A busy weekend part two

After I left the car show on Saturday, I headed for the Fly-In at the Airport. Along the way I checked out the fairgrounds, where preparations were being made for the fair. The first event, the crowning of the new fair queen has already taken place.

 The Jasper County Historical Society needs to do repair work on the log cabin. Some of the logs are rotting. Fair visitors will have the opportunity not only to watch repairs being made, but to help make them.

 The Fly-In did not seem as big this year as it has been in the past--perhaps because some of the potential vendors had visited during career day in May.

 However, Purdue, which had not been able to bring a plane to career day was there and letting kids sit in the plane and play with the controls. In the hangar behind the plane people were enjoying the pork chop dinner that goes with the event.

 This looked like it might have been the oldest plane there. It was tiny, with cramped quarters for a pilot and one passenger. The plane is made of fabric and then painted with a heavy paint that makes it feel like plastic. It has no electronics. When it gets close to big airports, the pilot is supposed to radio the airport and tell them where he is because the plane does not show up on radar.

 On Sunday I attended the soft opening of the Station at Embers. The idea of the soft opening is to allow a limited number of people to attend so that the staff can train, test food, and learn their jobs. The danger of just opening to everyone is that there may be a crowd too big to handle and thus the customers first experience will be a bad one.

I think the appearance of the place is great. The theme is industrial because this was once a service station.

 The restaurant has hired about ten people. The waitresses were very busy when we were there. All the cooking is done in the kiln or oven. The cooks are not experienced cooks, but it probably does not matter because cooking in the oven is unlike cooking in a normal kitchen. It also gives the food a different taste.

I am not a food critic (I have been told I do not have a palate and I cannot disagree), but I liked the pizza a lot. The menu had more items than I expected and the prices were reasonable. Below are pizza and Italian beef sandwich.

The bottle is for water--part of the ambiance.

There is another day (Tuesday) of the soft opening (you need a reservation to attend) and then there will be a day or two to make any changes necessary, and then the public opening happens.