Alldredge Gardens is a destination garden center, the likes of which West Texas hasn't seen before.
The store, located in Midland, features a giftshop and outdoor areas full of clever vignettes that show customers exciting ways to improve their homes and lawns. But the real "pièce de résistance" -- that's "way cool attraction" for those who don't speak French -- is the the Café at the Gardens.
The soothing sound of the waterfall and the large colorful plants transport visitors to a tropical world, where James Price, former chef for Green Tree Country Club, prepares a delicious menu of gourmet cuisine. The fare includes salads, soups, sandwiches, panini sandwiches, quiche, burgers, deserts and a variety of conventional soft drinks and exotic tea and coffee concoctions.
Alldredge Gardens thus becomes not a place to shop, but a place to experience. And that experience almost always translates into a Texas-sized measure of "Cha-ching!"
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