Hot Dog, anyone?

Last weekend, I treated myself to a new spot I’ve been eyeing in the Tacoma blog scene. Friday night I had a Murray Morgan Bridge Brat with cream cheese from the Red Hot. It was really good, but I would order at least 2 at a time in the future. I would also know how to conduct myself a little better in the environment they’ve created. We walked in and weren’t sure what to do with ourselves. There was no menu on the wall, no “order here” or “order at the bar” signs anywhere (perhaps they are still being made?) so we sat down at a table. Of course, we came to find out that there is no table service, and that we were supposed to get our own menus and order at the counter. This should be streamlined ASAP, if it hasn’t been already.

Tacoma has needed another non-downtown hot dog joint forever, and I even thought about opening a drive-thru wiener stand (I planned on calling it Shwank’s) a couple years back. If you are going to open a restaurant, it doesn’t get much easier than hot dogs as far as storage, life span, cost, keeping them warm, etc. I sincerely hope this place can make its mark and stick around. My first impression was that of a bar and not of a restaurant… hopefully they will make it go on the drinks because it didn’t seem like the kind of place that would enjoy rapid hot dog take-away.

Ben Matlock and I are more than willing to park, walk in, and wait for a hot dog or two to take home. Unfortunately, neither Ben nor myself go out drinking very often..Hopefully for The Red Hot’s sake, there are a lot of people in Tacoma who will do both quite often.

I’m no food critic

Many restaurants around Tacoma have it made. Most consumers are not food critics. We like what we like and that’s that. Put out a decent product that is moderately consistent, and you should be able to do just fine. That is true, unless the service is so bad, you can’t even remember what the food tasted like.

For years I have refused to critique any specific businesses in town. I know that everyone has a bad day on occasion (let alone a bad 15 minutes) and that things won’t be perfect all the time. I also recognize that different people have drastically different opinions about the same things. Why should my opinion of a Frisko Freeze cheeseburger matter to anyone else? For the record, I find them delicious (no onions).

At any rate, I received an email last week from a very disappointed Tacoma consumer:

Hello,
I don’t usually complain about restaurants, but, It’s Greek To Me, located on 6th Ave in Tacoma gives lousy customer service. I went through their drive thru, which seems to be manned by an incompetent who does nothing to help speed things along. Then after I wait for 10 minutes for a Greek salad and some fries, the salad has about 2 tablespoons of lettuce in the salad, what is up with that???? I paid $7.80 for a salad, that took 2 bites to eat, some fries, and a small drink and I am still hungry. I will not be going back to It’s Greek to Me, and I will not recommend this place to anyone I know.
Thank you.

For all I know, she hit this place at a bad time. Maybe they were robbed 10 minutes prior? Perhaps the manager was out with 4 sick kids at home? Whatever the cause, this experience emphasized to me the importance of customer service, even as it pertains to small, everyday commerce.

If she had felt better about the customer service, she probably could have driven back around and said, “Hey, this salad is weak-ass!” and they would have likely laughed, apologized and added some damn lettuce. But the customer service was already deemed poor, so she hangs her head and goes home, never to return.

In summary, attitude is everything. Restaurant owners know that every dish can’t turn out perfect. Sometimes things go wrong, food gets messed up, delays occur, etc. Just make sure that if you sell someone a bad experience, you back it up with noticable effort and concern. We, the general public of Tacoma, can accept your shortcomings, as long as you don’t force it on us with smug, assuming attitude. If you make us wait in an unreasonably long line, don’t pretend it didn’t happen. Give us an apology and a free pop. You’ll be amazed how short our memories become.

For the record, I love It’s Greek To Me. Best gyros in Tacoma..

10 years should be worth something

One would think ten consecutive years of perfect attendance would be worth something. Perhaps even the right to vote on future event dates? Wrong. In this Lord of the Flies world in which we’re living, this is simply not reality. Should you lay down a 10-year stretch of perfect attendance in today’s world, you’ll get nothing and like it. That’s just the way it goes.

Such disrespect would usually not be worth noting. When said disrespect coincides with computer crashes, blown deadlines, unhappy clients, garage sales, dog surgeries and block parties, all conventional wisdom goes flying off the proverbial colonic rock. When this happens, you dig down deep within your personal stock of constitutions for the proper reaction.

Common sense would tell you that, when met with this conundrum, you tuck your tail and cower in the corner of isolation. Your standard issue sissy would certainly not consider what I have considered. Your average dipshit would certainly not disregard what I have disregarded. Your ordinary mortal in my shoes would never utter these words….

“I’M IN.”

BUMBER you’ll say SHOOT when you pay your admission

$35 per day. That’s what it will cost this year for a one-day visit to Bumbershoot. By the time you add in gas, parking, food, drink & more drink, you’re over $100. Consider yourself warned.

That being said, I plan on going not once, but TWICE this year; I haven’t been in a decade. Last time I went, it was either to see Elliott Smith or Built To Spill or both (can’t remember) and I swear it was under $20 to get in. My dilemma this year is that there are 5 or 6 things I would kinda like to see on Saturday, but one really important thing to see on Sunday and another Monday. I will likely end up paying $70 just to see two bands and a shlamozzel of interesting people. Hurt me.

That’s what you gotta do when Seaweed takes the stage. Dig down deep within yourself and your wallet, suck it up, and pay your respects. Spare me your excuses. How often does a Tacoma band make a run like this? Leave your excuses and your fears in Tacoma, and make the rare voyage into the bowels of Seattle. Trust me, you’ll be a better person for it.

Cluster Channel

Tacoma and Clear Channel have resurrected a cute little quarrel from the prior century, and you can see it right in front of your mug EVERYWHERE around town. Perhaps the words “Constitutions Matter” ring a bell? Unless you drive with your eyes closed, you have seen this message everywhere, and you’ve also noticed that more and more appear by the hour.

For those of you under a rock, drive through Tacoma proper, and the first billboard you locate should explain everything.

Clear Channel has about 2,495,872,598,725,987 billboards around Tacoma, and they are all rumored to be changing to “Constitutions Matter” in the near future. A quick search of the internet for this phrase quickly brings you to an array of anti-Clear Channel articles, blogs, postings, etc. On behalf of Clear Channel’s marketing department, let me just say BRILLIANT!