorothy. Because she survived the tornado. Golden agreed.

“It’s pretty miraculous,” she says.

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child-size wagon apart and inspecting its pieces. Typically, they reuse all the hardware and any wood pieces that remain in good condition.

When necessary, the duo replaces warped or splintered wood. Then they repaint the wagon’s parts using specialty outdoor paint designed to withstand the sun and outdoor conditions.

“It’s $140 a gallon, usually green and red,” Snider explains. “It’s made for outside so it doesn’t fade. It’s hellacious good paint.”

Carr does much of the woodwork and assembly, while Snider still sands and preps the wood, handles sales and more. “We just put [the wagons] back together so they look good and they work,” says Snider.

Age has begun to catch up to him, he admits. “Hell, I’m 94 years old and I’m getting where I’m feeling it,” he says. But after spending a few weeks at home during the pandemic, Snider realized the shop activity was good for him. “I knew if I didn’t go to work I was gonna die. So I went back to work.” That good humor, experience and effort has made Snider one of the foremost authorities on chuckwagon restoration in the United States. “There isn’t anybody close,” he says. “It takes a real, true craftsman to build these chuck boxes.”

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A DYING BREED

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SNIDER SITS SURROUNDED BY PHOTOS OF THE VINTAGE WAGONS HE’S RESTORED THROUGH THE YEARS.

A 1902 WEBER WAGON, ORIGINALLY BUILT BY JOHN DEERE AND RESTORED BY WAYNE SNIDER.

Dorothy arrived at Wayne’s Wagon Works with little more than its original chassis. One of the wagon’s bolsters—the cross beams that support the wooden bed—had broken off. The wooden box and wagon floor had been destroyed. The metal brake handle had snapped. The wooden barrel rack was gone.

A few pieces remained, though. “The wooden plank seat the driver would ride on was intact,” Golden says. She estimates less than 50 percent of the original vehicle was usable.

“When that tornado sucked ol’ Dorothy out from under the shed, it rolled her out in the pasture and just wiped the top part out,” Carr says.

He and Snider hammered the metal pieces back into place, repurposed wooden topboards from a vintage John Deere wagon, cut and painted new sideboards from tight-grained poplar wood, and replaced the splintered pieces of the wood floor. They added new bows on top.

While a few hinges and the lid of the original wooden chuck box survived, Carr and Snider had to rebuild most of it from scratch. But after weeks of cutting, straightening, reinforcing and reassembly— along with a fresh coat of paint—they took Dorothy home.

Golden was thrilled and relieved. “Our events are historical. We tell them the history of the West. We tell them the history of the cattle drive and the horse, the Comanches, Palo Duro Canyon,” she says. “Of course, the history of our land includes the chuckwagon. That item itself was the cornerstone of the Western cattle drives and ranching work, so when people come for a chuckwagon event, we are able to show them. That’s what we do.”

Now, when she regales guests with the history of the chuckwagon, she also talks about folks like Wayne Snider, whose histories are just as colorful. “He’s loud and fun and a hard worker. He’s a character. He’s a dying breed,” Golden says.

There aren’t many chuckwagon craftsmen around these days because there just aren’t that many chuckwagons that made it to 2021, around 140 years since the vehicle’s heyday (see sidebar). Wayne Snider is one of the few such craftsmen left.

He gave life back to Dorothy. “It’s solid as can be,” Snider says.

Perhaps surprisingly, so is he. Snider and his business are still rolling. His passion for wagons like Dorothy—and the traditions they represent—ensure it.

SET UP TO SUCCEED:

ALLEN SHANKLES STANDS IN THE TERK LOBBY, WHERE ALT PERFORMERS DISPLAYED HUNDREDS OF THE PERSONAL THANK-YOU NOTES HE HAD WRITTEN THEM DURING HIS TENURE.

PHOTOS BY CHRISELDA

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ALLEN SHANKLES ON ALT, ITS HISTORY AND A FUTURE WITHOUT HIM

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BY JASON BOYETT

rea native Allen Shankles began his career as a professional actor, studying with the prestigious Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky, in the early 1980s. When that tenure ended, he came home to earn a little money and get married before moving to Los Angeles or New York City, where he dreamed of a career in entertainment.

Amarillo had other plans for him. When Shankles returned in 1983, Amarillo Little Theatre was struggling, near bankruptcy, and in need of a director for the four shows it had planned that year. West Texas State University theater professor Dr. Larry Menefee recommended Shankles for the part-time job. ALT could only hire him by the show, unsure they’d have enough money for a full season.

Thirty-eight years later, Shankles has stepped down as ALT’s Managing/Artistic Director, handing over the leadership of the acclaimed organization to Jason Crespin. During Shankles’ tenure, ALT rose to national prominence with an annual budget that puts it within an elite category of regional theaters. Our community theater is regularly recognized as one of the most successful in the nation, especially among cities with a similar population.

Eight years ago, Shankles was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and the progression of the disease—along with its unpredictable symptoms—have finally convinced him it’s time to slow down.

He’s not leaving ALT entirely, but officially handed his title to Crespin on July 1.

Right after the musical Matilda closed down the 2020-2021 ALT season with a sold-out run in May, Shankles sat down with Brick & Elm for an exclusive interview in his ALT office.

First, Allen, how are you feeling?

Parkinson’s is different for everybody. Some people have difficulty walking or have vision problems or swallowing problems. I don’t, so I feel very fortunate. I have a lot of uncontrolled movement but I’m still functioning. I’ve directed four shows this year, I play golf, but the beast is always on my tail. If my health were still as solid as it once was, I would probably not ever retire. But the reality is this doesn’t get better.

When did you start thinking about pulling back from leadership?

About two years ago. I decided that I wanted to have control of how this transition went. I met with Jason [Crespin] and started to put this plan into motion. I put my whole life into this [organization], my adult life, and I wanted to control the future as much as I could.

I’m a control freak for sure, so I want to know it’s gonna be in good hands when I walk out the door.

Let’s dig into the history. In 1983, you started working for ALT at night while working full time during the day for Canyon Glass Company. What was the biggest challenge for you during that first year?

People. There was nobody here. The first show I was to direct was Arsenic and Old Lace and there are 11 roles in that show. Eight people showed up at the auditions. I called a friend from college to play a role in the show, and then I played the other two. I built the set, I ran the light board, and during the performances I had to run downstairs and put a trench coat on and a hat and come on stage to be the cop, then run back around to turn the lights out at the end of .

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What was the biggest challenge of your most recent year at ALT? COVID. It will always be remembered as the most crazy season I’ve ever experienced. We dealt with fear, politics, a strict set of safety protocols. We let in an audience that was only 50 percent of our capacity. We had performers miss 10 days of rehearsals because they were quarantined. Our lead in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Tre Butcher, tested positive for COVID the day after we closed that show.

We lost $150,000 to $200,000 in ticket sales this season, but our contributions were about 50 percent more than we’ve ever had, so we’re actually going to end up with a better season than we had two years ago. That’s because of the generosity of our donors.

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You’ve directed hundreds of performances, including four in the most recent season. Which one was the most challenging to direct?

They all have their own problems and joys. But as a director, the biggest challenge is dealing with a large cast and a lot of spectacle.

We did a huge production of A Christmas Carol that had 70 to 80 people in the cast and about 60 were kids. Big productions always have low spots—where the show dips a little bit, where the professionalism drops. Those low spots are what remind people you’re a community theater.

That’s one of the things I talk about all the time. I don’t want to put any of our performers in a position to fail. I have never liked hearing, “Well, for a community theater, you’re amazing.” I don’t want any of those qualifications. I just want it to be amazing.

Do you feel like you’ve achieved that level of excellence?

Well, I shared that vision with everybody. One of the things I like to say a lot is, “Why not Amarillo?” There’s no reason we can’t have a successful theater in Amarillo. Once I decided we could do it, I just let go of any inhibitions and said, “Let’s make it happen.” You just have to find people who give a rip and pursue [excellence] with laser focus, then treat people how you want to be treated. It works. We’re one of the most respected community theaters in the country.

Look at our Academy. We’re growing our own talent right now and it’s turning out amazingly well. We’re populating some of our biggest shows with these kids who have been taking active training for 10 years. A lot of them are going off to big university programs, but more importantly, I think they’re being indoctrinated into how important it is to be an artist in this world. I’m trying to create people that will try to make the world better. Now that I’m suffering from a chronic illness, I’m even more keenly aware of that.

Beyond directing, you’ve personally performed in a variety of roles over the years. Is there a certain role that stands out as the most fulfilling?

Probably the C.S. Lewis role in Shadowlands [in the late 1990s].

That was the one that I got the best response from and that I enjoyed the most. The overall response to the show was extremely strong. For me as a performer, I thought it was one of my most consistent performances.

I remember that performance. It was powerful and so emotional.

It killed me.

Thank you. It was a great show.

During your tenure in leadership, ALT has added a lot of elements: The Adventure Space, the Academy, the Terk Lobby, online ticketing. Which has been most consequential?

Definitely the Adventure Space [a more experimental theater for contemporary productions, separate from ALT’s Mainstage]. That’s what I’m most proud of. That’s the thing I can hang my hat on. It allows us to do the edgier stuff—the stuff our actors love. We do the big stuff like Matilda at the Mainstage so we can do the smaller or darker shows over there. That’s where we go play.

I encounter theater people all the time who say, “I just can’t get an audience. The audience won’t support us.” I ask them what they’re doing and they’ll pull out four of these dark, twisted show titles. But you can’t survive on that. You have to balance your artistic desires with the ability to pay for it.

Speaking of “paying for it,” locals still talk about when Oprah Winfrey rented out ALT during her beef defamation trial in 1998, and taped The Oprah Show here for six weeks.

How do you remember those few months?

Well, I have some great stories, but it was ultimately not a good memory for me. We negotiated on this property for about three weeks, and I felt like the antagonist all the way through the process. We were basically out of business for six weeks. I don’t think we benefited from [the national exposure] as much as we should have.

What has this journey taught you about the city of Amarillo itself?

That there are a lot of generous people in the city. I think I’m an enigma in some ways because I’ve never been one to ask for money if I didn’t really need it. That’s not typical for the arts world. But it just takes time to develop [a donor base]. I’ve developed such a closeness with all these generous people, so now I can say, “I really need you to help me here.” And their response is “How much?”

Right now I’m trying to get new air conditioning. We’ve recently redone the lighting system, the sound system, we’ve added space over at the Adventure Space. My goal is to walk out of here and Jason just goes full speed ahead. That would be the best outcome.

I don’t want to sit at home and say, “Well, I hope they’re missing me.”

I want to say, “Ready? Go,” because I set them up to succeed.

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PHOTO BY MIKE AKINS

SHANKLES SYMBOLICALLY HANDS OVER THE ALT REIGNS DURING A CELEBRATION PERFORMANCE IN JUNE.

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Taco Dreams either dream about food or I dream about someone trying to kill me,” says Ruthie Landelius, a caterer at Black Fig Food and proprietor of the online cooking platform Elevated Plant Plate. Lucky for us, she recently dreamed about food. Specifically: tacos.

Landelius dreamed she was in the kitchen, making tacos with her late mother. The ingredients were incredibly colorful. After waking up from these regular food dreams, she tends to write down the dish and ingredients, then do a Google search to see if it’s been done before. “I’m always frustrated when it has,” she says.

That wasn’t the case with these fresh, vegetarian tacos, which include blackberries, pomegranate seeds, avocado and grill-charred corn. “I love all the colors involved. It’s all sorts of warm and cool colors combined together,” she says.

“That’s what makes the dish appealing.”

Landelius describes her dishes as a combination of mini-recipes put together—like the salsa, peach-chipotle drizzle and cilantro cream in this dish. “There are lots of components to it,” she says. As a result, these dreamy, colorful tacos are deliciously complex: sweet and sour, creamy and crunchy.

“These are the tacos I made in my dream,” says Landelius. Dreams do come true.

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kitch

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PHOTOS AND STYLING BY ANGELINA MARIE, SHORT EARED DOG PHOTOGRAPHY

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Vegan Dream Tacos

4 ears fresh corn, husks removed 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 (6-ounce) container fresh blackberries, sliced into small rounds 5 to 6 red radishes, julienned Pomegranate seeds (optional) 1 bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped (for cream sauce, peach salsa and garnish) 8 corn tortillas 4 avocados ½ teaspoon garlic salt Juice of 1 lime Fresh cracked black pepper

Heat grill for corn. Rub each corn cob with olive oil; set it aside on small plate. Place sliced blackberries, julienned radishes, pomegranate seeds, and chopped cilantro onto separate plate; set aside. Slice avocados in half, remove seed, and scoop out flesh into small bowl. Add garlic salt, lime juice, salt and pepper.

Gently mash mixture together; set aside. Grill corn cobs until charred on 2 or 3 sides. Transfer to cutting board. Using chef’s knife, carefully cut kernels from cobs, leaving kernels intact. Add to plate with blackberries, radishes, pomegranate seeds, and chopped cilantro. Set aside until ready to build tacos.

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Peach Chipotle Sauce

1 teaspoon olive oil ¼ cup chopped poblano 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped ¼ teaspoon chipotle powder ½ cup peach preserves ¼ cup water ¼ teaspoon kosher salt ½ teaspoon arrowroot powder (for thickening)

Heat small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and poblanos. Saute for a few minutes, then add garlic. Saute for a minute more, careful not to burn garlic, then add chipotle powder and stir. Add peach preserves along with water and whisk until mixture is fully incorporated and smooth as possible. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer on low for a few minutes. Whisk in arrowroot and set saucepan aside, off of heat.

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Cilantro Cream

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1 (12-ounce) container Tofutti Brand Sour Cream Juice of 2 limes ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper ½ teaspoon kosher salt ¼ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper

Peach Salsa

Add sour cream, lime juice, 2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro, cayenne, salt and pepper into small mixing bowl. Whisk ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

3 to 4 ripened but slightly firm peaches, small dice ¼ red onion, finely chopped ½ poblano pepper, seeds, and pith removed, then finely chopped Juice of 1 lime Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Add diced peaches, red onion, poblano pepper, lime juice, salt and pepper into small bowl. Toss together with spoon; set aside.

Assemble Dream Tacos Lightly char corn tortillas over open flame or grill. Spread 1 to 2 tablespoons mashed avocado onto each tortilla. Add corn, blackberries, pomegranate seeds, radishes and cilantro on top of the avocado. Top with cilantro cream, peach salsa and peach chipotle sauce; serve immediately.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Learn more about Ruthie Landelius at elevatedplantplate. com and blackfigfood.com. She will begin contributing an ongoing food column called Elevate Your Plate, starting with our September/October issue.

A M A R I L L O S Y M P H O N Y. O R G PRICE & SHOSTAKOVICH 10

BRAHMS: SYMPHONY NO. 4

MOZART’S REQUIEM & A WORLD PREMIERE

Fri., Sept. 17 Sat., Sept. 18 7:30pm

Fri., Oct. 15 Sat., Oct. 16 7:30pm

Fri., Nov. 19 Sat., Nov. 20 7:30pm

Awadagin Pratt guest pianist

Stefan Jackiw guest violinist

J’Nai Bridges guest vocalist

Hear all three concerts for only $90!! Call 806.376.8782

CELEBRATE LOCAL CRAFT BEER Sample local indie breweries from Amarillo, Dumas, Borger & Lubbock (must be 21+)

Sample Texas craft beer lines (must be 21+)

Food trucks and vendors Def Leppard tribute band concert scan for ticket info >>>

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ummers are for travel, but you don’t have to go far. Just a few minutes outside Amarillo, the vendors at From 6th Collective will astonish you with their creativity. A little further, you can encounter the Old West: horseback rides on the canyon’s edge, the exhibits at Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, and the spectacle of the TEXAS Outdoor Musical. Or take a longer drive, heading west to Tucumcari or northeast to Canadian, Texas, and the amazing Citadelle. Amarillo’s central location puts us just an hour or two away from amazing places and equally amazing experiences.

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PanhandlePlains Historical Museum How many years have you been open? In 1921, many of the area’s original settlers were still involved in ranching, farming and business, but were beginning to age. Recognizing this, a history teacher named Hattie Anderson teamed up with L.F. Sheffy, the head of the West Texas State Normal College history department, to preserve the region’s history. They enlisted students and volunteers to collect the human and natural history of the area, from artifacts to audio recordings.

They formed the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society, which gave birth to the Museum. Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum opened its doors to the public in 1933.

What’s the focus of your business or organization? PPHM is the largest history museum in Texas, and its three million artifacts are dedicated to preserving this region’s past. Founder Hattie Anderson said it best: “It is the sacred duty of ours to collect the record of life here and hand this on to the children of the future, and we believe in the future our people will point with pride to their museum and the historical society.”

What’s your most popular attraction? It totally depends on the visitor! Around 40 percent of our visitors are from outside the state of Texas. Many are drawn to our paleontology, geology and archaeology. Others love the vintage fashion or the classic automobiles. Our life-size Pioneer Town and its hands-on exhibits have been a favorite for decades, allowing visitors to engage directly with the story. Our interactive petroleum exhibit is also incredibly popular. Meanwhile, art-lovers can discover the heart of Texas art, the free spirit of the Taos and Santa Fe schools of art, and an unsurpassed Southwest American Indian collection.

We truly have something for everyone.

What tends to surprise your guests or visitors the most about you? We are a museum dedicated to history, but we are not a museum about just one thing. Our permanent collection includes millions of artifacts and our exhibits change all the time. This year’s special exhibit galleries include Flapper Fashion, Panhandle Prohibition, Rocks of the Ages, and Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas (which is organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City).

What specifically does your business or organization add to the culture of this area? The culture has everything to do with our shared history, and that history informs the identity of the Texas Panhandle today. Preserving that history is a way of preserving our culture and identity.

How can locals best support your business or organization?

If it’s been a while since you’ve visited the Museum, summer is a great time to do so. PPHM is open 7 days a week through Labor Day. You can buy daily admission tickets online and visit Monday to Saturday (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Sundays (1 to 5 p.m.). If you visit, share PPHM on social media!

2401 FOURTH AVE. | CANYON, TEXAS 8 0 6 .6 51 . 2 2 4 4 | PA N H A N D L E P L A I N S .O R G

TEXAS Outdoor Musical

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How many years have you been open? This is our 55th season.

The TEXAS Outdoor Musical was born in 1960 when Margaret Harper read an article about the playwright and author Paul Green, who had recreated the history of several regions in the nation through drama, pageantry and music. Several Canyon families funded a trip for Green to come learn about the history of the Panhandle. During this trip, he immediately dedicated himself to the project of bringing the history of the High Plains to the stage. Last year, 2020, was the first “dark” year in the musical’s history. The musical is thrilled to be back in 2021.

What’s the focus of your business or organization? To share with audiences what we believe to be the most spectacular outdoor musical drama in the nation. In this family-friendly show, we bring to life the stories, struggles and triumphs of the 19th century settlers of the Texas Panhandle.

What’s your most popular attraction? The nightly summer production itself. Over the years, literally millions of fans from all over the world have attended our musical. Beyond the singing, dancing and humor, they are treated to spellbinding lighting, special effects and fireworks—all set against the 600-foot cliff backdrop of the canyon walls. The catered Chuck Wagon BBQ dinner before the show is also extremely popular.

What tends to surprise your guests or visitors the most about you? Absolutely it’s the canyon itself. Palo Duro Canyon may be the nation’s second-largest canyon, but so many visitors just don’t expect it. They are stunned when they encounter it the first time. Every night our staff hears snippets of conversations from visitors who talk about the natural setting. On the way out from Canyon or Amarillo, they get lulled by the flatness of the Plains until the bottom drops out in a burst of color. We have pretty dramatic special effects, but there’s nothing we can do that compares to the drama of this natural landscape.

What specifically does your business or organization add to the culture of this area? We celebrate that culture on a nightly basis. In fact, the Texas Outdoor Musical is produced by the Texas Panhandle Heritage Foundation, which is managed by the Cultural Foundation of the Texas Panhandle. Celebrating the history of this region by preserving the stories of our pioneers is the reason this parent organization exists. We want to entertain audiences while also championing the Texas Panhandle and its history.

How can locals best support your business or organization?

Come to a performance this summer! Even if you’ve seen the outdoor musical in the past, we invite you all to come to TEXAS! Our cast of more than 60 actors, singers and dancers are incredibly talented, and while you’ll enjoy a familiar storyline and familiar songs, every show is slightly different. Tickets are available online at texas-show.com and the production lasts every evening (except Mondays) through Aug. 14.

1 1 4 5 0 S TAT E H W Y. PA R K R O A D 5 CANYON, TEXAS 806.655.2181 | TEXAS-SHOW.COM

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Two hours west of Amarillo on I-40, Tucumcari, New Mexico (pronounced “TWO-come-carry”) is a relaxed, rural community packed with Route 66 nostalgia, old west history, and wide-open vistas. Originally founded as a railroad camp in 1901, the town was incorporated in 1908, and became part of Route 66, also known as the Mother Road, in 1926.

Route 66 runs through Tucumcari and is lined with historic motels, classic neon, and unique shops and eateries. Most known for the moniker “Tucumcari Tonite!” there is a wide variety of lodging for people traveling the highway to stop for the night and enjoy comfortable accommodations.

Museums and murals draw visitors into Tucumcari.

The Mesalands Dinosaur Museum and Natural Science Laboratory features a 40-foot-long skeleton of Tovosaurus (a carnivore relative of Tyrannosaurus rex), many interactive displays, and the world’s largest collection of bronze skeletons and fossils.

History buffs will enjoy exploring the Tucumcari Historical Museum, which is located in a 1903 schoolhouse.

Each room has themed exhibits filled with artifacts and memorabilia. The displays also fill annex buildings on the property, two of which house a 1926 Chevrolet Fire Truck and an original chuck wagon.

The Tucumcari Railroad Museum is located along the tracks in the recently restored, 1926 Spanish-style historic depot. It offers a step back into the history and development of the Union Pacific Railroad in Tucumcari with pictures and artifacts. Visitors can even take a turn at the controls of a GP38 diesel locomotive simulator.

Classic car lovers will not be disappointed with a stop at the Route 66 Museum where there are several on display, including a 1929 Ford Model A Sedan and a 1956 Mercury Montclair, along with historic photos and other memorabilia.

There are nearly 100 murals in Tucumcari. Most of them are easily sighted and accessed along Tucumcari Boulevard, while others can be found on businesses and buildings throughout town. A mural map is available at the Tucumcari Chamber of Commerce to help visitors explore these unique pieces of art, many of which have a hidden object or message.

Come discover our stretch of the historic mother road and experience the small town charm and hospitality of Tucumcari, New Mexico.

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From 6th Collective How many years have you been open? We’re new here! We opened in November 2020.

What’s the focus of your business or organization? To spotlight and give I-40 visibility to the regional small businesses and organizations that make Amarillo unique.

What’s your most popular attraction? Our monthly events. We bring in additional “PopUp” guests for the day. We’ve had guest chefs, a tintype photographer, a bootmaker, and even a glassblower at our events so far!

What tends to surprise your guests or visitors the most about you? As people walk through our doors, they constantly tell us that they don’t feel like they’re in Amarillo anymore (in a good way).

They’re surprised to learn that all of the incredible retailers within the shop are local. We purposefully curated the spaces to offer more of an experience.

What specifically does your business or organization add to the culture of this area?

We’re supporting small businesses in a way that we’ve never seen done before. Owner Kasey Tam was a retailer on Route 66 (hence From 6th) for more than a decade prior to this endeavor and explored all of the typical avenues for small business support. The retail landscape is rapidly changing and no one else is rising to meet those needs. From 6th Collective provides visibility and profits for small businesses while offering our customers a creative place to shop, collaborate and network.

How can locals best support your business or organization? Since we offer a wide array of activities, we ask that they head west to join us! Learn more about everything we do on our website, from6thcollective.com.

18100 I-40 WEST 8 0 6 . 3 4 9.1 1 1 1 FROM6THCOLLECTIVE.COM

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Cowgirls and Cowboys in the West How many years have you been open? This is our 11th year in business.

What’s the focus of your business or organization? We are a company that provides Texas heritage tourism experiences. We provide horseback riding adventures on the rim of Palo Duro Canyon, and chuckwagon events.

What’s your most popular attraction?

Horseback riding is our most popular offering.

What tends to surprise your guests or visitors the most about you? I moved here from Seattle to take over the Ambassador Hotel, and after many years with that fine operation, I decided to pursue my passion, which was horses, cattle, history and (of course) hospitality. I started my Western tourism business, and have loved every minute of it! Funny how life has so many twists and turns, isn’t it?

What specifically does your business or organization add to the culture of this area? We TOTALLY focus on Texas, and the Western history and heritage of the Panhandle.

How can locals best support your business or organization? Get to know our business! It is still surprising to people in the local tourism industry when locals say “there’s nothing to do” in Amarillo.

I would ask locals to acquaint themselves with our diverse tourism offerings, experience them, and let guests to our area know how many things we have to do in Amarillo!

OWNER PHYLLIS NICKUM GOLDEN

19100 FM1258 | AMARILLO, TX 806.672.9256 COWGIRLSANDCOWBOYSIN THEWEST.COM [ SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION ]

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The Citadelle Art Museum How many years have you been open? Our doors have been open since 2008.

What’s the focus of your business or organization? Our mission is to provide a sanctuary for all forms of expression that celebrate life through art by education, outreach and community engagement.

What’s your most popular attraction? While we have impressive traveling exhibitions in our gallery, visitors are overwhelmed by the vast variety of art in our permanent collection. We also launched The Citadelle RoadShow in 2016, and have brought art programming to more than 27,000 students across the Texas Panhandle.

What tends to surprise your guests or visitors the most about you? Our founders, Dr. Malouf and Therese Abraham, donated their entire home as an art museum to the community of Canadian.

Visitors are often amazed to walk in and see their art, photographs and furniture all displayed for viewing.

What specifically does your business or organization add to the culture of this area? We are one of three museums within the 26,000-mile radius of the Texas Panhandle that hosts traveling exhibitions from all around the globe.

How can locals best support your business or organization? Come visit us and become a member! The Citadelle’s art collection is among the most unique in the country. When you join the museum with a membership, you are helping us spread creativity and art education engagements to thousands of students across the Panhandle.

520 E. NELSON AVE. CANADIAN, TEXAS 806.323.8899 T H EC I TA D E L L E .O RG [ SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION ]

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PHOTO BY SHANNON RICHARDSON

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75 FROM LEFT: THE OLD FASHIONED (FLAVORS OF TART CHERRY, ORANGE BITTERS AND WHISKEY); ST. GERMAN SPRITZ (FLAVORS OF ELDERFLOWER, GRAPEFRUIT AND CHAMPAGNE); AND THE BEE’S KNEES (FLAVOR OF MADAGASCAR BOURBON VANILLA)

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n a city passionate about donuts, this cottage bakery and delivery service has built an equally passionate, artistic following. Owners Bella Chandra and Kathy Reyna both have celiac disease and avoid gluten. But both also love baked goods. “We wanted a real donuts,” Chandra says. Matcha Jelly Delish grew from that desire.

They discovered pon-de-ring donuts, a Japanese style that uses miniature dough balls to form a ring, and a recipe that doesn’t require traditional flour. Chandra is a former tattooist, so the duo’s artistic presentation—often accompanied by homemade candy—happened naturally. “It’s important that these are visually beautiful,” says Reyna. “Food requires all of your senses.”

We loved the unique texture and incredible, complicated flavors of these donuts. We aren’t the only people they’ve impressed. Matcha Jelly Delish recently placed third in their category in The Greatest Baker, the world’s largest online competition. The votes are in: These donuts are edible art.

Find Matcha Jelly Delish on Instagram: @matchajellydelish or contact matchajellydelish@gmail.com.

AM AR I L L O

575 PIZZERIA

Owned by an Amarillo native, the two 575 locations serve the best pizza in the city. Locals rave about the incomparably thin crust, the way the thin-sliced pepperoni crisps up in the oven, and the fresh ingredients. Their easy to-go ordering includes craft beer and wine by the bottle.

2803 Civic Circle/7710 Hillside Road, Suite 700322.5575, 575pizzeria.com $$

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ABUELO’S

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This longtime chain has its roots in Amarillo and an incredibly dedicated local clientele.

The Tex-Mex is flavorful but the true draw is nostalgia. Also: margaritas. As a bonus, Abuelo’s offers some of the best event room and catering deals in the city.

3501 W. 45th Ave., 354.8294, abuelos.com $$

THE AÇAÍ BAR

Don’t worry about how to say it. Just order one of these fruity, flavorful bowls or smoothies. They’re perfect for postworkout refueling or a light, nutritious lunch. The ingredients are mostly organic and the owners are local. Pro tip: It’s pronounced “ah-saw-ee.”

7306 SW 34th Ave., Suite 9, 367.9724, theacaibaramarillo.com $

BANGKOK-TOKYO

The name should give you an idea of the Asian fusion available here. The dining area is very small—thanks, weird triangle roofline!—but you can get fantastic Thai food combined with even better sushi.

Takeout orders are quick, and it also now offers an expanded gluten-free menu.

2413 S. Western St., Suite A, 353.4777 $$

THE BIG TEXAN STEAK RANCH & BREWERY

This tourist destination is packed at all hours of the day. Everyone talks about the 72-ounce steak challenge, but other standouts include the popular “Mountain Oysters,” normal-sized steaks, chicken-fried steak and ribs. The onsite brewery recently added a hard seltzer to its menu.

7701 I-40 East, 372.6000, bigtexan.com $$

CADA VEZ COMIDA MEXICANA

This relatively new Town Square restaurant is already getting raves for its classic Tex-Mex fare. The savory birria tacos are wonderful, and so are the salsa selections— with 22 beers on tap and excellent margaritas to wash it all down. Try the weekend brunch! 9200 Town Square Blvd., Suite 1000, 418.6976, cadavezamarillo.com $$

DELVIN’S RESTAURANT & CATERING

After opening in 2015, this North Heights restaurant quickly gained a diverse, dedicated clientele from across the city thanks to its generous portions and madefrom-scratch flavors. (The buttermilk pie is worth a trip by itself.) The downtown menu is slightly smaller but just as good.

1300 N. Hughes St., 803.9111/ 701 S. Taylor St., 350.7441, delvinsrestaurant.com $

THE DRUNKEN OYSTER

The opulent, moody atmosphere of the Drunken Oyster feels like you’ve stepped out of the Panhandle and into the heart of the bayou. The Louisiana-style cuisine never disappoints, from the fresh oysters to the jambalaya and crawfish étouffée. It’s also a great spot for live music. 7606 SW 45th Ave., Suite 100, 418.6668, drunkenoysteramarillo.com $$

EL MANANTIAL RESTAURANT

This Amarillo Boulevard dive is regularly highlighted by Hey Amarillo podcast guests as a favorite restaurant or ideal place to take out-of-towners. El Manantial serves the best chips in Amarillo, alongside fantastic salsa and a bowl of charro beans.

On weekends you’ll hear mariachi music.

3823 Amarillo Blvd. East, 383.1852, restaurantelmanantial.com $-$$

FAVS

FAVs stands for “Fruits and Vegetables,” and that’s precisely the healthy focus of this small family-owned shop. Beyond the smoothies and fruit bowls, FAVs serves salads, sandwiches, wraps, soups and fresh- pressed juice. A true hidden gem in

This is not a comprehensive list of local restaurants. From issue to issue, we will try to include a wide variety of dining options based on the space available. If you notice an error, please email mm@brickandelm.com.

the Plemons-Eakle neighborhood.

706 SW 16th Ave., 803.9171, favstexas.com $

FRANK’S BAKERY

A true French boulangerie (bakery) in Amarillo? Oui oui. Frank-o-phile’s have been rejoicing over this tiny shop since they began giving away a free baguette with every meal decades ago. The quiche, feuillete, croissants, crepes and sweets are perfectly Parisian. Bring cash!

1923 S. Western St., 352.8089 $

GIRASOL CAFE & BAKERY

We are huge fans of Girasol, where the weekly specials are always creative, filling and delicious. The Saturday brunch never disappoints either, especially in the new outdoor dining area on a sunny morning.

Girasol is lunch-only, so grab some baked goods or bread when you leave.

3201 S. Coulter St., 322.0023 $

HOFFBRAU STEAK & GRILL HOUSE

Locally owned for three decades, Hoffbrau is exactly the kind of steak place you’d expect to find in a city like ours—no-fuss and delicious. The I-40 location is both family-friendly and traveler-friendly, with Texas steaks, comfort food, outdoor dining and a separate bar area. 7203 I-40 West, 358.6595, hoffbrausteakandgrill.com $$

ICHIBAN NOODLE BAR & ASIAN CUISINE

If you want ramen in Amarillo, look no further. Ichiban is so wonderful and … so rarely open. Watch your food and noodles being prepared thanks to the open kitchen.

Stop by for lunch. It shuts down midafternoon but re-opens in time for dinner.

(Most days.) Closed on weekends.

3309 Wimberly Road, 355.5031 $

IT’S A PUNJABI AFFAIR

Indian food is hard to find in Amarillo, but this hut across from Sam Houston Park takes a friendly, youthful approach to Indian-style street food. Our go-to orders include the butter chicken, lamb curry, and marinated and fried tilapia—plus options for

$ $$ $$$

Most entrees under $10 Most entrees $11 to $20 Most entrees over $21

f+d vegans and vegetarians. 4201 Bushland Blvd., 414.2114, punjabiamarillo.com $

JOE’S PIZZA & PASTA

K-N ROOT BEER DRIVE-IN

This legendary, traditional drive-in opened in 1968. And while it recently lost its iconic covered parking in a windstorm, the wonderful burgers, shakes and floats are still around. And the root beer is served in a frosty cold mug! As the sign used to say, it’s “truly a bargain at today’s prices.” 3900 Olsen Blvd., 355.4391, knrootbeer.com $

KATHY’S KITCHEN

Breakfast is drive-thru only from 5 to 8 a.m., then the dining area opens at 10 a.m. for breakfast and lunch only. The northeast Loop location and homestyle food are perfect for drives up to Lake Meredith/Borger or northeast to Pampa. Low prices and generous portions. 4517 Highway 136, 383.2513 $

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Technically, this venerable Bushland restaurant isn’t in Amarillo, but it’s absolutely worth the drive. You’ll be surprised at the quality of this Italian food, from the New Yorkstyle pizza to the hot subs, pasta, lasagna and even the steak. The sauce is homemade and you can tell. 19151 I-40 West, 356.8191 $

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LA FRONTERA

This neighborhood eatery has been open for more than 30 years and has a well-deserved reputation for extra cheesy Tex-Mex. Seriously: Everything’s covered in fresh grated cheese and that’s a good thing. (So is La Frontera’s generous community support.)

Try the unique hot sauce! 1401 S. Arthur St., 372.4593 $

LUPITA’S

The original Lupita’s tortilleria is home to the best tortillas, burritos and tamales in town— that means something in Amarillo—and this family restaurant has now expanded to multiple locations. Some are takeout only. All are good. So good. For holiday tamales, order early! 4013 SE 10th Ave., 372.3537/ 3221 S. Western St., 350.7638/ 2403 Hardin Drive, 350.7637/ 1706 Amarillo Blvd. East, 350.7614/ 1901 SE 11th St., 350.7398/3309 Bell St., 350.7297 $

THE MASON JAR

Located inside Evole by Moonwater, this charming lunch spot is owned by a veteran Amarillo restaurateur. We love the emphasis

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on organic ingredients, fresh salads and super-creative sandwiches. The Mason Jar also caters some of the best charcuterie boards in the city. 3313 SW Sixth Ave., 584.7100, themasonjarco.com $

MY THAI

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One of the original Thai food restaurants in a city famous for them, My Thai has been family-owned since 1986 and is absolutely a local favorite. In fact, My Thai is probably the standard for comparing the quality of the rest of the city’s Thai restaurants. Lunch specials daily. 2029 Coulter St., 355.9541, mythaiamarillo.com $

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NORTH HEIGHTS DISCOUNT & CAFE

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2611 Wolflin Village (806) 331-2002 marcellas.com

If you’ve ever thought twice about dining inside a convenience store, this will change your mind. This place serves some of the best soul food in the city. It’s known for huge portions—the nachos probably weigh three pounds—as well as its ribs, pork chops, fried catfish and breakfast items.

1621 NW 18th Ave., 418.6751 $

OHMS CAFE & BAR

The Fuller family has operated this eatery for more than 25 years, and it consistently offers Amarillo’s best fine dining. We love the bar area and outdoor patio, as well as its buffet-style lunch and weekly chef specials from Chef Josh Fuller. Pro tip: The Bar Burger is the best burger in town.

619 S. Tyler St., 373.3233, ohmscafe.com $$-$$$

PAN-HANDLERS CAFE

The best restaurants never seem to shout their presence, and this applies to this tasteful lunch spot hidden in the basement of Amarillo National Bank Plaza One. It’s locally owned and has a fantastic salad bar, plus sandwiches and daily specials.

It’s always, always good. 410 S. Taylor St., 352.2590, thepan-handlers.com $

PESCARAZ ITALIAN RESTAURANT

This locally owned Italian place is very involved in the community, has a full bar, and serves up the most irresistible free bread twists in the city. You’ll eat so many, you won’t be able to finish your pasta, pizza or calzone. In the evenings at Pescaraz, you’ll almost always hear live music.

3415-K Bell St., 350.5430, pescaraz.com $$

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RED RIVER STEAKHOUSE

It’s not hard to find a decent steak in the Panhandle, so when a local steakhouse earns

a reputation for its hand-cut steaks, you pay attention. The Amarillo version of the owner’s original Red River Steakhouse in McLean, this old-fashioned establishment may be one of the area’s best-kept secrets. 4332 SW 45th Ave., 367.9732, redriversteakhouse.net $$

ROOSTERS RESTAURANT AND CATERING

This coffee, breakfast and lunch stop near 34th and Bell is quietly one of the best dessert places in the city. (That apple pie: Whoa.) But the quiche, sandwiches, soups, and salads are also worth an order. Be advised: the dining room fills up quickly for lunch, but we love the cute outdoor area. 3440 S. Bell St., Unit 110, 353.7309, silver-fork.com $ This Louisiana-based chain has been around for more than a decade, but the Amarillo location is brand-new. The portions are big and the prices are low for shrimp or crawfish po’boys, catfish, crab, seafood platters, shrimp and more. Our city may not be known for seafood, but Sam’s is. 4317 Teckla Ave., 437.1349, samssouthernamarillo.com $$

SHARKY’S BURRITO COMPANY

When a national build-your-own-burrito place opened up in Amarillo, locals were largely unimpressed. Because Sharky’s is far better, and it’s been here way longer. Besides, the owners are very community oriented. Sharky’s catering is one of our favorites for large groups.

1612 S. Georgia St., 359.7330, sharkeysburritocompany.com $

SUNDAY’S KITCHEN

Everyone loves Chef Ron, but they especially love his West Texas twist on Gulf Coast and Cajun cuisine. This downtown dive is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday, and lunch only on Saturdays—and don’t miss the Sunday brunch. Try the Pit Master Mac & Cheese. 112 SW Sixth Ave., 418.6477 $$

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TACOS GARCIA

The Veloz family has operated this extremely popular Ross St. restaurant since 1999. It’s consistently one of the highest-ranking TexMex stops in the city, whether you’re into the family-friendly atmosphere or the full bar. (The house batch margaritas are legendary.)

1100 Ross St., 371.0411, tacosgarcia.com $$

TOOM’S RESTAURANT

Experts know that a lot of “Thai” food actually has origins in Laos, and that fusion is on display at Toom’s, one of our favorite spots on the northeast side. The family owners are super friendly, the space is incredibly clean, and the

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SAM’S SOUTHERN EATERY

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authentic flavors pop. Get the sticky rice and beef jerky. 3416 NE 24th Ave., 381.2568 $

WESLEY’S BEAN POT & BBQ

River Road restaurants aren’t always on the radar of every local resident, but Wesley’s has been around forever and deserves its legendary reputation. Loyal customers return again and again for the genuine Texas-style barbecue, especially the babyback ribs, brisket and—yep—the beans.

6406 River Road, 381.2893 $

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Our cover feature convinced us we also need to include mobile restaurants in this section.

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WONDER WOMENZ BAKERY

Fun name, eye-catching art, amazing all-day breakfast—including CBD baked goods. This drive-up bakery also has a rotating dessert menu featuring cupcakes, sweet crepes, pies, turnovers, and cheesecakes (whole or by the slice). Check Facebook for daily specials and flash sales. 909 S. Madison St., 477.0199 $

YCSF CRAFT

It started as a “food truck without wheels” and now this street food experiment is one of the city’s favorite restaurants, and one of the only vegan/vegetarian places in town.

Definitely try the animal fries and diablo shrimp tacos. The burgers, craft beer and

wine list are all wonderful. 2916 Wolflin Ave., 353.9273, yellowcitystreetfood.com $

X– STEAKHOUSE

The name is a play on cattle brands—say “X-Bar”—and this newish Town Square steakhouse definitely knows beef. It’s locally owned, has a full bar, and the prices are extremely reasonable for such a swanky atmosphere. We hear great things about the weekend brunch, too.

9181 Town Square Blvd., Suite 1311, 322.4227, xbarsteakhouse.com $$-$$$

FO OD TR UCKS:

AM E R IC AN

DA SPOT 2.0

Stuffed turkey legs.

Comfort food like macand-cheese, jalapeño cornbread dressing and greens.

1102 Amarillo Blvd. West, 806.678.9333

DIRTY UNCLE MONTY’S

Gourmet American food.

806.410.4656

FRY DADDY J’S

TANK’S BURGERS Classic handmade burgers and more.

6701 S. Washington; other locations

YOLOS

Breakfast and classic American comfort food offerings.

806.626.9813

YUM IN A BUN

Handheld comfort food.

806.420.1969

AS IAN

Cajun-style fried fish, shrimp boils and more.

806.310.8034

HIBACHI KINGDOM

THE HOTDOG SHACK

BAR BEC UE

Hot dogs with a variety of toppings.

806.681.0532

J & L GOOD GRUBS Gourmet tacos, burgers and brats.

806.336.6162

KOUNTRY KITCHEN Burgers, chicken-fried steak, chicken bites.

Washington Street and Old Claude Highway, 806.382.0682

Traditional hibachi dishes.

806.316.1487

BBQ REVIVAL 713.304.5470

DEE JIZZLES BBQ 806.310.8690

ELEMENT CRAFT BBQ 806.420.1093

GLADYS’ RIB SHACK 806.881.6222

JONES GRILL & TREATS

1102 Amarillo Blvd. West

PORK N THINGS BBQ 806.433.5666

COFFEE

CADDY SHACK COFFEE STOP

Specialty coffee, tea, Italian cream sodas, baked goods and more.

806.641.0823

ONE HOT LATTE Specialty coffees, smoothies and more.

806.676.6834

RELOAD COFFEE Specialty coffee and smoothies. facebook.com/ reloadcoffeellc

REVIVIFY COFFEE Proceeds benefit Life Challenge of Amarillo.

Specialty coffee drinks, smoothies, waffles and more.

806.352.0385

MEXICAN

COCINA ON THE GO

Tacos, quesadillas, nachos, asada fries and more.

806.651.9313

KOBES GRILL

Brisket sandwiches, tacos, birria tacos, quesadillas and more.

806.570.6952

MARISCOS EL BIG BOY

Seafood offerings.

806.640.8217

TACOS KALIFAS

L.A.-style street tacos and more.

I-40 and Grand, 806.410.7216

TAQUERIA OLVERA Tacos, tortas, burritos, quesadillas and more.

806.54.4447

PIZZA

PIZZA NOMAD

Wood-fired pizza, appetizers and specials.

806.477.2660

REAGAN’S BRICK OVEN

Wood-fired pizza.

806.433.5793

SNACKS

CORN EXPRESS

Corn-in-a-cup, roasted corn, snow cones, lemonade and fruit cups.

812 Amarillo Blvd. East, 373.1900

CORTEZ JERKY

Homemade beef jerky, corn-in-a-cup, clamato and more.

806.433.3694

PORCH SWING KETTLE KORN Fresh-popped sweet popcorn.

806.373.3737

SWEETS

CHEESECAKE HSTL Choose-your-owntoppings cheesecake. facebook.com/ cheesecakehstl

POOKIE BEAR SMOOTHIES

Smoothies, aguas, tea, bubble waffles and more.

1606 Amarillo Blvd. East, 806.680.7656

PURPLE FLAMINGO POPS

Offers a rotating menu of handmade popsicles.

806.517.2131

SWEET SIPZ TEXAS Soda drinks, coffee, tea, and fresh-baked cookies 1304 23rd St., Canyon 801.807.8616

Did we miss someone?

If you don’t see your favorite food truck, let us know! Email mm@brickandelm.com.

SCHOOL I

t’s still summer, but school will be back in session before we know it.

And hopefully the 2021-2022 year represents a full return to normal— without all the distractions of 2020. From a new AISD tech academy to the ways local financial institutions are helping students, this special section is all about education.

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SCHOOL

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How to (Not) Pay for College

T

BY COLTEN HIBBS, EDUCATION CREDIT UNION

he best advice about paying for a college education would be something like, “The best way to pay for college is to try as hard as possible not to pay at all.”

For graduating high school seniors, college becomes more accessible, and more of a societal expectation with each passing year. The costs for higher education also tend to rise with everything else.

Outside of purchasing a home, an education is likely to be the most expensive thing a person buys. But the cost doesn’t have to be too steep for the savvy and dedicated.

There are three primary ways people pay for college, whether they are graduating high school seniors, or nontraditional students: scholarships, grants, and paying out of pocket.

Many people suppose that scholarships are limited to outgoing high school students or current college students, but there are a number of scholarships and grants for non-traditional students. The same resources like CollegeScholarships.org, and UniGo.com—vetted, secure websites that graduating high schoolers are encouraged to visit—also have scholarships available for non-traditional students.

The other common misconception is that someone must be noticed or noteworthy to receive a scholarship.

The majority of people who get scholarships are those who simply apply for them.

The secure websites like the ones mentioned previously not only list the available scholarships, but also allow users to categorize their searches based on qualities like their field of interest, socio-economic

background, religious affiliation, and many more.

In our partnership with West Texas A&M University, ECU Buff $mart, we advocate treating the process of applying for scholarships like a job in and of itself. The goal of ECU Buff $mart is to give participating students the tools and knowledge to graduate college without any student loan debt. Applying for scholarships may be considered tedious or even frustrating, but we encourage those applying for scholarships to think of their last or current job. It is very likely that the job they had or have is more labor intensive (and possibly more frustrating) than filling out paperwork. That’s all applying for scholarships is—paperwork. Again, the application process isn’t a cakewalk, but it is the easiest thousands of dollars that a person can potentially receive.

A former ECU Buff $mart financial coach is the pattern for this way of thinking. She was a foreign exchange student, and as a result only had access to about 49 percent of the scholarships a U.S. citizen could have.

When she returned home during summer and winter breaks, she would close herself in her room for a full work day, and plan out her breaks for lunch and other activities. Then she would “clock in” at her laptop. She spent hours filling out scholarship applications with her favorite television series playing in the background. That ECU Buff $mart financial coach graduated from WTAMU with a degree in Ag Business and $0 in student loan debt.

Her journey wasn’t easy or without complications, but on graduation day those obstacles were nonexistent— just like her student loans.

Grants are similar to scholarships in a number of

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ways, but from a bird’s-eye view, grants tend to be more says to save attending a university until all academic basics need-based than merit-based. Often grants—just like have been completed, or if you don’t need a loan to attend scholarships—do not need to be paid back like a loan. But your first year of higher education at a university. that isn’t always the case. Grants may have certain caveats Some may argue that paying for one class at a time will that require a student to pay back the money they received take too long, is too impractical, or is too expensive. if they don’t complete their education, don’t make the It certainly is possible that it can take longer than getting appropriate grades, or meet other criteria set by a loan and attempting the traditional four-year the grant they accepted. The application process path. But many higher education students is generally the same, and many secure websites already work simultaneously while attending that have scholarships also provide grant school. Not every individual is prepared to applications. handle juggling their education, professional After applying for scholarships and grants, life, and personal life. One class at a time paying out of pocket is the safest and most (especially at the beginning) enables students effective way to pay for higher education. to safely test their limits and still make progress The average tuition for a single course at in a healthy way.

Amarillo College currently sits at just above Student loans are, of course, last resort $300 (depending on the class, availability and options.

Frankly, getting a student loan is the C O LT E N H I B B S Educator and Staff Writer, a number of other factors.) You will hear many same as paying out of pocket except there’s Education Credit Union academians in higher education—including added interest, and the risk of not knowing if Dr. Wendler of WTAMU—encourage students your income in four or more years will cover who need student loans to attend their first year of higher your living expenses combined with student loan payments. education at a community college rather than a university.

Paying for college is a major hurdle for many This is because the credits from community colleges transfer people, but if you do it right, then you won’t have to pay to universities and cost significantly less. General wisdom much at all.

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Learning Good Habits

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F

TEACHING KIDS FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

rom the first time you dropped a quarter in a piggy bank to the day you opened your first checking account, you’ve been steadily developing financial habits. But were they good habits? That’s not just a question for adults to ask themselves, but also for parents to ask about their children. Children are always watching and always learning. Good financial habits tend to develop from intentional conversations and opportunities. Bad habits seem to develop on their own.

That’s why ANB works hard to give parents plenty of opportunities to help their children learn basic financial literacy, says Lizzie W. Williams, community development director for the family-owned bank. She grew up in a banking family herself. “In our family, the first thing we learned was the value of a dollar,” she says. “We had piggy banks, and then we turned those into a savings account we would contribute to ourselves.”

Now a parent herself, Williams says her twin daughters are learning the same basic cost-of-living lessons. But thanks to ANB’s Student Plastic Account, their early financial literacy is even more advanced than that of her own childhood. Williams grew up with a piggy bank and a passport savings book. Her daughters have their own Plastic debit cards.

“They love the freedom of having their own card,” Williams says of the Visa Check Card that accompanies a Plastic account. “They love being able to grab something at Chick-fil-A or buy a new piece of jewelry for themselves.”

But when a student opens his or her first Plastic account, they don’t just get a cool debit card that works in ATMs. They also gain valuable experience and a safe way to learn basic money management.

Parents can help their kids open a Plastic account at ANB with a $20 minimum deposit. With no daily minimum

balance requirements, Plastic accounts work just like adult checking accounts, with one major bonus: The bank rewards students for good grades. “If you get all As and Bs, bring your report card into the bank every six weeks and we’ll pay you up to $10—up to $60 per year,” Williams says.

Even better, both kids and parents have access to a Plastic account. “I love that from a parenting standpoint, because I have a spender and a saver,” she says of her twins. Transaction notifications by text or email are available to everyone connected to the account. “I can watch what’s going on and help my girls get that sense of keeping control. As a parent, the best part is that they start learning responsibility—what comes in has to be more than what goes out.”

When a Plastic account holder turns 18, their account transitions to a regular checking account at ANB, but Williams says the lessons of Plastic tend to stick around.

“When we explain that you want to buy $100 AirPods but you only have $30 in your account, that makes sense to them,” she says of her daughters. They can see their balance on the ANB app, just like Mom and Dad. “They pay attention. It helps them understand there’s no one else to pay that for you, so they start to learn the skills to save.”

Beyond that benefit, Plastic account holders are slowly building a relationship with a bank like ANB. As they grow older, that familiarity pays off. Former Plastic customers have turned to ANB for their first car loans and first mortgages. “They build a solid financial base and end up becoming good customers. That’s good for them and good for us, too,” says Williams.

Responsible money management starts young, and the convenience of Plastic is clear for parents and kids alike. To apply for a Plastic account, visit ANB.com.

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RENDERING COURTESY OF AMARILLO ISD

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AISD’s New High School Reimagines Career and Technical Education

O

BY APRIL M. BROWNLEE, AMARILLO ISD COMMUNICATIONS

n the northeast end of what was once the Sunset Center development sits Amarillo ISD’s AmTech Career Academy. Construction is still underway, but the innovative career and technical education high school will open its doors to the 2,300 students who’ve signed up for AmTech programs when the 2021-2022 school year begins on Aug. 17.

In the 1950s, Sunset Center opened to 100,000 people who came to experience what was thought to be the biggest shopping mall this side of Houston. The mall has long since closed, but a new kind of heyday is on the horizon as AmTech and AISD look to build and energize the local workforce with experiential education that is tailored for the Panhandle and on pace with future career trends.

Amarillo ISD already offers the area’s most robust Career and Technical Education (CTE). Current curriculum includes more than 100 CTE classes, specialty diplomas, professional certification opportunities and the original PRO internship program. Every year, hundreds of AISD seniors graduate with professional certifications tucked in their back pockets. Certificates such as EMTBasic, CNA/CMA, EKG, ServSafe, Certified Veterinary Assistant, and ASE certifications for automotive work give

new graduates the flexibility to work their way through college or transition right into a career.

AmTech reimagines every step of a student’s CTE journey. “Not only is the campus unlike any other school around, but the way we’re approaching education is different too,” says AmTech Principal Jay Barrett.

The District purchased the 16.5 acre, 200,000square-foot building that was home to the city’s original Sears, and later Hastings Entertainment warehouse and operations, in 2017 with the intent of developing a STEM and technology-focused specialty high school to provide early college opportunities, apprenticeships and vital middle skills.

In the months that followed, the District sought input from business and industry leaders in the community to shape the space. In a series of meetings with architects, they helped identify how to best incorporate the area’s trades needs.

With nine different schools of study and 30 pathways that create opportunities for a livable wage right out of high school, AmTech will help students take their learning to the next level, from dreaming to doing.

A real-world approach will offer students training to develop the skills that can take them right into the

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workforce or set them up for success in college. The culinary arts program of study, for example, introduces students to occupations and educational opportunities for planning, directing and coordinating activities of a food and beverage organization, as well as preparing and cooking food. The Hospitality and Tourism Career Cluster focuses on the management, marketing and operations of restaurants and the travel industry. A bistro open to the community will be staffed by students, offering the opportunity to apply what they’ve learned and see their skills in action.

This approach is repeated throughout AmTech with clinical settings for medical, dental and pharmacy programs, a courtroom, a TV studio, a 3,500-square-foot robot and drone coliseum, an advanced mechatronics “Smart Factory,” a complete audio and visual production studio and an Anatomage Theater with the most sophisticated anatomy visualization system typically only seen in higher education.

“The features, the facility and the faculty give students the chance to really explore their passions, their interests and the various career paths that go along with them, all while learning in the most advanced environment possible,” says Superintendent Doug Loomis.

For more information visit amtech.amaisd.org.

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Back to School Loans Rates as low as 5.99% APR* Don’t forget to shop tax free weekend, August 6-8th.

Apply online: myecu.info/AccountOrLoan AP R I L B R OW N L E E April is a Panhandle native and a media and communications professional. She is part of the Lone Star Emmy-winning communications team at Amarillo ISD, sharing with the community the people and programs that make public education in Amarillo top-notch.

*APR=Annual Percentage Rate. Offer valid July 1-September 30, 2021. With approved credit. Rates and conditions subject to change without notice, and may vary based on credit worthiness. Sample payment per $1,000 borrowed at 5.99% APR=$86.07. Maximum loan term is 12 months.

Federally Insured by NCUA

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PHOTOS AND TEXT COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF SILVER CITY

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GILA NATIONAL FOREST

NEW MEXICO’S GILA WILDERNESS AND HISTORIC SILVER CITY ARE CALLING he hidden gem of the southwest, Silver City, New Mexico, is the ideal location for an affordable, relaxing and inspiring getaway. Located near the 3.3-million acre Gila Wilderness and surrounded by vast wide-open spaces, Silver City is a destination chosen time and again by outdoor lovers and nature enthusiasts. Additionally, with a rich history dating back to the late 1200s, a past as a mining town, and ties to Billy the Kid, the area is culturally diverse and full of fascinating historical stops. For art lovers—a myriad of art galleries showcasing all mediums, as well as studios and art tours—a visit to Silver City is sure to invigorate the soul and spark creativity. Small-town charm and beautiful landscapes make this a vacation spot to remember.

Whatever your interests, you’ll find a variety of fun activities in Silver City, a day’s drive west of Amarillo.

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FOR OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS From birding to hiking, biking, camping and exploring, you’ll find it in Silver City—all with breathtaking scenic views of local landscapes and a year-round mild climate.

Be sure to check out some of the favorite spots of locals and visitors alike, including:

The Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Offering a glimpse of the lives of the Mogollon people who lived there from the late 1200s into the 1300s, the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is surrounded by the Gila National Forest and provides a rare opportunity to walk through history.

THE GILA CLIFF DWELLINGS NATIONAL MONUMENT

CATWALK RECREATION AREA

road trip Catwalk Recreation Area

Silver City Museum

Explore a passage to hidden places in nature along the incredible The Silver City History Museum is nationally recognized through its cliff walls supported by steel beams, as you wind through the canyon accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums and brings to life of the Catwalk Recreation Area. Stunning rock formations the cultural heritage of the area’s past. Explore collections, and beautiful sights make this hike an inspiring and rotating exhibits, and programs and events. memorable journey.

CITY OF ROCKS

One of only six areas in the world with this type of rock formation—created by volcanic ash and sculpted by weather—City of Rocks State Park is a must-see destination, providing hours of hiking or biking fun, as well as camping, bird watching, picnicking and of course, taking great photos.

Continental Divide Trail A national scenic trail, the Continental Divide Trail offers hiking and biking opportunities, as well as options for spotting local wildlife.

Gila Wilderness Arguably one of the area’s biggest draws, the Gila Wilderness— the first set aside by Congress—boasts a range of native plants and wildlife. Perfect for birding, wildlife sightings, photography, hiking and biking, the Gila Wilderness is home to many species, including elk, deer, mountain lions, black bears, wild turkey, and more.

FOR ART LOVERS An art lover’s dream, Silver City is known for its eclectic charm and its thriving art community. The town is home to artisans, painters, potters, printmakers, weavers, glassblowers, and jewelry makers, among others, and is a frequent destination for those looking to browse, buy or find inspiration from art. With more than 20 galleries in the historic downtown, more than 50 vibrant murals, numerous art studios, art walks and tours, opportunities to meet local artists, and musical and theater performances, the art scene is unmatched.

FOR HISTORY BUFFS With ties to the Wild West and as the home to the third-largest open pit copper mine in the world, Silver City is also known for its Old West Heritage and Southwest culture.

Fort Bayard

Tour historic buildings, monuments and the fort that once served as a point of protection during battles with Geronimo and other Apache leaders, as well as the place that served as home to hundreds of Buffalo Soldiers during the Civil War and Apache Wars.

Mining District Dive into the mining past of the region in nearby Santa Clara, Bayard and Hurley.

Trail of the Mountain Spirits A journey into history and an enchanting outdoor activity, the Trail of the Mountain Spirits takes adventurers through the places where some of the most notable miners, settlers, explorers, Native Americans, and homesteaders lived, worked and made their mark.

JOIN THE EXCITEMENT OF SPECIAL EVENTS There’s always something special happening in Silver City, with iconic events occurring throughout the year. Plan your trip around one of the exciting annual events, spanning arts and cultural gatherings like CLAY Festival, Silver City Blues Festival, Fiesta Latina, and Southwest Print Fiesta, and outdoor celebrations like the Gila River Festival.

WHERE TO STAY, EAT AND DRINK

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STATE PARK

City of Rocks State Park

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Your stay in Silver City can be as unique as you are. With everything from historic hotels like the Murray Hotel (which offers nighttime tours to explore the hotel’s lively past), to local and chain motels, bed and breakfasts, cabins and cottages, RV parks and campgrounds, your stay will be anything but ordinary.

Complete the experience by dining and drinking at a variety of local eateries, breweries and bars.

For more information or to plan your stay, go to VisitSilverCity.org.

GILA WILDERNESS

listen RECENTLY ON HEY AMARILLO

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ur co-publisher and editorial director, Jason Boyett, is also the host of the popular Hey Amarillo podcast, a weekly interview show featuring Amarillo people. If you haven’t yet subscribed, here are a few recent episodes you may have missed.

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VIC RAGHA MAY 17, 2021 This local hotelier owns and operates several hotels and motels along Interstate 40, giving him an up-close-and-personal look at the travelers who stop in our city.

Ragha grew up in a family-owned motel business—as a child, he literally lived in his family’s motel—but wasn’t sure he wanted to pursue that career as an adult. In this episode, he tells the story of what brought him back, and why Amarillo has such a vibrant hotel industry. “Vic is so attuned to the world of travel and tourism in Amarillo. He had a front-row seat at how COVID first disrupted that industry and then its rapid recovery late last year,” Jason says.

“Locals rarely think about our hotels, so this conversation helps you see our city from a fresh perspective.”

RONNIE GRANGER MAY 24, 2021 Granger, the owner of Sunday’s Kitchen, was featured in our May/June issue, and that interview for print convinced Jason to host Granger for a longer podcast conversation.

“That was a good decision,” Jason says now.

Immediately after this interview—weeks before it was released— Jason couldn’t help but begin telling friends and family members how powerful it was. During the recording, Granger looks back at the opportunities he was given as his career developed, and the discussion takes a pretty emotional turn. “Ronnie got so vulnerable in this interview. I don’t think either of us expected it, but it was so refreshing to hear,” Jason says. “This was one of my favorite interviews in a long time.”

HAYDEN BACA MAY 31, 2021 “I learned about Hayden’s business at just the right time, having spent a couple of hours on a Saturday troubleshooting my parents’ Ring doorbell,” Jason says. That business, UnSavvy Strategy, offers hands-on, face-to-face tech assistance to senior adults. Baca’s professional background includes customer service for companies like Apple and AT&T. She

learned she had the patience and communication skills to teach older adults about their smartphones, laptops, Wifi and more. That led her to this business idea, which she launched after moving back to Amarillo. “I love what Hayden does. Every adult my age and younger will immediately see its value,” adds Jason.

EPISODE 200: JACKIE KINGSTON INTERVIEWS JASON JUNE 7, 2021 In this special episode, the 200th of the podcast, Jason invited KAMR Local 4 News anchor Jackie Kingston to interview him.

“Jackie is one of the best in the business, and I knew she was a loyal listener of the show. It felt a little self-indulgent to make myself the guest, but given the milestone episode, I pretty much gave her free reign to ask whatever she wanted,” says Jason.

The two discuss Jason’s writing career, why he chose to stay in Amarillo despite opportunities to leave, and the current state of the local media environment. He also offers his own answers to the typical “Eight Straight” questions he asks all interview guests.

DOUG LILL JUNE 14, 2021 Pharmacy has changed dramatically over the past couple of decades, as big-box retailers replaced the small, independent drug stores that once reigned in Amarillo.

Doug Lill is a prominent local pharmacist known for his expertise with vitamins and supplements, along with prescribed medications. He and Jason discuss the industry, including Lill’s career as a traveling relief pharmacist before his return to his hometown of Amarillo. “We did this interview in early June, which is Pride month, and Doug was kind enough to share how leaving Amarillo and then coming back as an adult helped him come to terms with his sexual orientation,” Jason says. “It’s a fascinating perspective.”

Subscribe and listen to Hey Amarillo across a variety of podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher, or visit heyamarillo.com.

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806-666-6306 (Office) 806-683-7026 (Mobile) Sabre.Cofer@exprealty.com LivingTexasStyle.com

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JASON BURR

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espite its urban growth in recent years, Amarillo’s cowboy background remains part of the city’s larger story, and that Western heritage is never too far from view. New technologies and innovations have transformed the cattle industry in recent years. But some aspects still look just like they did during the area’s pioneer days.

In early May of this year, local photographer Jason Burr had the opportunity to document the last cattle drive of the season at a locally owned ranch. Less than two hours from Amarillo, he found himself immersed in landscapes and traditions that have changed little over the past few decades. “Shooting pictures of the cowboys rounding up the cattle, separating the cows and bulls, and then roping, branding and doctoring the calves was an experience I’ll never forget,” Burr says. He and the ranch owners were kind enough to share these cattle drive images with Brick & Elm.

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in focus

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JA S O N B U R R Born and raised in Amarillo, Jason Burr is a partner with NCW Risk Management. When not helping his insurance clients, Jason pursues his passion for photography, focusing on everything from wildlife and landscapes to night shoots of Route 66. His wife of 24 years, Noma, encourages him every step of the way—and so do his daughter and granddaughter. See more of his photos at jasonburr.com.

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back when WITH WES REEVES

AMARILLO DAILY

NEWS, JUNE 8, 191

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But by 1908 Amarillo was kicking back and feeling a mite fancy. The Lord was rightfully worshipped, at long last, in temples of brick and stone. There were fancy hotels, a big opera house on Polk and an electric streetcar line that connected all this newfound urbanity together.

At Ellwood Park, you could trot out your surrey—fringe or no fringe on top—and take your gal on a ride through an awkward forest of Siberian elm saplings and convince yourself it was Kansas City. An age of leisure had dawned and Amarillo had earned it.

For some folks, however, this Edwardian idyll felt a bit too boujie, and maybe a bit too safe. After all, this was Amarillo, where something like getting kicked in the head by a mule was funny as long as it didn’t lead to serious injury. So at just the right time in the city’s history, along came Glenwood Electric Park to keep things real.

Glenwood is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, but in 1908, it was “way outchunder” as we like to say. What drew the masses that year to the vicinity of Southeast 28th and Osage was a new amusement park complete with a roller coaster, a carousel and a Ferris wheel. There was also dog and horse racing, a track for racing automobiles and a small zoo. You could even take in a baseball game or hear a concert in the two-story opera house built on site. And it was all lit up with electricity, the latest and greatest wonder of the age.

The Amarillo Street Railway Company, itself powered by electricity, built a special line from downtown to deliver citizens to the front gate of the park. Imagine being whisked away on an electric streetcar in the late evening of a golden Panhandle summer day, rounding the turn to Glenwood and seeing the largest collection of electric lights a country boy or gal had ever seen. Glenwood Electric Park, in its day, was the thrill of Cynergy, Wonderland and Smokey Joe’s on a Saturday night—all in one place.

Sadly, it wasn’t to last. Just like now, we tend to go hog wild on something new and then move on pretty quickly. Soon enough folks were buying cars, and riding the trolley was sooo 1908. By 1917, the streetcar line to Glenwood was discontinued, and the electric park shorted out.

The memories of Glenwood Electric Park have faded with the generations that have now passed on. There’s no trace of it left, with most of the site having been built over in recent years by Glenwood Apartments. But that spirit of adventure and love of all things new were woven into Amarillo’s DNA a long time ago, and Glenwood Electric Park was a powerful influence on our yearning to rest from our labors and have a little fun.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF PANHANDLE-PLAINS MUSEUM

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marillo was founded in 1887, and for about 20 years she was all work. There were rails to be laid, cattle to be shipped, babies to be birthed and wickedness to be cleansed.

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PHOTO BY HILARY HULSEY

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finish

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KAREN WELCH SENIOR CONTENT PRODUCER, PANHANDLE PBS The best advice I ever heard is ... “You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather” (Pema Chodron). A great metaphor. Emotions are temporary. They don’t define you unless you let them.

My three most recommended books are ... The Poisonwood Bible

by Barbara Kingsolver—amazing how Kingsolver kept multiple points of view going throughout; Maria Chabot – Georgia O’Keeffe: Correspondence, 1941-1949—Books of letters are the best way to “hear” historical figures speak. This covers O’Keeffe during the war years when she spent winters in New York and summers at Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu, New Mexico; any poetry book by Billy Collins.

Everyone in Amarillo needs to experience ... EVERY neighbborhood. There’s so much to learn about the people, history and culture of our community when we venture outside our own set of neighborhood blocks. Drive a different way to work every day.

Participate in events across the city.

If I could change any one local thing it would be ... more neon!

It gives downtown such a colorful vibe.

This city is amazing at ... coming together to help when a need arises.

To me, success means ... Always remembering that everything is interesting. Look closer.

My favorite place in Amarillo is ... in front of any one of the great murals popping up every day.

People who know me might be surprised that I ... could be a Santa Fe tour guide. We love it there.

A local organization I love right now ... Operation First Five, a group focused on the first five years in a child’s life and how critical those years are for health, learning and social adjustment.

They have helpful information for parents. Look them up: facebook.com/OperationFirst5.

My biggest pet peeve is ... being interviewed. Ha! It feels awkward because I’m usually the one asking the questions!

SALT FORK CATTLE CO. SALT FORK CATTLE CO. Armstrong County // $7,900,000

Armstrong County // $7,900,000

Located in the headwaters of the Salt Fork, Located in the headwaters of the Salt Fork, this a great opportunity to own a slice a this a great opportunity to own a slice a pristine Texas countryside. pristine Texas countryside.

3,811 Acres 3,811 Acres 40,000 Sq Ft Indoor Arena 40,000 Sq Ft Indoor Arena Irrigated Grassland Irrigated Grassland Varying Topography Varying Topography For more info go to wellbornland.com/saltfork For more info go to

wellbornland.com/saltfork

Listing by Taylor Wellborn, Broker in Texas & New Mexico 806.676.1747