tacoma

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..

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!

Free, dumb, fair

No matter which side you’re on, I bet you’ll agree with me on this one. Fire & brimstone, sodomy, lesbopervs and their roles within the church do not paint a picture I want screamed in my face at the Freedom Fair. Did anyone else see the freak with the huge and inappropriate-for-children sign and the money toilet on his back? This guy was really pushing the limits of freedom of speech as I understand it.

Other than these isolated over-zealots spewing their cacophony, I was impressed with the “mellow” factor surrounding the Freedom Fair today (We were there 3 – 5pm). Cool crafts, clothing and culinary chaos reigned supreme down Ruston Way this afternoon, over a backdrop of live bands and performers. Tacoma showed a more attractive, diverse side of herself today in comparison with last weekend at Point Defiance. The Taste of Tacoma is really no such thing. There is actually a deficiency of true local Tacoma restaurants at the Taste; isn’t that what it’s supposed to be about?

The powers that be might want to take a close look at the way these events are marketed. FM radio stations and an isolated print ad in a newspaper aren’t gonna cut it. I find that event marketers in this town are narrow in their pursuits. Anybody else find that the Taste of Tacoma sneaks up on them every year?

New bridge and traffic cameras. Dumb and dumber.

So the new Narrows bridge is a wink away from opening and I remain less than convinced that it will improve the overall flow of traffic between I-5 and Gig Harbor. How will the Nalley Valley S-curves capacity be improved? I feel as though me may be moving the bottleneck slowly from the Narrows toward the Highway 16/I-5 junction. Between the new bridge and the coming traffic cameras in Tacoma, it’s going to be an exciting summer on the roadways.

I will gladly buy a North Tacoma espresso drink of choice for the first person to show me their traffic ticket from the new camera(s). I’d love to be as aware of these shenanigans as possible, and I’ll do my best to spread the word of where the cameras are and what they are looking for.

Good luck out there.