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Making friends over a plate of chicken-fried steak.
The rules are simple: Eat chicken-fried steak and make an announcement.
What is this? Toastmasters? Nope, not nearly as formal or educational. Rotary? No, it’s younger and there’s less singing. It’s CFS Club. And it’s one of my many quirks.
Chicken-Fried Steak (CFS) Club started nearly six years ago. I loved the Wednesday lunch special at the Tulsa Press Club, which is served from the New Atlas Grill across the hall. I’d never had CFS before then. But once I did, it changed my life.
And it affected me so much that I had to share it with everyone. I started strategizing about how to move scheduled meetings to Wednesdays. How to create meetings for the sake of the CFS. I’d find ways to get groups of friends to the Press Club in the middle of the week for the worst middle-of-the-day food — CFS.
Then I realized, I should just do this all the time. Yes! I should start a club. You see, I have this thing about starting things. And I have a thing for getting together with people.
CFS Club sounded like a perfect connection of two great loves. And who cares that the club focuses on one of the cheapest cuts of meat cooked in one of the cheapest, least-fancy ways, smothered with a most simple gravy and adorned with mashed potatoes. It’s not classy, but it’s delicious (sounds like the title of my autobiography).
But more than the food, CFS Club is really about getting together. Connecting people from one part of my world, such as a co-worker, with another part, such as a fellow volunteer, and seeing what happens. A number of connections have been made over greasy and delicious chicken-fried steak. Just the other day, in fact, a couple of friends were reminiscing about how they met. The answer? CFS Club, of course.
There’s an open invitation to CFS Club. Anyone can come and you’re welcome to bring a friend. I find that this encourages the most random groupings and conversations.
No, you don’t have to eat chicken-fried steak. But it’s encouraged. Yes, you do have to make an announcement.
Club members (aka, whoever attends) give a brief proclamation about anything they want. Something big going on in their personal or professional life. A plug for an event they’re promoting. A reminder to do something, such as voting or checking out a new downtown shop.
The last meeting’s announcements included: I’m having surgery in a few weeks and it’s going to suck; I just started a new business making signs and T-shirts; a cool event (in this case, it was Ignite Tulsa) is coming up soon; and so on.
And those announcements are really the point of CFS Club. It’s about meeting new people, catching up with old friends and learning something new.
I’d like to think that, just like other great organizations, CFS Club is also doing its part to make the world a better place. Like Rotary’s four-way test of what makes for a good decision, maybe I can implement a test for CFS:
- Is it crispy and yet greasy?
- Is the gravy delightful?
- Were the mashed potatoes homemade?
- Did you fall asleep at your desk around 3 p.m. after having it for lunch?
Answer yes to all four and you’ve made a good CFS decision. See you at the next meeting.
