A while back, I ended up, quite randomly, discussing the growth in Forney and my desperate desire for a Chipotle restaurant in or near Forney while in line checking out at the Chipotle in Mesquite. It turns out, the individual I was talking to was in management at Chipotle and said that he had a meeting coming up with some regional management types from Chipotle and he’d mention the growth in Forney and ask them to check it out.

This made me start thinking – how many other restaurants, fast food chains and businesses might be interested in Forney, but just simply don’t realize how much Forney has grown and what an incredible opportunity our city could be for them right now? These thoughts gave me an idea – what if we, as a community, voted on our favorite restaurants, the restaurants we’d most like to see open up; this information could then be passed on to decision makers at the selected company, along with economic and demographic information concerning Forney. Who knows, it might not bring a single new restaurant to Forney, but it would at least spark some interest and create some interesting discussions. So, with that chance discussion at Chipotle that day, Forney’s Most Wanted was born! Read on for more details, and to find out how to nominate your favorite sandwich shop or cafe for the first Forney’s Most Wanted poll!

I asked everyone on the Forney discussion forums to help brainstorm a name for this idea, and then put a few of the choices to a vote. We came up with Forney’s Most Wanted, which I plan to publish online under “Voice of Forney”, which I hope to expand with other ideas in addition to Forney’s Most Wanted.

The way it works is fairly simple – roughly once a month, I’ll start a discussion thread on the Forney discussion forums in the General Forney Discussion area – I’ll name a theme or concept for that month’s competition. This month, I’ve chosen sandwich shops and cafes. I’ll keep this discussion thread open for one week, during which residents of Forney are invited to post the restaurant or business they’d most like to see open in Forney that fits with the current theme. If you don’t have a free account on the discussion forums, feel free to post your nomination as a comment on the blog post announcing that month’s theme, and I’ll make sure to add it to the discussion thread on the forums.

Then, after the week is up, I’ll take all the nominees and post a poll here on the site for everyone to vote for their #1 favorite business that they’d like to see in Forney within that theme. That poll will run for a week, after which I’ll announce the winner as Forney’s Most Wanted – for instance, in a couple of weeks, I’ll be announcing Forney’s Most Wanted Sandwich Shop/Cafe. I’ll keep a list of all the nominated and chosen businesses on the site, and I’ll also research the chosen business and attempt to get in touch with key decision makers at that business to let them know about Forney and that they were chosen by the residents of Forney as Forney’s Most Wanted.

So, let’s hear it! Head on over to the discussion forum where I’ve created a thread called Forney’s Most Wanted: Sandwich Shops & Cafes and nominate the sandwich shop or cafe you’d most like to see come to Forney!

Welcome to Twenty Peaceful Minutes (20PM) - a community website for Forney, Texas. In addition to this blog, 20PM is home to the Forney discussion forums, which you may reach by clicking the Forney discussion forum link or going to http://20pm.net/forums; also, considering signing up for email or newsreader (RSS feed) notifications of new posts to the 20PM blog!