My Not So Secret Garden

One of my favorite things to do as a writer is to tie together routine moments from my everyday life with tangential pieces of seemingly unrelated information and see what I can make of it. In doing so, my ultimate goal is to produce a piece of writing that presents a cohesive story which then in turn creates an opportunity for the reader to contemplate how that story relates to their own life. In this week's reflection, which may turn out to be one of my twistiest and turniest pieces of writing to date, I present for your consideration:

~ Chop suey
~ A bike ride to the bank
~ The Smashing Pumpkins
~ The other Chicago restaurant named Joe's
~ A prophecy of demonstrative love, and
~ A delicious Detroit style pizza

Are you completely confused already? If so, then stick around because in about five minutes I can assure you that all of this will fit together, make sense and hopefully even inspire you to stop and smell the roses...or should I say smell the oranges? Here we go! 

Late yesterday morning while I was working at the office, I decided that I had just enough time before my next client to jump on my bike, ride down to my bank to deposit a check and then grab something for lunch at the Trader Joe's. If you follow my writing with any regularity, you know my affection for Trader Joe's. I love the selection of ready to eat foods, the atmosphere, the service and so much more. And yes, I do still actually go to the bank to deposit checks. That taking a picture of it thingy has never felt real to me so I staunchly avoid it. 

After I came out of the bank and got ready to continue my journey to TJ's, I looked across the street and noticed the Chinese restaurant on Irving Park Road named Orange Garden. I have driven my car and/or rode my bike past Orange Garden countless times over the years, but something about the scene of the vintage storefront caught my attention in a different way yesterday. 

It's been a really long time since I have had any good Chinese food. For years have been wanting to try Orange Garden, but every time I had thought about stopping to get something, I managed to talk myself out of it. Excuses like, "I don't have the time" or "I don't want to spend the money" or "It's probably no good anymore" have always won out and caused me to seek other food options. Yesterday though, I literally formed the thought, "What if Orange Garden goes out of business and I never get a chance to try them like the Chicago Joe's down the road? Maybe I should grab lunch there today instead of from TJ's?" 

Just a few blocks west on Irving Park Road on the same side of the street for many years there used to be an iconic neighborhood restaurant named Chicago Joe's. The primary reason I even knew about Chicago Joe's was because for years people would walk into the restaurant I worked at, Joe's Seafood Prime Steak and Stone Crab and tell me they had just made reservations. Since the Joe's I worked at was pretty much sold out every single night, I knew that there was no way they could have just made reservations.

In the majority of those cases, the guest would pull out their cell phone and show me the Open Table confirmation email which was for Chicago Joe's and not for Joe's Seafood at which point some guests felt embarrassed and others became argumentative. We would always do our best to try to work them in to our busy dining room either way. I figured one day I would go into Chicago Joe's, introduce myself and share my story, but by the time I ever got around to actually doing it, Chicago Joe's had gone out of business. 

Not wanting to make the same mistake on the same stretch of Irving Park twice in one lifetime, I decided to pull out my cell phone and search Orange Garden Chicago to see what time they opened and what the lunch menu looked like. At the time it was 10:45 a.m so if they opened at 11:00 a.m. I could probably kill some time and place an order as soon as they opened. The first thing that came up in my Google search was an article with the headline, "Orange Garden Isn't Closing, but The Iconic Neon Sign Sold For $17K." 

"That's what's different!" I thought to myself. I knew that it was something different that made Orange Garden catch my eye this time and as it turns out, the thing that was different was that the glowing "Chop Suey" sign was no longer hanging over the front door. Not only was I sure that I now needed to have an order of General Tso's chicken for lunch, but I also needed A LOT more information about the place. 

Turns out that Orange Garden has been run by the same family for over 90 years and the iconic sign dates back to the early 1930s. In an interview with Block Club Chicago, Ben Ruan who runs the restaurant for his family reported that rising City of Chicago sign permit fees and the possibility of putting Orange Garden up for sale in the near future led the family to auction off the sign in May of this year and that the sign sold for $17,000 to of all people, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins fame. In fact, Corgan and his partner Chloé Mendel purchased the sign at the same auction where the now defunct Chicago Joe's sign sold for a reported $27,500. That's a lot of money for a couple of old neon signs, isn't it? 

My internet surfing about old Irving Park Road restaurants passed enough time for me to be able to walk into Orange Garden just as they were opening at 11:00 a.m. I placed my order for General Tso's chicken with a nice lady at the front counter of the restaurant who then asked me if I wanted the full portion or the lunch special. I asked what the difference was and was told that the the lunch special was a smaller portion, but it came with fried rice and an egg roll. I decided to go with the lunch special and then sat down on the vintage red leather banquette to wait for my food. About ten minutes later, the same woman came out and said, "Here is your lunch special Jim." She handed me a plastic grocery bag with a styrofoam box inside. The bag weighed as much as an extra large Chicago style deep dish pizza. I couldn't help but be glad that I didn't decide to order the larger portion! 

I rode back to the office holding the plastic bag in my right hand while steering and braking with my left. Fortunately for me, Orange Garden is only a few short blocks away from my office and I can do the entire ride through neighborhood streets without having to deal with many cars or heavy traffic. Back at the office I unpacked my box of wonders which was clearly enough food for two to three meals. I would love to tell you that it was the best General Tso's chicken I have eaten in my entire life, but it wasn't.

It was certainly a nice diversion from my pre-packaged Trader Joe's lunches and I'm so glad that I finally gave it a try, but in all probability, my unexpected visit to Orange Garden is likely to be a one and done. There was a part of me that was hoping that I would discover one of the neighborhood's best kept food secrets and that I would make Orange Garden my secret garden for lunch once every couple of weeks as a treat. I think I'll stick to the amazing Spacca Napoli pizzeria or Bien mi Sabe for traditional Venezuelan arepas for my treat lunches in the future. 

After I ate about a third of my General Tso's chicken, I made a cup of tea and cracked open my fortune cookie. My pearls of wisdom for the day included a series of lucky numbers, two of which are the powerful master numbers 11 and 33. I happen to be a number 11 in numerology, so that definitely resonated with me. My "Learn Chinese" word for the day was Ting, which is the word for listen. In nearly all of my men's circles we practice the art of reflective listening so that we can do a better job of making others feel seen and heard, so that resonated with me. 

Last but not least, my fortune read, "You are demonstrative with those you love." If you are less familiar with the actual definition of the word demonstrative, it generally means "a person who tends to show their feelings, especially affection, openly." 

The past few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions. My daughter Emma ended preschool and just finished her first week of kindergarten. We have experienced a number of grief inducing losses which I wrote about two weeks ago. The overall world climate is as volatile as it has been at any point in my lifetime. Being human is hard right now! It can be tempting to try to shut down, withdraw and protect yourself. In fact there would be no shame in doing so when needed. Fortunately for me, I have had many great mentors in my life that have taught me that big emotions are best served when they are allowed to rise up without shame or restraint. I proudly accepted my fortune cookie prophecy about being demonstrative with my love and allowed it to resonate through my whole self. 

Last night as things were winding down and Emma was heading to bed after her first full week of Kindergarten, I decided I had a taste for pizza. Since I was watching my hometown Detroit Lions in their final preseason game, I also decided that I wanted a Detroit style pizza, which is a delicious concoction of light. pillowy deep dish dough with caramelized cheese cheese under the crust and sauce on the top. I grew up in metro Detroit on pizza like this from Buddy's and Buschemi's, but it's only been more recently that Detroit style pizza has spread outside of the motor city.

When I walked into the lobby of Jet's Detroit style pizza in the Andersonville neighborhood, I stopped in my tracks and chuckled to myself at the fact that the only other man in the lobby was wearing a vintage Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt. I said to him, "I can't believe you are wearing a Smashing Pumpkins shirt!" He responded by saying, "Why? Because you bought the same shirt 38 years ago?" I started explain why it was significant to me and when I got to the part about Billy Corgan and the sign, he immediately said, "You mean the old Orange Garden? I just had lunch there today!" 

Our lives are filled with so many small world moments that are way more interesting than they often seem in a vacuum or on the surface. When we stop and take notice of those everyday moments and then begin to combine those moments into something larger, we can find an infinite amount of material to tell the story of our lives. Sometimes we need to stop listening to all the excuses we tell ourselves about why NOT to do something right now Why not do it right now! Yesterday I made sure to take a moment to stop and smell the oranges. It didn't turn out as rosy as I hoped it would, but at least I didn't miss my chance. You don't always have to BUY the sign to see the signs.

Where are the signs in your life pointing you. Maybe it's time to take something off the someday shelf and do it today. Start a new journal? Call a friend you've been thinking about? Go to that meetup and deal with the awkward small talk on the chance you might make a really cool connection? Dive into that new hobby you've been dreaming about? Whatever it is, when you do it I'd love to hear how the story unfolds for you. 

Well that's it for this time. Have an amazing weekend. Sending you love and blessings, 

Jim