What's up Kairos Fans,

It has certainly been an incredible week around here! We are getting into the Wedding Season and some of my most enjoyable moments at Kairos are when we are Katering a Wedding or an After Rehearsal Dinner. I love these events because they are a once in a lifetime event, and it is so neat to be able to participate in your special moments. This week I had a customer ask me if he could feature Kairos in something that he was writing that may or may not get published. I will leave his name anonymous for the sake of his publishing deal, but I really wanted to share it with you guys because I thought it was well written and very touching...

God's Special Moment

"Above me to the left are framed black and white photos of my hometown. Kids swimming in community pools. The old terminal Station long torn down. Steel Mills are the subject of every other captured moment, now gone. They cover a wall in a restaurant I remember eating at as a kid. This was a barbecue joint. One still firmly fixed in the minds of those my age and older.

There are blooms of Hydrangea in coke-bottle vases on each table.

My corner spot allows me to look over the place, spic and span. On the other side of the windows in front of me and across the street, I can see a train. The cars covered in rust and graffiti wait to make their way into the valley holding downtown Birmingham in mountainous arms. I can feel the train moving along the tracks. Behind me is the interstate, a critical artery, moving with all the speed of one shutdown after a lifetime of casseroles and fried chicken. And fried pickles.

Fifty years ago this building bustled.

Now most of the space that is not used for cooking is set up for a church’s worship service. But I’m in the comfortable, soft piano music part branded as the “Kairos Kafe.” Their main business is “Katering” but the kafe is open for lunch.

They said I could sit here and write till they close up. They don’t have wifi. So this is great.

To my left is a “bar,” where they dispense soft drinks and to-go menus. The only alcohol winked at is a white-wine sauce for a chicken dish. Above this faux-bar, on the wall is a sign made to look as if the paint has been peeled back to reveal a courier-fied dictionary definition of “kairos,” long lost. We customers are told how to pronounce the word and alerted to its Greek origin. The principal definition is “God’s special moment.” A definition followed by “time” and “the critical moment.” As a student of Greek, I know the first does not land square but is close enough to the Scriptures’ intended meaning.

I wonder how many people think a lunch is God’s special moment. You know, besides myself.

In a city awash in Greek and Mediterranean restaurants, you’d think this is yet another of such genus. But the biggest part of their menu is “Chicken Tenderloins.” In the cultural pool I swim in, these are Chicken Fingers. They seem to be famous for them. Grilled and fried. To have a good reputation for these in a city right smack dab in the middle of Dixie says something.

This is our foie gras.

“Southern Fried Broccoli” is on the menu. Even the thought of such a thing deserves a Nobel Prize for Culinary Art.

And nothing is not incredible. I ravished my plate like a Hun.

I’m sitting here at the table alone but I am not alone. The waitresses and hostess constantly check on me with happy faces. They seem glad to work here. And when they ask if I like my food, I gush, “It is. Incredible.” They agree with a warm whispery, “I know!” As if it were indiscreet for us all to agree on this certifiable fact.

I may be the only one in the room not drinking sweet tea.

Their mission statement is “Building relationships around food…”

I asked James, the owner about it.

Our mission statement "building relationships around food" came to my Katering Director, Jeremy, when we were opening Kairos and throwing around ideas for a mission statement... we had several in mind but this one stuck because it was so simple, and exactly what I wanted Kairos to achieve. I made up my mind that it was perfect after I planned to frame my first dollar and hang it up over the register ... it was really neat what I felt like God said to me... "James, don't hang up your first dollar, because Kairos will be about the people, not about the money..." So, I never know where our first dollar went... Instead I took a picture of the first customers and hung that up instead. Over the past five years it has been an awesome journey building relationships around food, not only with my customers, but with my staff, and others who need some direction in life

This is not just marketing. And it ain’t only Southern Hospitality. This is faithfulness working itself out of a heart full of love for people (workers and customers) and homemade food. Two things God has given, inevitably colliding every day. For folks around here at the very least three times a day.

They should be open for all three."

Thank you guys for supporting Kairos! God Bless You and have a wonderful week!

James K Jones