Friday, March 19, 2010

Change I Don't Believe In

Change. I have a weird relationship with her. I both embrace and run from her. When it comes to suggestions of doing things differently I don't balk too often, but put me in a restaurant I frequent and I am the most stubborn of mules. Case in point,

Three Dollar Cafe - chicken and cheese sandwich (is it still considered a sandwich if you order it without the bun?)
Mama's Pizza - greek salad, slice of cheese.
Pappasito's - aside from the fajitas I can't tell you what anything else on the menu tastes like.

It's not that I fear change, I fear disappointment. If I get something different and it's not as good I'm going to regret that decisions for days and will probably never get something different there ever again. So when a place I go to changes things I'm usually not happy. This was the case a few weeks ago, but it had nothing to do with food.

My wife and I enjoy going to a place near us called The Firkin & Crown. It's an "English pub" type restaurant. They have English fare (bangers & mash, fish and chips, etc.) along with your typical American bar and grill food. A few weeks ago we invited some friends to join us there for dinner since they had never been. After being seated we were completely embarrassed to realize that F&K had changed the uniforms of their servers from black pants/tees to some kind of school girl/Scottish prostitute outfits. I think we apologized to the couple with us a half a dozen times.

Anthony Bourdain once said that when a place changes its menu that it's a sign that things are not going well. I can only assume this applies to changes in dress, too. The disappointing part of all this is that their food is good and this gimmick is completely unnecessary. Whatever the reason F&K is now a scratch on our dining list.