The Special Fall 2016
THE SPECIAL is an online magazine produced by jounalism students at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Content and production are the responsiblities of the students. THE SPECIAL is produced during the fall and spring terms. CONTACT: The Special, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Box 4104, Commerce, Texas 75428 STAFF: Allie James Kyle Hall Dareious Scott Sam Stevens FACULTY ADVISER: Fred Stewart (Fred.Stewart@tamuc.edu) Page 1
The Special
November 2, 2016
Index...Page 2 Dos Laredos...Pages 3-4 McKays...Page 5 The Lone Star...Page 6 Omega’s...Page 7 Meet Your Writers...Page 8
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The Special
November 2, 2016
Dos Laredos Tex-Mex Sam Stevens Journalism Student
D
os Laredos is a TexMex restaurant in downtown Commerce that has only been open for a little over a year, but is quickly becoming a favorite among locals. Located on the square, Dos Laredos opened its doors in May of 2015, and has been serving Commerce as a family restaurant ever since. Coowners, Jose Parra and Tomas Ruiz, pride themselves on their home-cooked food and quality service. The popular Tex-Mex restaurant is open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., and serves a wide array of specialty dishes. The style is very much a Texan-Mexican blend, with some of their favorites be-
Co-owners Jose Parra and Tomas Ruiz
ing things like nacho platters and large burritos covered in different types of sauce.
“We have a new favorite here with customers, called the Enchiladas Karina,” Parra said. “It comes with three cheese enchiladas, with meat on top. A lot of people really like it.” Dos Laredos offers many new takes on traditional dishes, in an attempt to cater to the people of Commerce. On the menu, one can find anything from enchilada platters to the classic southern comfort food, chicken fried steak. “Also, our cheese dip, the queso blanco, it’s one of the top sellers,” Ruiz said. “at least for appetizers.” The new take on a traditional chips and queso, with a melted monterey jack cheese instead of the normal cheddar, has become another one of Dos Laredos’ signatures. While the restaurant is located in the heart of down-
town Commerce, neither coowner of Dos Laredos was a resident of the city before opening. Ruiz currently lives in Mount Pleasant, and makes the hour long commute every day for the sake of the restaurant. Parra now lives in Commerce, but is originally from Camden, Ark, which is about three and a half hours away. He brought his wife and kids with him. “My kids go to the middle school here in Commerce, and we love it here. We’re happy,” Parra said. Both men speak highly of the town, like how they send and thoroughly enjoy serving the people. They say that their main goal is to please the people, and give them food that they like. Because of this, Dos Laredos is always putting out new platters. “We try and do our best every single week, so we check our reports and we check to see how we can improve,” Parra said. “We try to keep the people happy. That is our goal.”
McKay’s
McKay’s sign in building
An old-fashioned burger joint in Commerce is gaining popularity with its homey style and southern cooking. McKay’s Country Kitchen and Bbq was named “Best Burger in Northeast Texas” by Thunder County 107.1 FM in March 2014, an honor the small restaurant was excited to accept. The radio station’s award came as a surprise to Commerce citizens, who had not expected one of their own locally-owned businesses to receive such recognition, but the café on Main Street continues to draw attention to itself. While Commerce consists of several fast food restaurants, there are few family-owned cafés in town that have been successful. McKay’s is one of the few that has survived and remains popular among residents. “Great hometown cooking and hometown feeling,” Bonnie Hingle Spring, a loyal customer of McKay’s, said. “So glad to have McKay’s in Commerce. Love to bring out-of-towners to our little hometown café on the square.” McKay’s features a variety of food from omelets and pork chops for breakfast to burgers and baked potatoes for dinner. “Love the BLT and tater tots, and breakfast rocks,” McKay’s customer CJ Stevens said. McKay’s is most popular for
Country kitchen
& Bbq
their breakfast items, which include biscuits and gravy, personalized omelets, hash browns, and of coffee. The restaurant features specials each Friday night that draw attention from large families and groups of students from Texas A&M University – Commerce that like to visit the restaurant and enjoy the company of their friends and the servers each week. The low prices and items featured during the Friday specials continue to draw a crowd each Friday night. Although the café recently remodeled some of the interior, they still strive to make the inside of the restaurant comforting and bear a resemblance to southern homes. Many customers say that eating at McKay’s feels like eating with family. With their wooden tables and solid red floors, the style of the restaurant is similar in structure and decoration to many Texas homes. The walls are decorated with dreamcatchers, crosses, and farm equipment to portray southern culture. The exterior of McKay’s matches its interior, with dark red and green being the primary colors that try to make the restaurant stand out from the other stores on the strip. A commonly talked-about item in McKay’s is their signature chairs, which people describe as being “ugly” but retain a strong love for the unique design of the café’s interior. Their renowned chairs are dark green and yellow, with stripes and symbols that gave the restaurant a native look in their prime, but have recently faded to a more old-fashioned look that emphasize the homeliness of the restaurant. McKay’s manager Kelli Sweet – Anderson encourages everyone to visit the café and try their ever-changing specials, including the sandwiches and pork chops, one of the items she still enjoys very much. Doug Rohrabaugh from the Com-
merce Chamber of Commerce weighed in on how McKay’s is a special restaurant in commerce when he published the April 2014 edition of the Chamber of Commerce newsletter. “The McKay’s Brisket Burger is a masterfully blended half brisket and half ground beef patty topped with cheese, grilled onions, bacon, and barbecue sauce,” Rohrabaugh said. He was one among many reviewers to express that McKay’s has a signature style and elaborate flavor that makes it popular with the guests. McKay’s is open Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m.–3 p.m., as well as Fridays from 6 a.m.-9 p.m. and Saturdays from 6 a.m.-3 p.m. It is located on Main Street, right in the Commerce square.
Menu from restaurant
Lone Star EATERY GRILL AND BAR
By: Kyle Hall
Located at the intersection of Highway 24 and Culver Street is the Lone Star Eatery Grill and Bar, a family-owned, non-chain restaurant that has both good and affordable food. “We want to be the restaurant of choice in Commerce,” Owner Ken Moyer said about the motto on the front of every hiring application. Lone Star Eatery Grill and Bar, that was located on Live Oak Street, was closed down in 1999 so that Moyer could create a new and improved company that would stand out against the diverse Commerce eating choices. Aug. 27, 2008 Lone Star Eatery Grill and Bar reopened in a new location, the one where it currently sits, where it is the first food choice that people see when they drive into Commerce. Moyer is keeping true to the motto by making sure that the community knows their friendly, down home personality and that they are the epicenter for southern culinary food. He wants to make sure that if people who have not come to Lone Star to come try it out. He also said that if you have had a bad experience to come try it again. “You get a great value here. You get a bigger portion than from chain restaurants,” Moyer said. Page 6
“When you eat at Lone Star, the food value is better. Instead of having to pay so much on the dollar to go to another food source when you are a franchise, that money is put directly into what food goes out. Also, when you are a franchise, you have to save so much money a year to make sure that you have enough to do remodels to the restaurant whenever your contracts says you have to remodel. The cost of being a franchise goes to the food and because of this, you get better food output.” Moyer said. Moyer also makes sure that the surrounding school districts are taken care of when he is approached for donations. “We have given countless donations to Commerce,” Moyer said. “We are approached by every school and are approached weekly, if not more. We give gift cards or certificates for raffles or for other prizes for the high school and for the college.” Moyer said that there could be a possibility of some more Lone Star restaurants to come up and that he thinks about it all the time. “You’re either growing or going out of business,” Moyer said.
The Special
November 2, 2016
OMEGA’S Biscuits N’ Eggs By Dareious Scott There aren’t many food places to eat around campus, but that doesn’t mean that the ones available aren’t worth a trip. Omega’s Biscuits N Eggs is one of those restaurants. Owner Omega Martinez is the founder of the restaurant and has keeping her customers coming through the door every since. The restaurant opened up a year ago and it’s been up and running ever since,” Martinez said. “I see a lot of familiar faces everyday and it brings joy for me to see people coming in and out.” The city of Commerce is a small but unique city. The food businesses are competing against one another for scarce time and money of the people that live in the city. If Omegas continue to run an efficient food chain for over a year, there has to be something that are drawing customers back and also keeps the business afloat, but what exactly would that be? “Customer service is something that we take serious and it’s a must for anybody who works here,” Martinez said. “It’s something that we value here and it’s something that our customers value in us as well.” “I love to get an omelet with a biscuit and hash browns,” Jaqueline Portis, a junior at Texas A&M Commerce said. “Whenever I want to have a nice home cooked meal, I know that I can come to Omegas and get that. You can’t say that about too many places and that’s the one thing that keeps me coming back occasionally. Omega offers food and deserts for the locals and the students as the restaurant
opens up at 6 a.m. and closes at 8 p.m. offering a variery of meals. “As long as the people who come here are happy and taken care of,” Martinez said. “We value everything about our customers and the food that we serve.”
Photo by Dareious Scott
Meet Your Writers Allie James
is
an
aspiring
film
director that has experience in radio
hosting,
television
news,
television
production,
and
news
writing.
She
is
a
student
at
Texas
A&M
University
-
Commerce,
majoring
in
radio-television
with
a
minor
in
psychology.
Kyle Hall
is
a
Junior
at
Texas
A&M
University-Commerce
and
majoring
in
Public
Relations
and
minoring
in
Speech
Communication.
He
is
also
the
assistant
cheer
coach
at
the
university.
He
hopes
to
one
day
own
his
own
cheer
gym
or
work
in
the
coporate
world
and
put
his
knowledge
to
practice.
Dareious Scott
is
currently
a
junior
at
Texas
A&M
Commerce
and
majoring
in
Journalism.
His
hobbies
include
reading
and
watching
basketball.
Sam Stevens is an aspiring Journalism
student
at
Texas
A&M
University
-
Commerce.
He
hopes
to
eventually
do
work
in
multi-media
production
involving
extreme
outdoor
sports.
Page 8
The
Special
November
2,
2016