Coveted by The Covey: You have to love a restaurant where the central focal point is a 7-barrel brewery; brightens the mood immediately. What makes The Covey Restaurant and Brewery unique is the upscale, creative food options in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere. So comfortable that even Mr. B has been known to nap there after a few award-winning pints. Lauren Kwedar, PR punster to the restaurant stars, brewed up a $50 gift certificate and it’s good for the brew side, the eats side or a combo.
Frog football fever: Ever get to a football game early to beat the traffic? Look down on the field and wonder who all those non-team, non-cheerleader, non-band hangers-on were? Here’s your opportunity to find out. Scott Kull, TCU ticketmeister, has two pre-game sideline passes for the TCU-Texas State football game at Amon Carter Stadium September 19. You’ll be hob-knobbing sideline-to-sideline while fans in the stands wonder who you are. Scott will even let you stay around and watch the game from two primo seats. Search in the Chamber's Online Member Directory for TCU to see its Member Discount for every home game this season.
Elle of a deal: Perky, energetic Becky Gulsvig lost her foothold as the lead actress when she slipped and broke her toe backstage earlier this year, but now she’s back as Elle in the touring Legally Blonde, The Musical, which begins Tuesday, Aug. 4. Casa Mañana’s Illegal Blondes, Darcy and Susan, managed to snare an opening night four pack, which could be your great seats at Bass Performance Hall.
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Hemant Pandya, Best Western Fort Worth Inn & Suites, and Don Barnes, Texas Driving Experience, ponder the unique aspects of their businesses that might make news in Mr. B’s Newz-E-Letter. Money Works is a five-part series for business owners and managers of small to mid-size companies to discuss ideas and solutions. They meet at the Residence Inn by Marriott in the Cultural District.
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All Rite: So, last we checked our air filters was circa 2005 and Derek Dickens, heir conditioner of sales at AirRite Air Conditioning Company, figures he can improve your air quality and comfort in this stifling heat. AirRite will set up a monitor that will sample the air within your home/office during a 72-hour period. The device monitors allergens, VOCs, dust, pollution, etc., so when it’s done, you’ll know it’s time to move. Actually, AirRite will make recommendations WITHOUT OBLIGATION. Derek has donated three of these tests.
Tangled tongue: Numbers lady Vanja Djuric, who came to America as a young teen from Bosnia, says her accent is All-American. “Sometimes, I’m speaking English, but thinking in another language,” says the 25-year-old CPA and owner of Direct Tax Service. “Then my Bosnian accent starts to come back.”
Extreme acting: Jodi Beard, GM of the Residence Inn Marriott-Cultural District, volunteered for last week’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition. She says there’s lots of acting and staging going on and what you see on TV is not what you see on location. Even the “Move that bus” segment, during which the new home is unveiled, is rehearsed. She called it a gratifying, heart-warming volunteer event.
Muffins to Mars: Five Pointwise interns, obviously with little to do, have won the Intern Hero contest conducted by Little Debbie Muffins. They used Pointwise software tools to answer the question "Are Little Debbie Muffins Aerodynamic?” The software was developed for solving problems in the aerospace, automotive and manufacturing industries, “but shows its outstanding flexibility by easily meshing the organic shape of a Little Debbie Muffin," said Dr. Richard Matus, Pointwise vice president of sales and marketing.
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Cheap chirp: Forbes magazine rated Fort Worth/Arlington the nation’s seventh best bargain boomtown. It must have done extensive interview with the Chamber’s Miserly Mistress, who pays Mr. B 39 cents an hour.
Just wondering: Is an emailed newsletter from a printer an oxymoron?
Do as I say. Do as I do: New member Resin Technologies, a consulting firm to plastics companies, has put on a full-press on going green. Figured it couldn’t educate/encourage its clients to do so if it wasn’t; director of administration Sheila Williams is leading the effort.
Nice touch: Northwest ISD is opening a new high school in Trophy Club – Byron Nelson High School. Great tribute to a great golfer.
Date night tip: If you have a Star-Telegram Press Pass, you can go to The Movie Tavern Monday nights and get two tickets for the price of one. If you can get a fake student ID card, it’s just $5.50 for two tickets.
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Free tip: When networking, your immediate goal should be to make a friend, not a sale.
Hear, hear! At a Chamber gathering, Elizabeth Oliva of Ambit Energy was across the room, celebrating/promoting her $6 electric bill from July, a $200-plus savings. “Come and ask me out,” she said. Mr. B raced across the room to ask her out and ask her to pay, considering her savings. “I said, ‘Ask me HOW,’” Elizabeth explained. Mr. B needs to visit Harry Gardnar at American Hearing Labs.
Today’s lesson: There are 254 counties in Texas. Tarrant County includes 41 municipalities. Excluding Arlington, the other 39 have more residents than Fort Worth. According to county administrator G.K. Maenius, the county’s priorities are 1) to administer justice (“We have 3,300 ‘hotel’ guests every night.”); 2) to provide public health and 3) assist with transportation issues.
Garden party: The business card of Jennifer Fitzgerald of REAL School Gardens is cleverly printed on a package of seeds. She gave Mr. B one that said radishes. He planted the seeds. They grew. And grew. And grew. He now has a watermelon garden.
Crashing the party: New member Dave’s Collison Center has opened on White Settlement Road. Should open in L.A., where daughter MisBehavin’ is a guaranteed customer five times a year.
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Christmas in August: Sanders Claus is coming to town Aug. 15. Deion and one of his companies, PrimeTimePlayer, join with Uplift Fort Worth the morning of Aug. 15 at Wilkerson Greines Activity Center to give away school supplies to as many as 15,000 deserving students in the Metroplex. Chazma Jones says to contact her if your company wants to participate.
Riding coattails: Erma Johnson Hadley’s ascension to interim Chancellor for Tarrant County College District set the stage for the promotion of Bill Lace to Vice Chancellor and Donna Darovich to executive assistant to the chancellor.
Social and (media) savvy: When he heads back to school, Newz-E-Letter loyalist Richie Escovedo will have been promoted to Director of Media & Communications for Mansfield ISD.
Times they are a changing: In the olden days, we would come back to school and write “What I did this summer.” With Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, we already know.
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