Leap into Cheap Coffee

You might want to start your leap year day early tomorrow. You have a lot to do.

1. Medium Drink = Free McDonald's McSkillet
2. Free Chicken Biscuit at Chick-Fil-A
3. Einstein Bagels announced .29 cent cup of coffee only on February 29

The added bonus? If you were born on February 29th, Einstein's is going to give you a free meal.

Celebrate every four years in style by eating a breakfast(s) of champions.


(stay tuned for a new video blog this weekend...)

Free Breakfast Everywhere...but Nothing Good to Eat.

For the next two days, you can pretty much eat breakfast for free.

At McDonald's on Thursday and Friday (Feb. 28-29) with the purchase of a medium or large beverage you will get a new McSkillet for FREE. The McSkillet, is an interesting breakfast burrito creation.

This "spicy" burrito combines scrambled eggs, sausage, skillet potatoes, a cheese medley, roasted red and green bell peppers, onions and salsa in a flour tortilla. This sounds much scarier than fried chicken for breakfast at Chick-Fil-A. Am I going to go try it? Yes. Why? Because it's virtually free. The retail value of this item is about $2.49, so it's worth the medium drink to get a taste of this unusual breakfast item. At first glance, I'm thinking it probably is going to taste very odd. I have mixed feelings about fast food breakfast as it is, and the thought of eating an attempt at mexican food from McDonald's is even more horrifying.

More interesting to discuss is why the heck is everyone giving away free or extremely cheap food? Without much analysis, we can guess it's some how related to the fact that gas costs about $3.13 a gallon and no one wants to pay to go out any more. In the past week, you could have gotten:

- 99 cent latte from Dunkin Donuts
- Free McSkillets on two mornings
- Don't forget the Free Chicken Biscuit from Chick-Fil-A on Friday morning

At this rate, by the time summer rolls around we will be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner for free at least 3 times a week. I'm not complaining. To accomplish the ultimate and take full advantage of these promotions, I highly recommend going to McDonald's on Friday morning to buy your drink and get your free McSkillet and then head over to Chick-Fil-A to pick up your free Chicken Biscuit.

The unfortunate part about all of these promotions is that chances are everyone who gets a free breakfast item this week probably won't come back to buy one. I mean, in theory you could get two McSkillet's for the price of a large coffee drink at Starbucks. Since Starbucks retrained all of their employees though, and we know the drinks must taste better - wouldn't you rather spend your money there?

My only wish, is that we could get really amazing food for free. Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if Chick-Fil-A passed out chicken sandwiches, or Chipotle gave out burritos or McDonald's gave away their iced coffee? One day if the price of gas keeps getting higher and people stop going out more and more, it will happen.

3 Hours of Training = Better Coffee?

Your Starbucks coffee should taste better.

You may be aware that Starbucks closed their 7,000+ stores today from 5:30pm-8:30pm for "training" for all of their baristas. Dunkin Donuts today fought back and from 1pm-close they offered 99 cents lattes explaining that they are always open for their customers. Genius? Yes.

Curiously enough, with all of the publicity surrounding this top secret closing I'm not convinced the sole purpose of the closing was related to training. I have a feeling it was completely related to marketing. You can read the details of the closing, in a note from the Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz here.

You're thinking, along with the rest of the world, that Starbucks closed for three hours to train their employees on how to give better customer service and make better coffee so it MUST be better! If you do stroll in to Starbucks tomorrow morning (like many of the other curious Starbucks customers) regardless of what happens or what you tell yourself, in the end the coffee drink will taste like perfection.

I got a chance to talk to one of my friends tonight who works at Starbucks on the details of what this top secret training was all about. She explained that they "calibrated" all of the espresso machines to pull a longer shot. They also did a lot of role playing on how to pour the perfect shot of espresso, and steam the perfect amount of milk. More interestingly, Starbucks is promoting their new commitment to drink perfection. If you're beverage isn't served to your standards they will remake the drink for you. Funny thing is, if you ask for a new drink now they will make you one, they just don't promote it. Usually, if a drink comes out slightly off nobody will ever say anything in fear of being verbally abused by the Starbucks employees or the rest of the population waiting in line. I say you are paying $4+ for a coffee drink, if it's not completely perfect - send it back!

If you're convinced that a 3 hour training will actually make your coffee taste better, please go to Starbucks and let me know. I'm not prepared to spend $4 to see if there is a difference. But, if it doesn't come out totally perfect - send it back!! Don't forget, Starbucks is committed to perfection.

Straw Wrappers and Salty Cracks

Have you ever noticed that Chili's has two restaurants? One for lunch and one for dinner.

The Lunch Chili's is clean. It looks like they just put the restaurant through a car wash. The tables are gleaming, the floor is spotless and the servers look put together.

The Dinner Chili's is....falling apart? The tables look like they have been rubbed off with a busser's hand and there is a combination of Sweet 'n Low, Splenda, salt and pepper stuck in the cracks of the tiles on the tables. Not to mention that the floor has now been littered with white straw wrappers that seem to jump out of guests and servers hands from 11am-7pm. For entertainment on your next visit, try to see how many straw wrappers you can count on the floor, stuck in the side of the booth, or hiding behind the drink menu.

There is usually a wait at Chili's for dinner - and it's not related to how busy they are. If you glance around the restaurant you most likely will observe that there are 326 empty dirty tables. The hostess and bussers with their headsets can't clean them fast enough.

After you're seated and have counted your straw wrappers, cleaned the salt out of the cracks on the table and are now ready to open the menu you may find that certain pages are stuck together....with BBQ sauce or butter or salsa. Your server will come to greet you and much like your menu they will have some form of sauce stained on their black t-shirt. Don't dare going to the bathroom to wash your BBQ sauce covered hands. You will have to walk through a battlefield of paper towels thrown on the floor. Why? Why do guests feel the need to delicately drop their paper towels all over the floor instead of putting them in the trash can?

At the Dinner Chili's the food doesn't taste as fresh as at the Lunch Chili's either. The Lunch Chili's always has prompt service, a clean restaurant, and pretty decent food. The question is, when does the Chili's transformation begin? Is it right after the lunch rush and they never clean up the restaurant or does it slowly progress into a tex mex pit of straw wrappers? It gets progressively worse throughout the day. By 10:30pm, its not the same Chili's it was at 11:00am.

If you're going to go to Chili's you should visit during lunch. You are bound to have a less contaminated experience. If you are going to go for dinner, bring the cleaning supplies.

Tijuana is all Talk

Tijuana's manifesto is impressive, but as you will notice they only mention food a couple of times. The reason? They're more concerned about their personality and atmosphere than the actual food.

We were greeted at the door by a manager when he noticed we looked rather overwhelmed. He asked us if we had ever been to Tijuana before and we explained that we were die hard Chipotle fans. He walked us through the menu, explained how to order and asked us if we had any questions. So far we were very impressed by his concentrated service....more service than you usually get at Chipotle.

We went to order and I immediately tried to make the burrito like the one I have at Chipotle, I added rice (which they forgot to put in) and I also wanted salsa, but it cots 99 cents extra. They had all kinds of options but none that I was really looking for. Black olives and green peppers are ok, but I'm spoiled with 4 different types of bold salsa and 4 different types of meat. In exchange I had them make it "wet" by adding on queso.

We also ordered chips and salsa. The total came to just over $16 with no drinks. For fast casual I thought this was a little expensive.

We went to go sit down and I carefully examined the hot sauce bar. With 18 different types of salsa to try it was definitely impressive, however I think they have a few of them just to say they have them. It seemed like bragging rights to say they have 18 hot sauces. I tried a few, but...eh.

Our food was delivered to our table, which was a nice change but we were both weary of not being able to see them make our food like at Chipotle and Moe's.

It was a huge portion, but there was hardly any flavor or spice at all. The chicken was bland and the goods inside (lettuce, cheese etc) were nothing special. Without the queso smothered on top, there would have been hardly any flavor at all. To compete they should spend some time and money in creating new salsas and flavors beyond the hot sauce and limit the number of options.

If I was in the mood for a good quesadilla this is definitely the place I would go. But for a burrito? I'm heading to Chipotle or even Moe's. There is so much effort put into the decor and atmosphere that I think they forgot why we came in the first place....we want some amazing Mexican food.

(watch the video for more free entertainment)

More Biscuit than Chicken

I let freedom ring this morning and tried a FREE Chicken Biscuit at Chick-Fil-A.

At the drive thru I was asked if I wanted to add cheese, I declined. When I pulled up to the window I was asked if I wanted jelly, honey or butter. I declined.

The result? One desert tasting dry biscuit.

It was a much smaller portion than I imagined. The first 3 bites were good, it's like a tiny original Chick-Fil-A sandwich. But then, something strange started to happen. I starting running out of Chicken. By the end I had one bite left of all biscuit.

I could have just been unlucky and gotten a small chicken, however regardless the fried chicken-biscuit combination has an odd "mouth feel". Without the extra goods (cheese, jelly, etc.) you end up with dryness.

Don't get me wrong, overall the chicken like everything else at Chick-Fil-A was amazing. But I could have done without the biscuit. I'll get it for free again next Friday, but I doubt I will ever pay.

One Man's Quest

I have driven by Tijuana Flats probably 100 times. I have never gone in.

My allegiance to Chipotle has been so strong I would never dare to even consider trying something different. That will all change this weekend.

A carefully planned study will be conducted when my wife and I journey to Tijuana Flats for the first time this weekend. (It's possible that I will get Tijuana for myself and my wife will demand I take her to Chipotle). In preparation for our quest to another Mexican fast casual joint, I began some extensive background work tonight and checked out their website. Judging from the Tijuana Flats Manifesto, I'm already impressed. To read it for yourself, see below or click here.

The Tijuana Flats Manifesto: The "Anything Goes" approach to food, wall art, hot sauce, & life in general. Eat what you like how you like it & as hot & wet as you want it. Colors are for crayons, not tortilla chips.

Hot Sauce = bragging rights! Don't stop believen'. Crushed ice can take you to your happy place. Predictable is too normal, normal is too predictable. Hot is the new cool. Mexican is a culture, not a theme. We deal in heat, wetness, & innuendo...& we've heard all the stupid jokes.

Embrace the strange & unexplained, if at first you don't understand it maybe you never will. Something might offend you, but it will never be the food. Hot rods, dragons, gas masks & cold beer all go great with burritos. CHAINS ARE MEANT TO HOLD YOU DOWN! Lighten up or leave. Accept all kinds of people, even those who use mild sauce. Science fiction makes a good back drop. It only burns for a little while. Sometimes cheesy is good.

We serve delicious HOT (or mild if you prefer) Tex-Mex food in a unique atmosphere with outstanding guest service. We'll clean up the mess, so get messy.

The urge to find something better than perfection (Chipotle) has been eating away at me, maybe Tijuana Flats will feed that desire and if not I will continue my quest. Although it's possible that Chipotle can never be defeated.

FREE Fried Chicken for Breakfast

If you have never had chicken for breakfast before, Friday is a good time to start.

On Friday February 22 Chick-Fil-A will be handing out one FREE Breakfast Chicken Biscuit per person from 7am-9am. They will be running this promotion until Friday, March 9th.

Between now and Friday, you may want to map out all of the Chick-Fil-A's near you so that you can get more than one Chicken Biscuit. Find all of the locations here
While I am wary of eating fried chicken for breakfast, it seems like the next logical step in my relationship with Chick-Fil-A. This is not something that I would normally ever order at Chick-Fil-A, but it's free so I have to.

Free food does something to the human spirit that makes us act in ways we never imagined. We can't think clearly when something free is dangled in front of us. Rarely though does the free item ever make us want to pay. Why would I want to pay for something when I know I can get it for free? This Friday, enjoy the freedom and eat fried chicken for breakfast.

Jared's loss isn't Subway's gain

The lunch break is a sacred time at work. Important decisions are made on a daily basis. The question starts swarming at 9:15am: What are you doing for lunch today?

I always eat something good. Some people go the path less traveled. Almost three times a week, I get told that somebody is running out to Subway and I get asked if I want anything. I always answer a very clear and confident: No.

No, I don't want to eat meat that I don't know where it came from.
No, I don't want a small portion for a big price.
No, I don't believe Jared.

I mean, I do believe that he lost well over 200 pounds forcing Subway down for a couple years. I just don't believe that Subway is worth ever trying again.

The last time I had Subway, I somehow was convinced that I needed to order a wrap (like the sandwich wasn't painfully healthy enough as it is). I order this Italian wrap and as I move down the line I start to feel all good about myself because I ordered a wrap - how healthy, how wise, how...incredibly small. I get the wrap out of the long plastic bag and to my horror, it's about the size of my fist. It was gone in three bites.

Before this life altering wrap experience, I use to love Subway. Before Jared, they use to cut their sandwiches on top and pull that little chunk of bread out and put all your meat down the middle. Remember those days? Then suddenly without warning they changed their cutting technique to be like every other sandwich on earth and cut it down the side. In the early days after this happened, I demanded that the Subway employee cut my sandwich the old way but after a while due to turnover the employees didn't know what the "old way" was anymore.

After the cutting bread fiasco, it was hard for me to return to my beloved Subway. They went through phases and they came close to bringing me back. First they decided to offer 1,362 different types of bread - all of which I don't like. Honey Oat? It sounds like a granola bar.

Second, they thought that by heating my sandwich through an oven (which Quizno's and every other sandwich shop was already doing) that I would come back. I didn't.

Subway just announced Jared's 10th Anniversary and his "Tour de Pants". While a giant pair of pants is convincing to loose weight, it's not convincing that I should eat at Subway. Instead, it makes me want to go on the Chipotle Diet. On his legendary Tour it appears Jared will be taking his giant old pants around the country talking about Subway's healthy options. Pants or no pants, the only tour I will be going on is the one to Publix for a real sub...or wrap.

The Perfect Pancake

My brother would eat pancakes for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I never use to eat them at all. First, I never really got into the breakfast at dinner thing, and second I never really liked pancakes.

This is directly related to all of my negative pancake experiences.

Perkin's has spongy pancakes.
Cracker Barrel always burns their pancakes.
First Watch's pancakes are crispy around the edges.
Bob Evan's pancakes are too flat.
IHOP has ants in their pancakes.

But, the pancakes at Mimi's Cafe are just right. They are light, fluffy and full of unique vanilla flavor - pure perfection.

Mimi's pancakes don't require an overdose of syrup to drown out the taste. At other restaurants my wife will order pancakes and half way through the meal, the middle of the pancake is missing but the rest of the pancake is still there. At Mimi's the entire pancake is good. From the edges to the center.

When you order a pancake at Mimi's it becomes a meal for the entire table as everyone you're with will desperately try to stick their fork from across the booth to get a bite of your pancake goodness.

While it's worth the 20 minute drive to Mimi's, if you're not in the mood to spend the money, you can always create the perfect pancake at home. All you need is Bisquick Shake and Pour. This is the complete and easy to use recipe that guarentees perfect pancakes at home, whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner.

In the Mood for Dry Steak?

I didn't eat at LongHorn Steakhouse for a long time because the last time I ate there a few years ago it was a horrible experience. Bad food, bad service, long wait.

This all changed when my sister-in-law became obsessed with a particular salad at LongHorn and demanded that we all go with her on an extremely busy Friday night so we could see how "amazing it is."

After careful review of the menu, I had to make some hard decisions. Do I dare try a steak? Although they claim that "steak" is their specialty, I still wasn't convinced from reading the menu that this steak was going to be any good. I had my eyes on a burger or fried chicken fingers (always good), but after much debate I decided to go with a 12oz "Top Sirloin".

I must interrupt my verbal abuse of LongHorn to mention the fact that they have the most amazing bread I have ever had. It comes out hot, crisp and freaking delicious. (This is what they should be advertising).

My steak comes out, and I start sawing in. The server comes to check on how things are going and I mention that there is a lot of juice around the steak. The server continued to tell me that they have to "brush the steaks when they come off the grill with a sauce because otherwise they are dry." DRY!

Even after they brushed the steak in "sauce", in my opinion it still tasted dry.

What kind of steakhouse has to brush their steak in a special sauce after they cook it to make it taste decent and then openly admit it? I just think that if you are going to pay a premium price and wait an hour you should at least get something amazing beside the bread. If I want a high quality steak, I'll be going to Outback. They have amazing bread too.

Bennigan's Carnie

On my way to my free burrito at Chipotle tonight, I drove past an over crowded Bennigan's parking lot.

I can only assume that this sudden increase in people at Bennigan's is due to Valentine's Day. Of all the restaurants in the world to take your special someone to, why would you pick Bennigan's?

For some reason it just seems like an old, dirty restaurant. Ever since the movie "Waiting" came out a couple years ago, it only made me like Bennigan's less. In fact, the last time I ate at one was almost 4 years ago and after I left I remember thinking...."I just got ripped off". The food was bad and the service was mediocre.

Bennigan's seems to be the forgotten restaurant, I drive by it every day but hardly ever even notice that it's there.

In an attempt to gain some more attention and bring people back into their restaurant, Bennigan's has launched www.innerleprechaun.com

On this site you can put your face on a dancing leprechaun with a creepy Irish voice, join their Myspace page and download leprechaun widgets and desktop wallpapers....who loves leprechauns or Bennigan's this much?

First, I guess I have a personal problem with leprechauns. Is it just me or do they remind anyone else of a drunken carnie? They are short, kind of smelly and dance around saying things no one else understands. Do you want to eat a restaurant who's mascot is a carnie like leprechaun? Just hope he is not the one cooking the food.

The "Regular" Service

After you eat at a certain restaurant on a frequent basis, you become...a Regular.

Some people, like me strive for this status. The Regular position can work wonders not only to get good service, but can also lead to discounts and other breaks from your favorite restaurant.

At Starbucks a Regular can walk in and have their drink made to perfection without ordering. If you're Regular at most restaurants and the servers know you they will anticipate what you plan on drinking and bring it to you when they come to greet your table. If you're a Regular at Chipotle you may be able to get a break on the meal or free chips and salsa.

What happens when Regular service turns bad? I have experienced this on a frequent basis. I reach the coveted level of Regular and then I somehow turn into a "friend/buddy" of the server and things change drastically. For some reason many restaurants and servers are convinced that if you are a "Regular" that you don't need the same treatment/experience as everyone else.

When I was at First Watch last week, the server came to our table and didn't greet us. She then wanted to know if we were ready to order because "We should know what we want". The server didn't share the specials, and then dropped the check while we were half way through our meal. This is not the first time it has happened and I've had a similar experience at many different restaurants.

Do they expect I will just keep coming back because I always have? If anything, the "Regulars" should receive better service than everybody else, not less because "they always come in."

The Forbidden Blog Post

I cheated on my wife yesterday. With food.

Specifically, I went to Cold Stone Creamery behind her back, got amazing ice cream and then confessed. Since then, she has forbidden me to post on this blog about my experience at Cold Stone.

If I was allowed to write about my experience...I would tell you that all of Cold Stone's ice cream is homemade in store and that it takes them 13 hours and 9 minutes to make one flavor. Until yesterday I had no idea they took the time and energy to make all of their ice cream using real ingredients, instead of just having it sent in a tub from one distribution center. You can tell the difference in the taste. It's smooth, creamy, fresh and worth the premium price.

But, I didn't tell you that.

It's 7pm, Panera's Out of Soup

Almost everyday around 7:00pm Panera Bread is out of their good soups.

On a recent Friday night, my wife and I were having the usual Friday night married couple conversation, I ask "Where do you want to go tonight?" she says "Oh I don't care, whatever you want is fine." (We all know that by making this statement, I have to use my man skills to try and figure out where she actually wants to go without asking her anymore questions).

I made a few suggestions and decided on Panera Bread. We were both in the mood for some amazing broccoli cheddar soup with an extra side of bread.

We make it to Panera and walk in with high hopes and look up at their "magnetic soup board" to discover only about two soups left up on the menu. These of course are the soups that nobody likes, such as "Low Fat Vegetarian Black Bean Soup". If it's black bean soup isn't it automatically vegetarian and low fat?

We stand in awe for a few moments, look at our watches....it's only about 7pm. Well I think, maybe they have some more soup hiding in the back their just not telling us about. I ask the Panera employee, "Do you guys have any broccoli cheddar soup?"...."No, we're out."

Ok...but to get things straight, they're not just out of broccoli cheddar, they are out of every good soup that Panera has. What's mind blowing about this is two things:

1. This is not the first time this has happened to me, I have frequently gone to Panera in the evening only to discover a severe shortage of soup.

2. Panera's soup comes in a bag. A BAG! This is not a hand crafted creation that someone has slaved over for hours. Just order more bags of soup! You know everyone loves broccoli cheddar soup, so just get more!

The difference on this particular visit is that they were not just out of soup. Since they didn't have any soup, I asked if I could get one of their chicken sandwiches....they were out of chicken. Let's take a step back here to analyze what's happening. Panera Bread is now out of their two essential menu items: soup and chicken. Why are they even open right now?

What if Burger King ran out of burgers, if Steak & Shake ran out of shakes, or if Olive Garden ran out of olives...oh wait, that's happened to me before too.

Panera Bread - it's simple. We want broccoli cheddar soup and we want it every hour you're open, not just during the lunch rush. I'm tired of Panera being a modern version of the Soup Nazi.

Off Brand Pizza

Unlike other products, off brand pizza is the best.

Forget Papa Johns, Pizza Hut and Domino's, they just don't compare to your local pizza restaurant. Somehow, these pizza chains have turned into fast food with fancy online and text ordering. At these "on brand" restaurants you can order pizza and have it delivered in 30 minutes or less. Domino's even lets you track your pizza live to see how soon you're going to get it. Fancy perks aside, their pizza is no where near the consistent quality that your pizza place serves. If your anything like me, you most likely are in a personal relationship with your pizza place and you don't plan on changing any time soon.

My wife and I will go to great lengths to get our regular pizza from R&S Deli and Pizzeria. First, they aren't open on Sunday so we have to build our pizza week around their schedule. We typically don't order from any place else so if we want pizza on Sunday, we just wait until Monday.

There is major construction outside of their building and for about a year, due to road construction we had to wait what felt like 10 minutes at a light to get across the street to their restaurant.

Our pizza place also refuses to deliver, even though we live within 1 mile of their location. We don't even care. For this pizza we will gladly drive to go pick up.

Now the question - Why? Why do we go to such extreme lengths to get this pizza over and over again? They don't try to make things simple for us, there are never any specials, they don't deliver, their location is difficult to get to and they're not open on Sunday (an ideal pizza day, in my opinion).

We keep going again and again because their pizza is truly amazing. It's consistently good over and over again. They have big NY style slices and it leaves your craving for more. It doesn't taste "processed", it's quality pizza. Speaking of NY pizza, why is it that when everyone visits NYC their primary focus is to eat the pizza? Probably because they grew up eating Pizza Hut and don't know what real good pizza even tastes like.

Off brand local pizza is the only way to go. Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Papa John's can offer pizzas for $2.00 cheaper along with great added bonuses like text ordering and pizza tracking, but when you get right down to it, it's really only about what's in the box.

Buy a Gift Card For Yourself

I have never bought myself a gift for Valentine's Day. Yesterday was the exception.

If you buy at least a $10 gift card between February 1st-12th you can bring the receipt of your gift card purchase into Chipotle on February 13th or 14th and get a FREE burrito.

If you have a special someone to share Valentine's Day with, you have a number of options:

1. You can buy him/her a $10 gift card to Chipotle as a gift and get a FREE burrito when he/she isn't around.

2. You can buy a $10 gift card for yourself (you're going to spend the money at Chipotle anyway) and then take him/her on a special date to Chipotle for Valentine's Day and you get one meal for FREE.

3. You do what I did and buy a $10 gift card for yourself and keep the free burrito for yourself. (the ideal choice).
Regardless of what you choose, this is a win-win situation for you and your valentine. I have already used my $10 gift card that I bought, now the only question is...should I buy another one so I can get two FREE burritos?

The Difference is a Dancing Banana

Within 2 miles of where I live there is a Planet Smoothie, Smoothie King, Tropical Smoothie Cafe, Jamba Juice and Smoothie Junction.

How is it possible that we need four different places to purchase basically the same thing? On a quick look at all of their websites, they all promise two things: made with real fruit and healthy. Would it even be a smoothie if it wasn't made with real fruit and was healthy?

The only differences I have ever noticed about these smoothie joints is the dancing banana that Planet Smoothie has out on the street. You all know who I'm talking about. For some reason, Planet Smoothie is convinced that if they put an angry teenager with headphones on in a funny banana suit out on the street that I will be compelled to pull in for a smoothie.

I'm not convinced. The only thing I'm motivated to do when seeing a dancing banana is to honk and keep driving by. You may have also seen an upgrade of the dancing banana boy, apparently Planet Smoothie is now using a dancing cup to grab your interest. What is it about a person dancing in a giant costume on a hot summer day that makes us turn our heads and stare ,but still have absolutely no desire to stop and buy a smoothie? Have you ever bought a smoothie because of a dancing kid in a costume out on the street?

I remember a few years back, when smoothies were the in thing. Everyone went to Planet Smoothie, it was hip and trendy to have a smoothie for lunch or as a healthy afternoon snack. Did I stop paying attention to what was going on or are smoothies still in? Apparently someone is drinking them if where I'm from there are 4 independent shops all within 2 miles of each other and only one of them has a dancing banana.

If Smoothie King, Planet Smoothie, Jamba Juice, Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Smoothie Junction are all going to serve the exact same product then I think it's only appropriate to have a smoothie mascot dance off at the busiest intersection in town. This is the only true test to determine who deserves my business. Turn up your hardcore music and sit back to watch the competition. This might be a good idea for the next new dancing reality show. Who needs Dancing with the Stars when you could have Dancing with the Smoothie Mascots?

The Only Cheeseburger You Should Ever Eat

Five Guys = One Amazing Cheeseburger.

Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries does everything to cheeseburgers that Chipotle does to burittos. They make the food holy.

Five Guys is simple and authentic. There is only two items on the menu: cheeseburgers and fries. You have unlimited toppings and unlike the rest of the burger chains out there they actually grill your burger fresh AFTER you place your order.

Nothing is pre packaged and your burger is put on the hot grill the second after you order. Because of their dedication to preparing the finest burger possible, service can be a little slow at times, but it's worth the wait.

Five Guys is ground breaking because they really don't care about anything aside from the food. The decor of the restaurant is covered with news articles praising there work and aside from some red checkers and peanuts on the floor there isn't much else...and they don't need anything more.

This might be the first restaurant concept that doesn't need to offer a high sensory guest "experience". The question is, does anybody care? For a growing national chain, Five Guys has done little to enhance the touch points of their brand. Your food comes served in a plain boring greasy brown paper bag, but after eating the fries and taking the first bite of your burger you most likely will stop caring about the lack of a true emotional "experience".

Speaking of the fries. There are no waffle fry butts here and Five Guys fries taste better too. Bottom line, at Five Guys you're going to get the best double cheeseburger and fries you have ever had even if it's served in a greasy brown bag.

Waffle Fry Butt

They are the small, oddly shaped fries, with one non waffle side at Chick-Fil-A. Chances are, you may not even notice them, but they are there...lurking near the bottom.

The Waffle Fry Butt is the smaller fry with the skin side. It's not a whole waffle fry, but more half waffle, half butt. I call it the butt because it is the "back end" of the potato when it's sliced to be made into fries.

You might be a Waffle Fry Butt fanatic, but personally I can't stand them. They taste uncomfortable in your mouth, like you are eating a piece of fried skin. It's smooth and a little darker than the rest of the fry.

My question - why does Chick-Fil-A keep the butts?

These can't be good for business. If I get an order of fries, and there are 3-4 butts hiding underneath the good fries on top I feel like I have been cheated out of my full order.

We all know that the Waffle Fries from Chick-Fil-A are a miracle to the human eating race, but out of a large order I would guess there are only 5-7 large, crispy good fries among the bunch. You know the ones...covered in salt, a little floppy, large, popping out of the top. But hiding just below are the butts.

I'm not going to stop eating at Chick-Fil-A because of their butt problem. However, to make my experience better I recommend that Chick-Fil-A invests in a butt picker. . Not much training would be necessary for this important member of the Chick-Fil-A team, but they would have to be observant and highly skilled to find ALL of the butts. I imagine that they could pick all of the fry butts out before they go in the fryer and throw them away!

Imagine your Waffle Fries at Chick-Fil-A completely butt free...what a beautiful world it would be.