🌆 Small Town, Big Connections: This Week's Proof
Edition 04 - Originally sent Sunday, August 30, 2026
Dates, events, and offers below were current that week.
THE UNOFFICIAL LAST WEEKEND OF SUMMER
You can feel it turning.
Not gone yet, just turning.
☕️ Live From The General
Same Dante breakfast sandwich, same iced coffee, same Sunday ritual. But this one's got a little "end of an era" energyto it, and I don't just mean the season.
Saturday, I started the morning at the South Bend Farmer's Market, and here's the sad news I have to deliver straight: the jalapeño cheddar boule is officially gone for the season. Sunchoke Farms is out, done, moving on. But September brings a new monthly flavor, so grief has a short shelf life around here. Luckily they softened the blow, though, with their new sourdough cinnamon roll, which might be the best one I've had in a very long time. And I say that as a certified cinnamon roll snob who does not hand out that compliment lightly.
Counterspell handled my iced coffee surprise like the pros they are, but their grab-and-go case was fresh out of bomb-ass breakfast sandwiches, which threw my whole Saturday rhythm off more than it should have. Small thing. Real disruption. That's how it goes sometimes.
Checked in for my usual retail shift at Alchemy Healing Arts after that, and there's a little bit of good news brewing over there I can't fully spill yet. Just keep an eye on Alchemy this holiday season. There's a guest vendor pop-up in the works, and it's a darn good one.
👀 What's Happening Around Town?
This one's my favorite kind of story, the kind that only happens in a little big city still small enough to run on word of mouth. I'd been hearing about Smokey Road BBQ all summer, with every mention building the hype a little more, but never managed to catch them in action, which somehow made the whole thing feel like a running plot I hadn't gotten to finish.
Then one of my favorite baristas at The General mentioned, completely in passing, that Smokey Road was a friend of the cafe's and genuinely worth tracking down. This past Wednesday, Smokey Road showed up at Purple Porch's Porch-a-Palooza, and I finally got my BBQ after a whole season of waiting. Worth every single bit of the suspense, and an award-winning-delicious reminder that the best recommendations around here never come from a social media ad.
Good news if you missed it: Smokey Road will be back at Purple Porch this Wednesday for their farmer's market, 5–7 PM, and Craft One Half will be bartending alongside them. Get there hungry. Bonus tidbit while we're on the subject: that bartender's parents own Eco Owl Printing Company, right here in South Bend. It's the same shop that prints all of the co-op's marketing materials! Community at its finest.
Also on the calendar: Alchemy Healing Arts is hosting Practice Meditation in Community with Stacy Stoltz this Monday, August 31st at 6:00 PM. No experience needed. Whether you're brand new to meditation or you've been at it for years, this one meets you where you are. Expect guided meditations (seated or lying down), gentle moving meditations, and supportive options throughout. All levels welcome. A solid way to close out August before everything shifts into fall mode.
And if you haven't been into Root + River Refillery's physical shop lately, go look at the new wooden pot scrubbers and wooden measuring spoons they just brought in. Genuinely cute, genuinely useful: the kind of small, well-made goods that make a kitchen feel more intentional.
One more: Alchemy Healing Arts just got a gorgeous logo refresh, courtesy of Allen, who runs Root + River and is housed right inside Alchemy's space. Another good reminder that some of the best collaborations happen because two businesses already share a roof.
🤠 Wrangling in the Wild
This week was a little different. Instead of being elbow-deep in a client's backend, I turned the wrench on my own site. Spent real time on SEO tweaks, accessibility improvements, and behind-the-scenes cleanup that nobody will ever notice on the surface, but that makes everything run a little smoother going forward.
📝 The Un-Sexy Stuff That Actually Works
Here's an honest one: I don't always practice what I preach fast enough. My own website has been sitting on a list of "should probably fix that" items for a while now: the kind of small SEO and structural stuff that's invisible to a visitor but matters to the Google overlords. This week, I finally sat down and wrangled it.
No dramatic before-and-after. No flashy redesign. Just quiet, unglamorous groundwork, the same kind I tell clients to prioritize, applied to my own operation for once. Turns out the advice works just as well when I take it myself.
🐴 Ride With Us
Got a project you've been meaning to get to, the "I'll do it eventually" kind, sitting on your own list? Send me a note at Carrington@thewileyhaase.com and tell me what it is. Sometimes just saying it out loud is what gets it off the back burner.
👋 Until Next Sunday
That's Edition 04 in the books, and with it, an unofficial goodbye to summer. Take a beat and look at everything that happened in one small stretch of this town: a barista's offhand comment turning into a season-long BBQ chase, a co-op event connecting a bartender's family printing shop back to the very flyers advertising it, and a refillery owner redesigning the logo of the healing arts practice he shares a roof with. None of it was planned. All of it was community, doing what community does when you pay attention.
Say a proper farewell to the jalapeño cheddar boule, grab a Smokey Road plate Wednesday evening, save your spot for Monday's meditation session, and go admire Alchemy's new logo in person. Around here, we're easing into cooler mornings, Notre Dame football Saturdays, and getting cozy, in that order.
See you next Sunday.
