Bodo's Bagels

A line can be a good thing or a bad thing.

The good thing about a line is that you know the restaurant is popular....the bad thing is that it usually takes forever to get your food.

Bodo's Bagels in Charlottesville has a line.....a very very long one....every single day.

At the location I visited (two days in a row) the line zig zagged inside and then stretched clear outside the door down the side of the building. The parking lot was jam packed and people were parking across the street to walk to Bodo's.

When we first pulled in I couldn't believe the amount of people lining up for.....a bagel? What the heck is this place doing to make bagels this amazing that people are willing to wait this long?

I gladly jumped in at the end of the line and much to my surprise, no one seemed to care that they were standing in line on the outside of the restaurant.

The line was fast. Minutes later I was standing in front of a cashier looking at the simple menu board above his head.

Bagels: 70 cents. Bagel with Egg: $1.55. Bagel Deli Sandwiches: $2-$3

Simple. To the point. Revolutionary. All of the bagels are authentic New York Water Bagels and they come in every type you could imagine. Not to mention they brew fresh ground organic coffee and sell t-shirts for $5.

From the looks of it, this is the place Einstein Bagels wishes they could be. There's only one thing on the menu: bagels....and you can have it any way you want for a very reasonable price

I placed my order for 2 Everything Wheat Bagels with Egg and Cheese, a large coffee, and large unsweet iced tea. Total cost: $8

On the other side of the register employees lay out trays on the counter and place the items on the trays as they are ready. By the way, all of the eggs are cooked fresh on a flat top and put on the bagels (no microwaves here). They called are order, I grabbed my tray and we found a table in the rather plain, yet inviting dining room. From the end of the line to sitting down at my table it was about 10 minutes (this is a speed of service that no other restaurant can seem to accomplish).

The bagel was....unbelievable. It tasted the way you always want your bagel to taste: fresh, moist yet hard and just the right flavor. No wonder people line up outside for this.

Speaking of the line...it didn't seem to end. As we sat and watched, more and more people came. The dining room was packed. Every time a table got up it was immediately filled again.

All this for bagels.

Yet, by now you can agree they're doing something no other bagel place has quite figured out.

They make them fresh. They are affordable. It's simple but with endless combinations. The service is fast and friendly.

It's so simple it almost melts your mind. The worst part about this story is that fact that Bodo's is only in Charlottesville and at this particular moment in time I'm 14 hours away from the bagel my heart desires.

Why can't other restaurants be this cool?

The White Spot

It started with an email.

"I understand you're going to Charlottesville, VA" she wrote "when you go....you have to try The White Spot.....they have the best Gus Burger in the country."

My first reaction was, what the heck is a Gus Burger and why do I want to try one?!

After a bit of research I discovered that a Gus Burger is a Hamburger topped with a fried egg and the White Spot near the University of Virginia is famous across the country for making them.

Although I was curious and excited about trying something completely different, I was extremely hesitant. A hamburger with fried egg? Sounds disgusting.

I stumbled across The White Spot in Charlottesville without even trying. Tucked off the side of the street with a tiny entrance, The White Spot is nothing special. The dining room is more like a closet than anything else. On the right hand side is a full length grill with some seats at a bar. On the left is some additional seating. That's about it. Upon glancing around I was shocked that the restaurant was so completely simple.

The menu was on a board above the grill and it looked like it hadn't been changed in years. In addition to the "Gus Burger" they also serve breakfast items, sandwiches, subs and a couple more unusual items: Double Gus (two burger patties) and the Motor Burger (Double Gus with Ham). All of the menu items are priced between $3 - $6.

It was about 3pm and there was one employee waiting to take my order. The atmosphere inside was beyond comfortable, it was so laid back and casual it felt like time had somehow stopped. The employee didn't seem to have a care in the world, he only had one job: make Gus Burgers. However, he did tell me that they invented the Gus Burger and they're one of the only restaurants in the country that serve it.

I placed my order (one Gus Burger to go....my wife wasn't interested) and like clock work he cracked open an egg onto the flat top and put a burger patty down next to it.

A few moments later he was adding the toppings and wrapping up my very own Gus Burger for the total cost of $3.65 (take that Subway).

Although it likely will sound odd....this burger was amazing.

The egg on top made the burger even more juicy and delicious. I don't know how and I don't know why but the egg complimented the burger perfectly. Every single bite was like an unforgettable sensation.....and for $3.65 it was something I wanted to buy again and again.

I found out later that The White Spot is rated by MSN as one of the best burger joints in the country. This rating comes with good reason....the food combined with the chill atmosphere is something that simply can't be duplicated.

I don't know if you will ever make it to Charlottesville, but if you do - find The White Spot and eat there as much as you can. You will have plenty of time to give them a try....in true college spirit they are open until 3am.

If you don't ever go to Charlottesville I still encourage you to make your own Gus Burger at home for your family and friends. They will be scared at first, but I guarantee they will be overwhelmed with amazement once they try it.

College Town Innovation

College towns are amazing places.

Not only are they the home of countless parties, but more importantly they are the hot bed of restaurant innovation. Think about it - every college town in the world has "that" restaurant. The place that every student adores and every adult who moved away wishes they could still visit.

"That" restaurant serves unusual food, has remarkable service and delivers an experience you can't find anywhere else."That" restaurant is a diamond in the rough and if the walls could talk they would tell stories that no one every dreamed of.

Usually "that" restaurant has little to no atmosphere. Simply said, they are a hole in the wall. A small place that people jam into and line outside of to get a taste of something spectacular.

I don't know every one of "those" restaurants in every college town, but I wish I did (please share if you know a few). However, a recent trip to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville brought me face to face with two of "those" restaurants that were some of the most revolutionary I have ever been to.

They pushed things to the edge and took risks that no other restaurant would. The service was friendly, prompt and authentic. The food touched my soul.

It's likely that some of you may never go to these restaurants or have ever heard of them. However, I feel that I owe it to you to tell you their legend and share my experience with you.

The next two days on the blog will be dedicated to the University of Virginia and the mind altering restaurants that surround it.

In the mean time, all of you know of a restaurant in a college town that moves the souls of all that visit. Tell me about them.

Sandwich is a Sandwich

This is a sandwich:

This is a wrap:

If you're going to eat at Earl of Sandwich, please don't confuse the two. If you do, you might be a victim of verbal abuse from Sandwich Making Expert employees.

Over the weekend I went to Earl of Sandwich in Orlando and I had a simple, innocent question: Can you make your Italian Sandwich on a Wrap?

The response from the Sandwich Making Expert? "No. A sandwich is a sandwich and a wrap is a wrap."

Wait, so you can't just put the same meat and ingredients from the sandwich onto a wrap?

"No," the Sandwich Making Expert replied, "a sandwich is a sandwich and a wrap is a wrap. We can't change them."

Hmmm...I never realized until this particular moment in time that it would take an act from God to miraculously change a sandwich into a wrap. What an incompetent fool I am. How dare I think that a simple Sandwich Making Expert had this ability.

Without putting up to much of a fight I settled for a wrap and continued with the rest of my order.

My wife wanted to change several elements to her sandwich. I checked with the Sandwich Making Expert and he assured me that changes to current sandwiches could be made without a problem.

Wait. So....you can add things on and take things off of your current sandwiches....but you can't put the sandwich ingredients onto a wrap? That doesn't make much sense....maybe it's because my brain is too small to comprehend the profound magic that goes in to making an Earl of Sandwich sandwich.

I completed our order, gratefully and sarcastically thanked the Sandwich Making Expert for his flexibility and superior service and moved down the line.

Here's the thing. They CAN make a sandwich into a wrap or a wrap into a sandwich. They just don't want to. Shame on restaurants who don't care enough to break rules to keep customers happy. They are the ones who won't survive.

In the world of restaurants, all rules should be designed to be broken.

Warm You Up

Ah yes, Cracker Barrel the interstate dream restaurant destination.

On road trips as kids we only had one objective: find the nearest Cracker Barrel. It was a place of discovery and wonder. The food was good (my brother wanted pancakes for every meal), the service was friendly, you could play checkers at your table, sit in rocking chairs while you wait and most importantly browse through that wonderful shop full of things you don't need but you buy anyway.

It seemed like the best restaurant on earth: store, games, food, service.....heaven. Then, I grew up (sort of) and got married. My wife hates Cracker Barrel. I never get to go...it's been years since I was last there and I miss it dearly.

Several weeks ago however I was doing some traveling for business and our hotel was in the same parking lot as Cracker Barrel. I went to sleep that night with a smile on my face knowing that the next morning I would be treated to breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

We walked over the next morning and it was frightfully cold outside (about 30 degrees). When I walked through the door I was welcomed by the trinkets, toys and other junk that had become so familiar in my previous visits.

We got seated at a table and moments later our server arrived and asked, "Can I warm you up?"

For a brief second I was rather confused. What the heck was this server talking about?! "Warming me up" could mean a variety of different things...however after glancing that she had a coffee pot in her hand I understood that she simply wanted to give me coffee.

Believe it or not Cracker Barrel actually has some pretty decent food. I ordered the egg sandwich with a side of hash brown casserole.

We don't really need to spend time discussing the sandwich - I'm much more interested in telling you about the hash brown casserole. First, it's a horrible name and doesn't do the dish justice. A better name would be: Mouth Watering Cheesy Potatoes. These things are amazing. Just imagine a couple scoops of cheesy, gooey, hash browns/potatoes all mixed together. Truly a piece of breakfast heaven. If I had really been thinking I would have just gotten an entire bowl of them.

In addition to the casserole the service was even more impressive. Our server came by to refill our drinks and every time she did she said, "Can I warm you up?" Unknown to her a "warm up" was exactly what I needed. I'm from Florida and it was below freezing outside!

Like most servers she could have just asked me if I wanted a "refill" or "another coffee" but instead she took a far more satisfying approach by offering to "warm me up". I loved it so much I think I must have drank about 6 cups of coffee because I kept wanted to get "warmed up".

Imagine a world of restaurants where this kind of language was used instead of standard, boring, unemotional jargon. Would it change the way you felt about the experience....or just freak you out?

Tasting Paula Dean

Hey Y'all!

Is it a sin to give Paula Dean a bad review?

She is known as one of the world's most popular and greatest cooks. Her southern hospitality and butter filled cooking feeds the souls of people across the country via the Food Network and her countless cookbooks and magazines.

Simply said, she is my kind of woman. She makes fattening food with lots of butter and her portions are huge. For this reason among many others I was overwhelmed with excitement when a recent trip through Savannah, GA landed me in her downtown restaurant called Lady & Sons.

The restaurant is located in a three story old building in downtown Savannah and connected to the restaurant is a Paula Dean store full of more Paula Dean merchandise than you could ever imagine.

As we walked up to the outside of the building my heart grew with excitement and sweat started forming on my brow....I was about to taste Paula Dean's cooking and I could barely contain myself.

We turned the corner and were greeted by a pack of at least 100 people standing across the street from the restaurant waiting to get seated. These people had arrived around 9:30am to put their name in and be seated in the restaurant at 5pm when Lady & Sons opens for dinner.

I walked over to the host to find out how we could get in and she instructed me to form another "stand by" line on the other side of the street outside the restaurant. The process I watched unfold before me was simply amazing. Paula Dean isn't running a restaurant....she is managing a factory.

The host called every party from across the seat, checked off their name and led them into the restaurant. This process lasted around 15 minutes, after it was complete she then came over to me and the line of 40 people behind me to begin filling the tables that were still left.

Fortunately I was first in line and we were instructed to go inside the restaurant, take the elevator to the third floor and wait to be seated by a hostess. (How exciting to take an elevator in a restaurant!)

Once we were on the third floor we were escorted to our old, wooden, worn down table and old fashioned chairs. We were in a large room which resembled an old warehouse with little decor. It was jam packed full of people elbow to elbow and I felt more like a large cow in a barn then a guest in Paula Dean's restaurant.

The main focus of the menu revolves around the dinner buffet which costs $18 a person. On the buffet is some of Paula's best fattening entrees....mac and cheese, fried chicken, sugar covered yams, baked beans, mashed potatoes, and a salad bar.

For obvious reasons, I opted for the buffet.

However the set up was nothing special....it was an 8 foot stainless steal mobile buffet line with mobs of hungry people swarming around it.

I went up 4 times and each time got a couple of

things on my plate. I attempted to try it all and nothing really moved me like I had imagined. The best thing on the line were the yams and only because they were soaking in a pan of brown sugar.

After I was done stuffing my face with the rest of my fellow cows in the restaurant our server brought out our choice of desserts in little bowls like you would find in a school cafeteria. I chose the "butter cake" which is basically butter, cake and chocolate chips.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G....by far the best thing at Lady & Sons. Moist and sweet it touched my fat soul in a way like nothing else.

However....the rest of the experience was far from revolutionary. Maybe I'm being too difficult to please, maybe I'm wrong to think that Paula Dean should have the best restaurant on earth...or maybe I just had some bad luck. Whatever the reason, it was far less than I had hoped for.

The atmosphere wasn't very welcoming.

The seating process wasn't warm.

The food was good, but nothing to rave about.

The service was average.

If Paula Dean's name wasn't on the outside of the building I'm not sure how popular it would even be. Clearly it's a tourist destination and is run like a theme park ride....but this ride had little magic.

I feel horribly guilty even feeling this way about Paula....after all she is like America's Grandmother. I have great respect for her cooking, personality and her success....and because I know she is so wonderful....I expected so much more.

Am I going to restaurant hell for not loving Paula Dean's famous restaurant?

Panera's Employee Problem

About a year ago I went to Panera to try there then new breakfast sandwich.

I arrived at 10:31am and was denied breakfast because "they ran out of eggs" and I came in one minute after they stopped serving. Things turned ugly and I ended up walking out completely disgusted.

Below is a recent comment on this blog post from last year from a Panera Bread employee:

Anonymous comments on the post "10:31am - Panera's Out of Eggs":

"Hi, I'm an employee at Panera. Let's get a few things straight. As with the person's comments earlier (which because it's written so sympathetically, I'm assuming it's a corporate person writing it) we don't offer breakfast sandwiches after 10:30 for practical reasons.

Although I don't expect you to understand as most Panera guests have short tempers andquickly get angry over a small error or if something as minor as this happens, just bear with me and read through this as if you were an employee there.

We offer breakfast from 6:30 to 10:30 for a reason. That reason being that if we were to offer it any later, it would become near impossible to set up the line for the lunch rush.

We do make our own eggs. And here's what happened with your order. The employees probably did as they were supposed to do and made about 10 eggs around 15-20 minutes before 10:30 and turned off the egg machine and cleaned it. When the clock hit 10:30, the employees knew that they needed to get their asses in gear to help cater for lunch. So when 10:30 hit, they threw out the remainder of the eggs so they were able to put the soups in their proper spot in the soup well.

Then you came in at 10:31 when the eggs were thrown away and bitched about how we have no more eggs. Sure, we could have made you an egg but here's the thing. If we did, you'd be writing this article not on how you didn't get your fat ass up in time for breakfast but because you didn't get the food in a timely order.

See, if we were to go through the trouble of doing that (and if you asked, you probably could get it done being that we are the customer's bitch) it would take around 10+ minutes to make your sandwich. Listen, we don't get paid a lot and I'm sure if you were to work for one god damn day at the place you certainly wouldn't last one day.

I'm glad you're a rich snob who can complain about stuff like this and I too aspire to be just like you and complain about crumbs on a fast food table but please, don't write about this saying that this is OUR fault when it is clearly yours. We stop serving breakfast at 10:30 period. Stop being an asshole and blaming it on the employees who get minimum wage and are forced to work their asses off to cater to you.

PS. As for the employee who yelled "it's not my problem", yeah you have a little right to be slightly angry over that but not excessive. The employee probably blurted that in confusion and frustration. You know, like all people do. Say things accidentally when you meant it in a different way?"

Dear Anonymous Angry Panera Employee:

My goodness, I have never met a Panera Employee as disgruntled and unhappy as you. Oh wait, every time I visit Panera (which is hardly ever since every time I go it's a horrible experience) I meet an employee who is just as angry as you are. Isn't it ironic that every Panera employee I have ever met hates their job? (except for Amanda, she is awesome)

Why is that?

Although I don't have the time to go into all of the potential reasons why you're miserable with your current employer, however, I would like to point out a few things about your response to my breakfast experience at your restaurant.

First, as always thank you for writing in and sharing your feedback. We always enjoy hearing from employees at the restaurants we discuss here.

Second, I'm tired of restaurant excuses.

If you serve breakfast until 10:30am, you should serve it up until that time. More importantly, if you were following your own rules and actually having enough product available to last until 10:30 you would still have some left over to accommodate guests who come in a couple minutes late.

Instead, you and your organization believe in cutting corners in order to get things done.

"If we throw left over eggs away a little before 10:30 we can get the line set up for lunch faster."

"If we clean the machine and tell the customers who still want breakfast that, they won't mind and will order something else."

I know customers are annoying. I also know they are the reason our industry survives. Your job IS to cater to them, make them happy and get them to come back again. If that means that you have to make someone an egg sandwich to get them to be a customer for life then you should do it.

But wait, you hate your job and you hate your customers so you would never do that.

I don't need to reflect any more on all of the reasons why you SHOULD have made me a breakfast sandwich. It was a year ago, I'm over it.

But just know that Panera's real issues go far beyond their food issues, serving times and cleanliness. The real problem with Panera is: you. The employees are the problem.

Every time I go to Panera and every time it's bad it usually as nothing to do with the food.....and everything to do with the way I'm treated. I understand why you can't serve breakfast until noon. Although I am a "rich snob" (I'm actually not all) I have worked in the restaurant industry for several years. What I don't understand is why employees at Panera can't "aim to please" and brush everyone off without giving a care in the world.

Short story: I was at McDonald's today getting an iced tea. There were two people in front of me at 10:33am. They both wanted breakfast.

Guess what? McDonald's served them breakfast even though all of the menus had already been switched over to lunch and they were actually already SERVING lunch to other customers. The employees didn't complain and didn't make excuses. They just did it, because McDonald's cares.

If McDonald's can do it. Why can't you?

Finally, I'll assume by your P.S. note that you didn't mean all of those awful things you said about me and your customers. I suppose it was just an "accident"?

Dan

Restaurant Math

I hope you're good at math.

Otherwise, you will have no idea how to navigate your way through all deals restaurants are offering right now.

I'm not a numbers guy, I never have been. Therefore the endless amount of commercials telling me to get different meals for a different price at different restaurants has simply been confusing.

Have you been paying attention to what's going on? Here is just a taste:

$10 under 7
2 for $20
15 under $15, starting at $9.95
10 under $10
$5.99 - $9.99
$7.95 early dining meals

Whew, that's a lot of numbers.

And it's just a handful of deals that casual dining restaurants have going on. It doesn't even include fast casual, fast food or the pizza chains. Add those in and it gets even more confusing.

Let me ask you this. Can you tell me which restaurant is offering the price deals I listed above? More importantly....do you care?

Applebee's in particular has been drowning me in advertisements for the 2 for $20 offer and I still have absolutely no interest in going in and giving it a try. Chili's just launched 10 meals for under $7 (is this fast food or Chili's...or is it the same thing?) and none of the food seems worth the $7 bucks. I'd rather have Chipotle for the same price.

It's not just the prices that can be confusing. The food is as well. Just think about it...the price list from above accounts for over 34 meals. Who can keep track of that!?

Maybe it's just me but for all of the effort these chains have been putting around looking like they're affordable no one seems to be listening.

Are you listening? If so, where are you eating these days?

Hunting for Cadbury Eggs

I love Easter Egg Hunts.

Well, not technically. I was never really into the "hunt", it required too much energy. So let me rephrase that: I love the candy/money inside the eggs during Easter Egg Hunts.

If you can imagine, I was the fat kid who waddled around our family Easter Egg Hunt shaking all the eggs before I put them in my basket. If I could shake it and hear chocolate candy or cash I kept them. If it was jelly beans or hard candy I threw them back on the ground for my innocent little brother to enjoy.

Every year however I was only in search of finding one particular thing: The Cadbury Egg.

Finding the egg in the hunt that had the Cadbury Egg inside was like finding the jackpot. The Cadbury Egg is my guilty Easter pleasure.

As a kid I would only get a select few every year and I would save them until the very end. Well, that's not completely true. I would always eat at least one every Easter morning and then treasure the rest until every piece of my Easter candy was gone. Then finally I would enjoy my Cadbury Eggs as a final Easter reward.

Just seeing the bright colors of the foil wrapping excites me. Every year Cadbury Eggs start appearing everywhere: in grocery stores, Target, Wal-Mart and even gas stations. Then the day after Easter they're marked 75% off and then poof like magic they disappear until next year. Because these dream eggs are so limited I have made it a point to eat as many as I possibly can every single year.

Some people despise the Cadbury Egg (my wife included) because they don't understand it. "What's that thick yellow/white stuff inside?!" That my friends, is the most self satisfying creme in the world, stop trying to judge it. The creme inside is made to represent the egg yolk of a real egg and it tastes like creme from the heavens. The rich, thick sweetness with the creamy milk chocolate shell is enough to make me start sweating.

So today at my Easter Egg hunt I will be following my childhood tradition and I'll be hunting for Cadbury Eggs, even if that means taking other eggs from small children.

What Easter candy will you be hunting for?

Stiffed!

I'll start with the ending of this story first.

I stiffed a server. No tip at all.

Before I get comments and emails telling me that I have committed a crime against humanity allow me to explain myself a little further.

We recently went to lunch at the Gallery Eclectic Bistro at International Plaza in Tampa, FL. This is a local restaurant that has a pretty good lunch spread. There were 6 of us at lunch that day and we arrived shortly after noon. Instead of going into every grueling detail of this outrageously awful restaurant experience, allow me to list out my reasons for not leaving a tip at the end of the meal.

1. We waited over 5 minutes for someone to come to our table.
2. Once our drink order was taken she disappeared for several minutes and then returned with only half of our drinks.
3. I had to get up from my seat and try and find her in the restaurant to ask for my drink. I never found our server and another server went and got her.
4. When she came back she still brought the wrong drinks and disappeared again.
5. She finally found her way back to the table and took our order.
6. Poof, she's gone again. This time for almost 20 minutes.
7. At this point I needed a refill and I was also starving. I got up to go find her again to ask where our food was and if I could have a refill. She was no where to be found and I had to ask another server to get her.
8. When I asked where our food was she gave the unusual and awkward answer of: "I think you're the next ticket." What the heck is that suppose to mean?! I assume it means that you haven't even STARTED our food and we've been here for OVER a half hour.
9. The food finally comes (almost an hour after we sat down). I ask what took so long...her answer: "Uh, probably because there was a party of 30 in front of you."
10. Guess what? The food was wrong.
11. Technically not wrong, even better: IT WAS COLD. What did you say about that party of 30 in front of us? Do you mean that our food has been sitting out getting cold because you didn't feel like running it out?
12. We send the food back.
13. It comes back a little bit later. Looks like it was taken through a microwave....how kind of them.
14. After we finish picking through the lunch we didn't even want anymore we asked for our checks and it took another 10 minutes.
15. Total time of the dining experience for lunch? An hour and a half.

I have never stiffed a server before. I used to be a server, I know first hand how challenging, stressful and annoying it can be. I also realize that there are several things that are beyond your control.

However after having to get up and look for her twice and her extremely negative, "I don't care attitude" I couldn't justify spending another penny. It wasn't just about the food being cold or taking forever, my biggest issue was the service and how she simply didn't seem to care that we were there or not.

So, am I evil or did I do the right thing? What would you have done?

Starbucks VIA: Mail Box Robbery

A couple months ago I shared with all of you that Starbucks was launching an instant coffee mix called Starbucks VIA.

As part of this launch they gave out free samples if you signed up online. I was very interested to give the instant coffee a try so I signed up and anxiously awaited for my free sample to come.

Over 6 weeks later my sample finally came in the mail last week. You will notice in the photo to the right that this is how the sample is SUPPOSE to come: with three sample packets of Starbucks VIA.

My packet looked a little differently. The seal was broken on the side of the package and when I opened it up ONE OF MY SAMPLES WAS MISSING!

I was robbed! ROBBED!

There are three separate slots in the envelope to hold each sample with a little sticky goop to the cardboard envelope. The middle sample was clearly missing.

Who in their right mind would want to steal a Starbucks VIA sample packet (maybe someone at the post office was having a slow morning and they were out of coffee). If you were going to steal one and go through the hassle of cracking the envelope open, wouldn't you take all three? Not just one?

While I was disappointed and a little freaked out. I still gladly took the other two samples and gave them a try.

The pictures on the back of the packet explained that you have to stir the instant mix into 8 ounces of boiling water. Wait, what's easier? Boiling water or just making regular coffee? I'll let you decide.

When my watering was boiling I put the Starbucks VIA into the mug and then poured the water on top. Like regular Starbucks coffee it was very dark and after some initial sips it tasted just like regular Starbucks coffee.

I had to put my sweetener in to make it taste decent and much to my surprise it tasted better than I imagined. It wasn't "watery" and had the full Starbucks taste that a normal cup of Starbucks would.

However, it's not just the taste of coffee that makes it so awesome. It's the smell, the cup your holding it in, and the feeling of having a "fresh cup". With Starbucks VIA those elements are obviously gone.

It was good, but I would never buy it. If I want coffee I'll go for the real thing. I hope you got your free samples as well. If you did, let me know what you think of the coffee and also let me know if you got robbed!

Leave Happy

When you get right down to it, a coupon in a restaurant doesn't get you very far.

Yes, it definitely gets you something for free or at a discounted price, but the employees traditionally aren't over excited that you're coming in just to get something for free. Especially when you might be the guy who has a free appetizer coupon, orders a water and leaves a dollar tip (I'm not saying I'm that guy).

My sister-in-law had a coupon for Jamba Juice that was good for one free 16oz smoothie. She has had it for a very long time. It was bent around the edges and it was ripping down the middle from being folded in her purse for months.

I have never been to Jamba Juice before, I'm not much of a smoothie guy. To me it's seems like an extremely overpriced drink that promises more than it ever delivers.

However with a free coupon in hand we hit up Jamba Juice last Friday. When I have a coupon I get right to the point: give me my free junk and let me get out of here. But, the Jamba employees were so absolutely pleasant I couldn't help but strike up a conversation.

My wife doesn't get smoothies either so neither of us had any idea what to order. I kept going back and forth between two different fruit flavors and I ended up enlisting the pleasant employees for their help.

After a five minute debate the employee convinced me to get Pomegranate Paradise. To be honest, I was nervous, I hate pomegranate. But the employee swore by it and promised to replace it if I didn't like it.

Ah yes, the famous guarantee that "if you don't like it we'll replace it" blah blah blah. How often does it happen that you actually end up NOT liking what they are promising to replace? (Never)

I got the smoothie, the employees watched with anticipation and after two gulps I really didn't like it. I think the employees could see the look on my face - it just wasn't that good.

Immediately without thinking she offered to replace it.

I felt horribly guilty. Not only was the smoothie I was drinking free, but it was also what she recommended. I didn't need another one so I told her it wasn't a big deal.

She insisted. "What other kind of smoothie do you want to try? We want you to leave happy."

What did she say??? Leave happy?!

What a simple, yet earth shattering concept: make sure your customer leaves happy. That is something I guarantee 90% of restaurants aren't doing. Think about the magic of it though! Here I am a customer who hasn't spent a penny in their restaurant and they are trying to make me happy? Why? Because these hourly employees at Jamba Juice understand that every single person that walks in matters and they shouldn't be blown off (even if they have a coupon).

Since she was so determined to give me another free smoothie I picked a safer Strawberry Swirl. After she made the smoothie there was still some left over so she filled up another cup half way with the leftover and brought it out to us in the seating area.

One coupon: two and a half free smoothies and delivery to our table.

Wow.

I was completely floored. Not only was the smoothie delicious, but I couldn't believe that they cared so much about my experience even though I wasn't a paying customer.

While I didn't spend any money at all on this visit, Jamba Juice was successful because they made me a customer for life. If I ever want a smoothie I will always go to Jamba Juice with no exceptions - so in the long run their 5 minutes of extra time and two free smoothies paid off in a very big way.

When's the last time you had an experience as amazing as this at any other restaurant and left happy?

Chipotle Rolls with Lower Prices

It was bound to happen, wasn't it?

Chipotle seems to be the only restaurant left that hasn't done something to make their menu options more affordable. In fact they did just the opposite late last year and raised their prices AND lowered their portions. (I'm sure many of you still remember this and this.)

Now the time has finally come. According to this news release, not only are they introducing more affordable options they're also rolling out new menu items and combos.

One new item is a vegetarian soup ($2.99 a cup). Wait, what? Soup!? At Chipotle?! (I just hope they don't turn into a Mexican Panera)

A new combo option is 1 taco with a cup of soup for $4.65. They are also bringing out what we would know as "New Line" items, however under the name of a "Classic Burrito". It's made with chicken, rice, black beans, roasted chile-corn salsa and sour cream for $5.95 (a little bit cheaper, but not by much than their standard burrito).

The menu also focuses on kids choices (maybe this is a good thing for the "big kids" too). Some of the highlights are build-your-own taco kit for $3.95, a single taco meal for $3.50, a small cheese quesadilla meal for $2.95 and a small meat and cheese quesadilla meal for $3.50. (Looks like I'll be eating a lot of kids meals).

Although it might be strange to see soup at Chipotle and some items on the menu we've never seen before, I think in the long run this is a good thing.

What do you think? Will this be reason enough for you to hit up Chipotle more often?