Dine-Out on Mondays to Find Out New To-Gos

On Mondays, Kate & I liked to eat out at different restaurants in OB for lunch or dinner.  

Places like OB Noodle House (Asian), Raglan (New Zealand), Sundara (Indian) Little Chef (Chinese Take-out), Ulivo (Italian), Thai Time & Mexican food at Nico's (burritos), Bravo's (nachos) & Hugo's (sit down plates).

It's a great way to support your local economy & try out different styles of food.

One of our favorites was Taika Sushi.  I never really got into sushi until I moved to California, but boy there's nothing better than munching on a roll filled with fresh fish & covered in spicy mayo.  Pair that with a cheap Kirin or Sapporo draft & you got yourself the perfect ending to a day off.   

Well, Kate & I would usually go to Lighthouse Ice Cream at the end of Newport & grab one of their famous Waffle Ice Cream Sandwiches.  That's the icing on the cake.

One of these weeks, I don't remember which restaurant we were at, but we noticed they had nice takeout containers.  They were like a pizza box, only smaller & with thinner cardboard.  I think it was Kate that said, "Those would be perfect for our Cheezers."

So, the next week I bought a pack of them:  8" Chip Board (100ct).  The price per box wasn't too bad & it looked a lot better than a paper plate with a piece of aluminum foil wrapped over the top.  

I mean, we didn't want our orders (something a customer paid $8 for) to look like some leftovers they were taking home from a pot-luck, because that's what it was at the time.

You can learn a lot about your business by checking out your competitors.

Kate & I wanted to create Mad Munch stickers of our logo & slap them onto the new boxes.

"It's kind of expensive, though," I said, "Putting a twenty-five cent sticker on a box that costs us around ten."

"You're right.  What if we did a stamp instead?" Kate suggested.  "Then we'd only have to buy ink after we get the stamper.

Later that week, we were back at Belching Beaver & noticed they added stamps to their brown papers sacks for merch.

"Where did you get your stamp?" Kate asked Jarrod, the tasting room manager.  He went & grabbed the stamper to show us.

"Here, it looks like the company's called rubberstamps.net," he said.

We found their site & went with the 4.5" size & have been using it ever since.  Highly recommended.  They are actually made in Bettendorf, Iowa, one the Quad Cities, about an hour from where I grew up.     

Our friend Kim, enjoying a Cheezer at the OB Market while showing off our new logo stamp & box.