The Opera House Ball

You can find details on the Opera House Ball, mentioned in the previous post, here.

Electric Maid-Rites launched

Kim and Frank serving 'em up Rite.

Atlantic Maid-Rite converged on The Burrito Monday to fire up our collaboration called MAID-RITE MONDAY.

The good people of Corning responded, and we had a healthy crowd reminiscing as the aromas and flavors of Maid-Rites triggered the Good Old Days.

Let me be the first to encourage you to keep track of the Maid-Rite dates we have scheduled, as variety is, in fact, the spice of life. Keep ‘em coming back by stopping in and supporting them as they reach out to our community. And when you visit Atlantic, be sure and stop in for a Maid-Rite and a shake on their home turf.

And, you know, stop in for a burrito and a beer on the other days of your week!

Introducing Maid-Rite Mondays

In a collaborative effort with our Maid-Rite making friends in Atlantic, Kim and Frank, Electric Burrito would like to introduce Maid-Rite Monday.

Since the good folks of Corning need lunch just as much as we need a small break on Mondays, we’ve joined forces to offer Maid-Rites during our normal lunch hours (11am-2pm) on a couple of Mondays each month. Here’s a press release, with all the details:

For Immediate Release

January 8, 2009

Contact: J. Wilson, Electric Burrito, 641- 322-3990

Kimberlee Spillers, Atlantic Maid-Rite, 712-250-0275

Original Maid-Rite Meets New Electric Burrito

The Atlantic Maid-Rite will be On the Loose in Corning three Mondays this winter: January 19, February 2, and February 16 serving from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m..

In the cooperative spirit small towns are known to promote, Electric Burrito owners, J. and Michelle Wilson are welcoming Atlantic Maid-Rite owners, Frank and Kimberlee Spillers, to use their newly-opened restaurant on Mondays, the day the Wilsons take a well-deserved break.

Electric Burrito serves tasty Mexican-inspired food in a pleasant and unpretentious atmosphere. Opening in the spring of 2008, Electric Burrito proudly serves rotating specialty salsas, homemade desserts, as well as beer, wine and cider crafted in Iowa.At the invitation of the Wilsons, the Spillers traveled to Corning to view the restaurant, describe how Maid-Rites can be served, and how the Electric Burrito might be a temporary host home. They decided to try three dates for Maid-Rite Mondays to see how the public receives the venture.

For their part, the Spillers, through the generosity of Wyman Ford, of Griswold and Atlantic, and Atlantic Bottling, have developed the only two mobile vehicles to sell original Maid-Rite sandwiches in the country outside their permanent shoppe. The mobile units are dubbed “On the Loose,” a play on words for the Iowa-famous loose meat sandwiches.

“Soon after we opened our shoppe in Atlantic in November, 2007, we discovered that more than 50 percent of our business comes not just from outside Atlantic, but from outside Cass County,” says co-owner Frank Spillers. “We developed the trailer concept to thank communities for coming to Atlantic by making occasional trips to their hometowns. Corning is one of the communities whose residents make the trek to Atlantic to visit the Maid-Rite Shoppe.”

“The Wilsons were very gracious and enthusiastic to try something new,” adds Kimberlee Spillers. “We want to bring attention to their new restaurant, and we both want to succeed. In any economy, you have to give people good food at a good value. Our two restaurants are creating a new model to complement our food choices and offer the people of Corning and Adams County options and access. People with Maid-Rite memories are especially grateful for us to come to their town. We’ve heard hundreds of stories by people who grew up in a town with a Maid-Rite no longer there, and they miss it! When we visit communities, though we have some other food they can choose, people want their Maid-Rites!”

For information about the Electric Burrito, contact J. Wilson at 641-322-3990, or visit www.electricburrito.net. For Maid-Rites On the Loose, contact Frank or Kimberlee Spillers at 712-250-0275.

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Sample Corning Salsas

Tonight’s Sample Corning, and I hope you’ve made plans to come to town. There will be loads of good food, friends and cheer. You’ll likely stumble across gift ideas, new burrito places to frequent, prizes to win and recipes.

We’ll be doing a drawing for a $25 Gift Certificate as well as an Electric Burrito t-shirt. We’ll have 5 salsas flowing, including the debut of Hot Lips Houlihan, a new salsa packed with habeneros. And love. It’s got some heat, so beware. It joins our House Salsa, Casa Rojo, Hell-apeno and Green Machine tonight.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Salsa for the Road is here

By popular demand, we are now offering our fresh salsas for you take home with you.

We’ve come up with Salsa for the Road, which allows you to score a pint of your favorite salsa for your own special occasion at the ol’ homestead, church or fill-in-the-blank event. Our House Salsa and Casa Rojo  are available at any time, but we’ll ask you to give us a heads-up if you have interest in any of the other rotating salsas. For those, indredients, prep time, our interest in freshness and delivery dates come into play. Ask your server (or J. or Michelle) for details and we’ll work out a way for us to meet your needs.

At this time, we’re offering the following salsas to-go:

• House Salsa
• Casa Rojo
• Electric Salsa
• Dark Side
• Peach Salsa
• The Green Dragon
• Hell-apeno
• Dazed and Corn-fused
• Green Machine

Prices vary. Enjoy!

What’s today’s salsa?

The Green Dragon

We’ll start the day off with the Green Dragon. It’s new, and packed with green chilis, garlic and some jalapenos, the latter for a little heat, though it won’t leave you breathing fire.

But what about tomorrow’s salsa? And the next day?

To make it easier for you to catch your favorite salsa as it pops up, I’ve started a twitter feed, which you can seen in the margin at the right. I’ll do my best to keep up with letting you know when we change the salsas every day or two. We’ll toss in other updates, as well, so keep an eye out.

If you’re really hardcore, you can eye everything from my Twitter page, which you can access by clicking here. I’m sure it could be even faster and more effective if I was a big text messenger, so I could do it from my phone, but I’m not, so bear with my good effort to hit my computer when something new’s hitting the plates.

NOTE: This updateness fabulosity comes at the request of a Hell-apeno fan that goes by the name of Salsa Lover. Since I, too, love salsa, and could see the point, she got me off my duff to make it happen quicker than it otherwise would have. Cheers, Salsa Lover!

Achtung Kristi!

I’m doing the Hell-apeno today.

If anyone sees Kristi Ritchie around town today, can they please help make sure she knows?

While supplies last…

Burritos To Go…

I’m nothing if not a diligent attempter at keeping my word.

To that end, I’m ready to get back to that to-go ordering that I said would be a couple of weeks away. Basically, I’ve put together a limited to-go menu that I’ll ask you to use. The portions and prices are in line with our entree menu, as some folks are seeking to-go orders not only at lunch, but also in the evening hours. I need it to be uniform for my own sanity. The entree menu choice of beans or rice is confined to beans on this to-go menu.

You can pick up 5.5″ X 8″ hard copy at the Burrito, or print the image below for use at home or in your office.

Thanks for supporting us!

Electric Lunch at Fickle Frog, Part Dos

Thanks to multiple requests (popular demand?), we’ve scheduled a second Mexican luncheon at the Fickle Frog.

Date: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 (serving from 11am to 1:30pm)

We’ll need to have your reservations by 5pm on February 22 . Seating is limited, and we actually had to turn some late reservation-makers away last time, so don’t procrastinate.

The menu will be a little more familiar than January’s lunch in that we’ll be serving refried beans and rice as a side to what else? Electric Burritos! These are nacho average burritos, I should mention. These are inspired by Granddad Dave’s elk machaca. Fear not–these will be beef, not elk, and they are mighty tasty.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Electric Lunch at the Fickle Frog

A big thanks to all who came to the yesterday’s lunch served at the Fickle Frog. We served a total of 56 customers, and I heard a lot of positive feedback on the food. Thanks.

Intrigued by our menu choice, several folks asked if we’d have the posole and spoon bread on our menu. The answer to both is yes, with the posole showing up as a “soup of the day” and the spoon bread as a side for evening specials. Our menu will definitely include the tacos, burritos and enchiladas that everyone would expect, but Thursday’s menu choice gave us a chance to show you some depth, while doing something a little more manageable for a “one-off” meal in “somebody else’s kitchen.”

The other question that came up yesterday was, “will you be doing this again before you open?” The answer to that is yes, at least once. Donna and I will sort out a date for late February. I’ll post the info here, and of course, you’ll be able to check in at the Frog for the menu, date and reservations.

__________

PS: Please thank Donna, as I’m probably a pain in her neck.