The Saxton Group

Yesterday, was my very first Free Tea Day!  Leslie Gore, Megan Holladay, and I ventured out to the north of the corporate office and headed to West Plano, McKinney, and then onto East Plano.  Walking into West Plano during the beginning of the lunch rush hour, I was amazed at the amount of adults and children enjoying a glass of McAlister’s famous sweet Tea.  We were only there for a few minutes to take a few pictures of the West Plano team in action as well as some customers enjoying some free Tea and the line of people entering the restaurant reached the door.  The girls and I were able to wave to Sean Stutts and Catering Director, Kimberley Cottongim, because they were diligently taking orders and serving our customers with a smile.  Off to our next stop…McKinney, Texas!

Greeted by a friendly McAlister’s employee at the door, we walked in the McKinney restaurant and were floored by the amount of people dining inside the dining room, outside on the patio (in the 100*+ temperature), and taking orders to go.  I had never been to the McKinney location before, but was extremely impressed with every employee that I saw and the cleanliness of the dining room.  Charla Milligan came up and offered the girls and me a glass of a Tea.  I was certainly not turning her down on her offer since it was so hot outside and I needed to quench my thirst with a big glass of McAlister’s Famous Sweet Tea.  While we were there, we said hi to Calvin Evans as he delivered a customer’s food, we waved to Jordan Harris (pictured above) as he filled glasses of tea, and we saw the General Manager, Shay Shirley, hard at work in the back of the house.  The McKinney team was so pleasant and went above and beyond to make our experience great.  Megan snapped a few more pictures and we were headed south bound on Interstate 75 to go to our newest location, East Plano.

Since all of the restaurants were so busy, we decided to eat at our final destination thinking the lunch rush would be subsiding, however East Plano was booming like opening day.  When I started at The Saxton Group last October, we opened Amarillo at the end of my first week and then opened East Plano about 8 weeks later.  I really have only experienced what the “opening day” looks like for East Plano and the amount of people yesterday looked like it did, last December.  Leslie, Megan, and I walked in and saw Kelly and Matt Saxton ordering their food and tea at the counter.  We were able to join them for lunch and talk with Gaston Lanaux about the other two wonderful experiences we had at West Plano and McKinney.  While eating lunch and enjoying my sweet Tea, I tried to snap a few pictures of the entire East Plano dining room, but was not as successful as Megan had been.

It was great to see so many familiar faces at all three locations.  I really enjoyed seeing all of the managers in action especially since I have now finally met almost all of them between the General Manager meeting that was held last March or at the Assistant Manager meeting held, last month.

Now that Free Tea Day has come and gone, check out some of the pictures from our other restaurants that I did not get the opportunity to visit yesterday. We’ve posted an album on Facebook.

Remember the voting for Tea Town USA does not end until 11:59 p.m. tonight!  If you have not voted today, please visit www.teatownusa.com to vote for your favorite town and charity.