I have an unsettling confession to make. Sometimes … I don’t always feel like a clam at high tide. It’s true! In spite of the prevailing assumption that every regional magazine publisher’s life must be constantly ducky, my own occasionally bears no resemblance to any waterfowl at all.
That’s why I keep close count of life’s simple blessings. The crisp exterior of a cheese omelet fried in butter. A cold, refreshing Coors Light on a hot day (or any other day). Riding in a hired Escalade to the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce’s prestigious Of the Year Awards, and then to a party at the country’s largest indoor golf simulator establishment. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, I say!
And to Executive Transportation, I say thank you for the ride. I felt just like James Bond as Eden Prairie’s premier car service pulled up to my office slightly earlier than Santiago, the dispatcher, had promised. Greg – a consummate chauffeur, whose mastery of etiquette is equaled only by his mastery of the road – ushered me into the paradise that is the backseat of a Cadillac. A quick stop by Luebeck Geisler Hamm Wealth Management to pick up Todd Laudenslager, its managing director, and away we went to Green Acres Event Center.
A beautiful venue for a beautiful award ceremony. The chamber really knows how to honor the local, hardworking professionals who make our city and its business community so great! Congratulations to Todd for being nominated. He lost to an equally local and hardworking professional, but the blow of defeat was no doubt softened by our next destination.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen!”Chris, our next chauffeur, welcomed Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce president Pat MulQueeny, David Thompson and Tony Seipp of First Western Bank & Trust, and me into the warm immaculacy of yet another Escalade. Chris assured us there were no surprises in store, as he had rehearsed the route between Green Acres and Office Golf earlier that day. This might seem like too much in light of the unbroken civilizedness separating Eden Prairie from Bloomington, but it really speaks to Executive Transportation owner Gus Ortis’ commitment to invariably seamless road travel.
Office Golf! Now there is a fun place. Any of its eighteen state-of-the-art Trackman iO golf simulators can put you and your friends on one of four hundred seventy-four of the world’s greatest courses in a matter of seconds. Those same machines do other things that I, an enthusiastic golfer who consistently scores at the PGA level but only when no one is looking, appreciate greatly.
I’ll have to return to Office Golf soon so I can appreciate them, because I didn’t actually enter the virtual golf realm during the afterparty. I instead spent that time socializing with my favorite people, and freely availing myself of The Boardroom’s fine fare. Office Golf’s onsite restaurant prepared charcuterie (the best known use for boards), bone-in wings, pretzel bites, multiple species of pizza, and other deliciousnesses so enrapturing that they defy description by printed word. Our party also monopolized one of Office Golf’s three full bars, from which we withdrew a healthy share of craft cocktails and white wine and beers.
OG Amber Lager, which can exclusively be savored at Office Golf? Worth the trip alone.
Thank you, Katie Rose and Cole Johnson, for making a thin sliver of Office Golf’s thirty thousand square feet of event space so hospitable to our little bunch. Thank you again to Executive Transportation for providing the best car rides we’ll ever share. Thank you to the chamber for the delightful award show, and for considering adding “Most Handsomest Magazine Publisher” to next year’s categories. And above all else, thank you to YOU – a reader of premium magazines, whose audience makes everything I enjoy possible.
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