Open House

I have become a major Donald Miller fan. He's an author/blogger. He wrote a book entitled A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Could be the best book I've read. I actually have been rereading it via my ears. And have found that a listening to an audio book is altogether a different experience than the printed page. I can't reread a great sentence, but I can get lost in a book in a different way. Anyway, in Million Miles I was introduced, through Don, to a man by the name of Bob Goff, who's a pretty amazing and creative familyman. Bob has a unique way of creating memorable experiences through the act of hospitality. Inspired by this, last weekend I was determined to make something special out of what had the potential to be a run-of-the-mill Saturday.

Last weekend my wife was away with some college girlfriends and it was just me and the boys. I wanted to figure out some sort of Goffian experience for the day. Some imagination later, we decided we'd open a restaurant for the evening where we'd play host, chef and sous-chef to the neighborhood.

Figuring we wanted to keep this pretty simple (we are guys after all), we thought we could grill up some burgers and some dogs, fill a couple of bowls with chips, some bottled water in an icy cooler, and call it a menu.

We wrestled with names, but landed on Three Guys Burgers and Dogs (we are three guys after all). The invitation was designed. Neighborhood mailboxes were stuffed Ground beef was spiced Patties were formed The garage was transformed into a makeshift front-of-house Music was cued. And we waited.

It's hard to wait for a couple of hours when you're excited.

My oldest invited a couple of friends from his bus route. My youngest—a key player amongst the neighborhood kids (and by player, I mean the kid really likes to play)—was on and about ensuring the best attendance from the community.

Now it was an interesting experience for my oldest. He really enjoys cooking and playing host. But on the cusp of being a teenager, this sort of event sits on the border of "embarrassing" and pretty darn cool. To ensure we staved off the "embarrassment", when his friends arrived, I immediately put them to work—pulling them into the event. One was on chip duty. The other bun duty.

In total we had about 15-20 people show up over the course of the evening. And, it turns out it was pretty cool. There was laughter from the kids. Some great conversation amongst the adults who dropped by. A good bit of eating. And a memorable day.

Outside of the enjoyment of watching and participating in others' enjoyment (which was very evident) was the final moments of the day when I was asking my "guys" if they had fun. They both said, yeah, let's do that again.

I plan to.

Hopefully there will be no cease and desist letter coming from the folks at Five Guys....