Besties' Weekend '26 (pt. 2)
3/13-16/26
On the Saturday of Besties’ Weekend, we went to the Lucky Shamrock Market Ooltewah, TN, organized by Charlotte Grace Events.
It was a great little festival inside a high-end strip mall.
It was a beautiful day, there were a variety of great vendors, a petting zoo for the kids. music in the square, raffles, food, lots of parking, and access to the shops in the square as well.
The only bummer was that we could only find one bathroom area, with one bathroom for men and one for women. That was not enough of bathrooms for that crowd (especially when one entitled woman decides to use the one bathroom as her own fitting room, while a line of us waited patiently… but I digress…)
Some great vendors we met were:
Jo’s Jams and Jellies - great selection of flavors, very friendly (and funny) people, and good prices!
Summertime Bees - Very knowledgeable, friendly beekeepers with a good variety of honeys, soaps and cosmetics. Great tasting honey too!
Crumb and Kettle - One of the best smelling booths at the market! Loose leaf teas, plants, candles… great selection and tasty teas.
Pet Wants Food and treats and and chews, oh my! That booth was crowded with pet parents, and they had a great selection of products for fur-babies.
Fred’s Kettle Corn - It’s a not a day at a fair/festival/event for me unless I have kettle corn! And I found them! I’m not just saying this because Fred is a fellow New Yorker, but their corn was yummy!
It was a great little festival that only two things: more bathrooms and a little more Irish.
That night, Lisa and I went to Windy City Grille in Maryville TN, where we were meeting up with a friend of mine.
We got there just as the DJ started to play for their St. Patrick’s event.
*groan*
The DJ was way too loud for the space, even the waitress said that it would be difficult to hear each other. There was also some weird thing with people wearing different color headphones. It was like we wound up in some weird dystopian future movie.
So, we went to the back area to eat. It was a covered outdoor area with a separate bar that was nice and quiet.
My friend was very late because of some miscommunication about our location, but the staff was still friendly and patient as we waited for him to arrive before we ordered. There was no trying to rush us or being annoyed or nagging. They were all smiles and joked with us about the comedy of errors that was going on.
And the food? The food was very good!
Yes, I got a BLT (that is my standard sandwich when I am trying out a place for the first time, my logic being it’s a very basic sandwich that if made wrong, becomes very bad…). It was very good. And the chips… oh, the chips were delish, and the pretzel sticks (another favorite treat of mine) were yummy!
More about the weekend in my next post!
Click for Part 1 of Besties’ Weekend!
Click for Part 3 of Besties’ Weekend!