Food workers of the world, unite!

And read this blog.

Now, I am the first to admit I can be a bit difficult to please. Like Sally in When Harry Met Sally, I like things the way I like them. Unlike Sally, I do try to be reasonable when I am asking someone else to serve me my food, and I keep the "on the sides" and substitutions to a bare minimum, i.e. none.

I have eaten out a couple of times in my adult life, and one trend that is becoming glaringly obvious to me is this: regardless of how I request my food, I will get it thte way someone else thinks I should have it. Take the other night at the somewhat-recently reopened Texana. I ordered my ribeye medium rare. That means warm and pink on the inside. The only brown on the meat should be on its outside. But the meat that was presented to me was medium well. Not a huge deal, and, unlike other times, I didn't send it back because I was pretty damn hungry.

Today, I went to Arby's on a whim. [An aside: don't ever go to Arby's on a whim. It is an experience that needs to be worked up to.] I went through the drive through because it's really cold outside and I was coming back to the office to eat. I placed my order at the speaker then pulled around to the window where I was ignored for a few minutes. When attention was paid to me it was initially to give me the incorrect change, then to not hear me when I pointed out the incorrect change and what the correct change should have been, then to ignore me again when offering the same information, then to mishear my request for "more ketchup and some horsey sauce, please" as "Arby's sauce," then to mishear my re-request for "more ketchup and some horsey sauce" as "no, I couldn't possibly want more than one packet of ketchup to mask the flavor of your nasty-ass fries and some horsey sauce" as "some horsey sauce."

I never did get the right change, or enough ketchup.

So, food workers of the world, whether you are in fast food, or in fine dining, do one thing: give your customers what they ask for.

Thank you for your attention.