Blast FronThe Past

While searching in her purse for something, Donna found a Free Appetizer card we received from a manager at a restaurant from way back in June. We didn’t run right out and get our free food because the chain restaurant doesn’t have a local location. We were coming back from Connecticut back in early June and as we were zipping south on I-81, just into northern Virginia, it was time for some lunch. As we looked at all the signs along the side of the road for the eateries that we could agree on, I spotted a place that we had never really heard of, but I had seen a positive review of on the net by a world renown restaurant critic, so we decided to give it a whirl. We weren’t real hungry so we agreed to order just an appetizer and a burger to split. As we looked over the menu to finalize our choice we could hear the folks at the table behind us say, “You are just getting this to us now?” Apparently they had just gotten their appetizer when they were halfway thru their entree. Undaunted, we ordered something (I can’t remember what it was two months ago almost) and emphasized to the waiter to be sure and get the appetizers order in first so we got it first. He said he would. We never saw him again.

A waitress smilingly and unsuspecting dropped off our hamburger. We immediately asked her where our appetizer was. She, not being our primary server and just helping out, had no idea but went off to check. We cut the sandwich in two and it was very tasty. The fries were good, but would have been a lot better if they were actually hot. The next staff person that came by we flagged over and complained about the fries. She promised to get us some more that were hot. Donna and I started our own little pool to bet on which would show up first, fries or appetizer. The fries came first, delivered by the manager. He apologized and asked how he could make it up to us, could he get us our appetizer. We told him we didn’t want it at this point. We told him that he could give us our meal for free, but he couldn’t do that. To make him feel better we accepted his little card for a free appetizer. We told him it was probably worthless as that particular chain didn’t exist where we lived, so he wrote inside good at any location and N/A in the expiration date spot.

For all we know the restaurant had just opened yesterday, it was in a very new shopping center. They were probably like a lot of things these days, just getting the product to market without working all the bugs out of the system. Beta testing on the public as it were. We will probably try another Red Robin Gourmet Burgers at another time if it happens to fall into place that there is one where and when we happen to be hungry.