Snow cone mania!

It's no secret around here that Brittany Pelletz is obsessed with snow cones. She even made us put in today's news that snow cone stands are starting to open!

Hard Rock Snow Cones on Judge Ely Blvd. is open for business in the afternoons. We also here there is one on South 14th near the Shell station that's already open.

What's your favorite local snow cone stand?

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The fastest lunch in Abilene?

Just from my personal experience, I've found that Red Robin is the place to go for a quick bite that doesn't feel quick.

Each time I go, and that's 2-3 times a month, we're in and out in half an hour, if we choose to be. The service is super fast without feeling rushed... IF you don't go at a busy time of day. We usually get there around 11-11:15 to beat the crowd. If you go on a weekend or right at noon, you'll probably get slower service. But the wait staff is really attentive and the food seems to take very little time to prepare.

Now, my husband and I have dined at Pernini's for dinner for less than we spent on today's lunch at Red Robin, but it's always delicious and fast... and I guess that'll cost ya.

It's Back!! Pizza Inn Returns to Abilene

As a youngster growing up in Arlington, Texas, I lived right down the street from a Pizza Inn. I can't remember which night it was, but my mother would take my brother and I once a week to eat the buffet. We didn't go out to eat too often, so I always looked forward to it. The best part: getting a couple spoonfulls of pudding off the salad bar for desert!

Years later, I enjoy pizza buffets -- probably, because of fond childhood memories. My wife, on the other hand, despises them. She says they're "gross" because food is sitting out everywhere and there's only type of food available. Huh?

When I heard the new Pizza Inn was open off Judge Ely in Abilene, I had to check it out for myself. The place was absolutely packed with guests...and with employees. I joked with someone that there was an employee for each pizza on the buffet. They were so busy keeping the pizza's organized that one worker moved the pizza tray out from under me as I tried to put a piece on my plate.

As for the pizza, it was pizza. It wouldn't call it amazing, and I wouldn't call it bad either. It was better than Cici's and not quite Double Dave's.

The atmosphere of the place was decent. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but they did have a couple flat screen televisions showing two of my favorite channels: news and news (Fox News and CNN).

If you're in the area (in front of the old Cisco College), check it out. It's worth a try...

As I was leaving, they placed Buffalo Chicken Pizza on the buffet, and I didn't get to sample it! If you go, have a piece for me!

Lunch au naturale

I tried the Natural Foods Center in Abilene (on South 7th near Rose Park) for the first time on Saturday, and I will DEFINITELY return!

The food was so good and was reasonably priced. In fact, my husband just asked me if I'd like to go back for lunch today. (Maybe later in the week.)

I got the special which just said "Salmon and Avocado with Wasabi" or something. I had no idea what it was going to look like, but figured the ingredients sounded good. It turned out to be two types of salad served with chips and lettuce. One salad was salmon with avocado, onion, pineapple and who knows what else. The other was avocado with onion, papaya and maybe cilantro? It was kind of strange to be eating two different salads of the same consistency, but both were tasty.

My husband got a burger, which he really enjoyed. The whole lunch cost $15. Not bad at all!

The Natural Foods Center is really large, but the restaurant portion takes up much more room than the store portion. I was also surprised not to find produce... maybe I missed it or maybe it doesn't sell fast enough or something.

There were dozens of tables set up, and about half of them were full at 1 p.m. on a Saturday.

I'm excited about Thursdays there. They have live music and serve tapas, both a la carte and a la fixed price menu. Sounds great, and can't wait to go back! (Well, I guess I CAN wait a couple of days, at least.)

Use Twitter for great dining deals

Do you use twitter?

• Yes - skip to paragraph 3 (Twitter isn't too popular in the Big Country yet)
  
• No - oh, are you missing out on some deals! Keep reading.
  

First of all, you don't have to sign up to see what people or businesses are writing on twitter, but you do have to sign up to see more than one person at a time. Then, just find who you're looking for and click "follow" and their tweets will show up on your home screen.

Not sold yet? Check out this pretty little micro-example of what deals are out there if you follow the right people. Unfortunately, this is a screen grab, and not an actual feed so you can't click on it. But if you want to be able to interact with these local savings, go to http://twitter.com/bigcountryhome/local-businesses.

Do you want @bigcountryhome to follow you? We love finding out about what's going on in the community in 140 words or less. And if your tweets involve me getting something for cheap, all the better. Ha!

New Schlotzsky's in north Abilene

The old Burger King at North 10th and Judge Ely is going to become a Schlotzsky's.

It will be owned by the same people who own the sandwich shop on South 14th. The owners expect to have the new place open in a couple of months!

The building next to Rosa's has been vacant for a while.

Zoo-Kini's Offers Lower Price Salad Bar

I was pleasantly surprised at Zoo-Kini's today when the waitress told me I could make one trip to the salad bar and bread station for $5.99.

All-you-can-eat salad bar is normally $6.99 and I think it's $7.99 if you add the bread.

I talked to the manager who said they'd continue the $5.99 deal if enough people say they like it. He made sure to ask our opinion about it. I told him that with the advance warning, I was able to pile up my plate and was stuffed at the end of the meal.

He said with everyone raising their prices these days, they decided to offer a cheaper option to the customers who only make one trip anyway.

Yay for that!