[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]
I went to the following restaurant:
http://www.oxfordrestaurantguide.co.uk/old_orleans/
[/QUOTE]
That was your first mistake… 
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner]
I went to the following restaurant:
http://www.oxfordrestaurantguide.co.uk/old_orleans/
It’s part of a chain in the U.K. doing New Orleans-style food (and more generally American food). Lots of their dishes are served over rice. It was in the middle of the day. They were out of rice. They made the dish instead over a baked potato.
[/QUOTE]
That chain is a truly, spectacularly awful creation. I’ve made up excuses to not go for meals more than once, when I heard that this was the destination.
Somehow I find it bizarre to know that there are “American themed restaurants” out there.
Now, I can understand running out of cold food in the middle of summer. But I have more than once encountered empty ice cream machines in various locales during the dead of winter. How does THAT happen?
[QUOTE=Freezair SilverEye]
Somehow I find it bizarre to know that there are “American themed restaurants” out there.
[/quote]
Yeah, I know. I find it hard to not be snobbish about them. Imagine a clientele who have once gone to Disney World and think they’ve “been to America”. Imagine how you would satisfy such customers.
And still, Old Orleans manages to run the worst restaurant in Ipswich. (Brits will understand just how bad that must be.)
One place I lived, the owner of the local ice cream van was eventually locked up for operating a warehouse for the local drug dealers. The kids who were supposedly buying ice cream were also working as couriers, picking up packages to deliver to local addresses.
Not saying all ice cream sellers are doing this, of course!!!
I guess it’s an “Oliva Garden isn’t Italy” kind of situation (though they do make mighty good breadsticks).
I also find myself asking, “How does one truly and honestly mess up a hamburger?” I thought only fast food places were allowed to do that!
[QUOTE=Freezair SilverEye]
Somehow I find it bizarre to know that there are “American themed restaurants” out there.
[/QUOTE]
Yep. Budapest had a 50s-themed restaurant that had all the details–Elvis posters, pink Cadillac replica, shiny new juke box–right down to the open-faced hamburgers served with knife and fork…say what? It was truly bizarre, as burgers obviously were not a foreign concept since, at the time, Budapest had McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s (sometimes all on one corner, even).
Arby’s out of Roast Beef.
Also Jack-In-The-Box is open 24-hours but I’ve gone in and have been unable to get a burger because they’re “cleaning their grill.” “Ummmmm…so what can I HAVE?”
I work at a coffee shop, and we’re almost always out of something ridiculously vital. Our club soda machine has been on (and off) the fritz for a while–not that important, granted, but Italian sodas used to be a substantial part of our business and brought in a lot of money from employees as well–but off the top of my head we’ve also run out of popular kinds of tea; tea bags; paper cups in a particular size; chai tea mix; non-fat milk; regular milk; soy milk; iced coffee; half and half; heavy cream; vanilla flavoring; honey; napkins/serviettes; the list goes on. Generally one at a time, but twice since I’ve worked there the entire hot water system broke down, and we had to improvise frantically (by steaming buckets of ice to get ice water, which we would then steam on demand to get hot water; the steam was from a reservoir in the espresso machine. We also had to serve Americanos to customers who ordered regular coffee.).
Really, I have no idea why anyone goes there, and I feel sorry for our customers. It’s sad that they punish my broke-ass self with low tips, but I can’t blame them. I would’ve quit a long time ago, but my credit is so bad that I don’t have much hope of getting a job anywhere else.
I know none of these are apparently critical to your pursuit of black coffee, but since your location field says you live under my bed, I can assure you there are loads of decent coffeehouses within 10 miles. Why don’t you go to one that respects its customers enough to keep basic items stocked?
Are you talking about Minneapolis? I had a six-dollar burger (literally) at a faux-Irish pub in downtown Minneapolis that was divine.
This is pretty amusing to me; among my group of friends in high school, more often than not our codeword for whatever drugs we were doing was “ice cream”. When someone had the goods but didn’t have the means for taking it (no pipe, no straw and razor, or whatever) they would say something to the effect of “I picked up some chicken but I forgot to get a fork. Anyone have one?”
Ah, school daze…
[QUOTE=Cyberhwk]
Also Jack-In-The-Box is open 24-hours but I’ve gone in and have been unable to get a burger because they’re “cleaning their grill.” “Ummmmm…so what can I HAVE?”
[/QUOTE]
On the bright side, at least you know that they do clean the grill at some point! :eek: That would be one of my first worries about a 24-hour location.
[QUOTE=cbawlmer]
I have also been to Shawarma King, if you mean the one on Hillcroft in Houston.
[/QUOTE]
Nope. Brookline, MA.
[QUOTE=Freezair SilverEye]
I also find myself asking, “How does one truly and honestly mess up a hamburger?” I thought only fast food places were allowed to do that!
[/QUOTE]
You might be surprised. I can count the number of good burger places I’ve been to on one hand.
Not exactly a “run out” story, but a new brew pub opened in town a few years back and my wife and I decided to go check it out. When the waitress came to take our drink orders, we asked what kind of beers they had.
“Stout.”
I waited for her to finish the list, but that was it. Stout. That was all they had. I don’t think they had run out, I think that was all they had made.
Yeah, that place didn’t last very long.
[QUOTE=fetus]
but my credit is so bad that I don’t have much hope of getting a job anywhere else.
[/QUOTE]
What does your credit have to do with getting another job? I can understand some upper level management jobs may be a problem, but surely the Burger King down the street isn’t going to check your credit score. Have you tried?
[QUOTE=Antigen]
I’ve been to a Tim Hortons that was out of coffee. Tim Horton’s IS coffee. I just couldn’t believe it.
[/QUOTE]
Nope. Don’t believe you. Sorry. That would have made front page news and sent reverberrations of shock and panic across the country. You must be making it up.
Back in my KFC managing days (As I’ve noticed KFC was on this list quite a bit.) I instructed my crew to never say we’re out of chicken. And actually, we were only out once ever in my five years working there. The crux of it was that we pittily little store managers didn’t get to order the high priced chicken. A woman in the main office did that, we counted chicken every night and the info was sent to her and she came up with a magic ordering number. Magic I say because our chain liked to push the dark meat, cheaper says they, sure, but folks like the white meat a lot too. Ah, those stories cause madness.
But chances were, the counter people said they were out of chicken, and it was probably down in the fryers. Taking 15 minutes to cook, and if there wasn’t others waiting for the lousy 32 pieces that could go in one fryer at a time. (We only had 5 four head fryers, on a rotation no less, if we used a fryer out of turn, the area director would have your ass.) Though there were nights I didn’t work, and was told the cook or manager refused to drop more chicken at 7 PM. So you either ran into cooking chicken, or lazy people.
I know Popeyes drops chicken by the piece, which would have been nice for us, we had bags with 10 dark pieces or 12 mixed pieces. And we were always supposed to cook more dark than mixed. Trying to explain to owners, or area directors who’ve ‘Been there’ that people like the white meat better fell on deaf ears. We were expected to put extra dark pieces in the bigger meals.
And as for running out of other stuff, I’d order on the Friday before, this was especially hairy during the Notre Dame football season, being only a few miles from campus, and have the truck come in shorted because either the warehouse guy, my area director, or even the owner of the chain would cut your order. Why even take the chance to run out? Luckily we had our own warehouse fifteen minutes from the store, but still, we had to catch the brunt of angry customers.
And don’t get me started on running out of tomatoes for the evil tortilla wrapped Twister, ugh!
[QUOTE=5-4-Fighting]
The fact that Starbucks can (and has, in my experience(s)) run out of regular sugar, certain lids, wooden stirrers, cup sleeves or any of those basic items that have to do with their bread-and-butter profit maker – run-of-the-mill coffee drinks – continually has me leaving the store, shaking my head.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=fetus]
I know none of these are apparently critical to your pursuit of black coffee, but since your location field says you live under my bed, I can assure you there are loads of decent coffeehouses within 10 miles. Why don’t you go to one that respects its customers enough to keep basic items stocked?
[/QUOTE]
I work all over Manhattan and there are dozens of coffee places in close proximity at any time. I’ve partially addressed this but, basically, when I buy my black coffee, Starbucks fits the bill. The quality/caffeine content of other coffee places varies too much and I know, bitterness aside, the coffee at Starbucks will always be an eye-opener (and they’re everywhere). I’d take it away cupped in the palm of my hand, if I had to. 
[QUOTE=Freezair SilverEye]
. . . Now, I can understand running out of cold food in the middle of summer. But I have more than once encountered empty ice cream machines in various locales during the dead of winter. How does THAT happen?
[/QUOTE]
I could actually see that happening: in the winter, because of lower demand, they keep less supply. Any “run” could wipe out the supply.
Hrm. You’d think it’d be a problem in retail, where employee theft is the biggest component of shrink.
I’ve never had bad credit until recently, and I guess I just believed it when I heard that “bad credit = no job”.
Hey, it’s your money. Me, I can’t remember the last time I bought something at Starbucks; and I won’t anytime soon, either. Partially because I like to support local businesses, partially because I can’t drink coffee anymore, and partially because IMO Tazo tea isn’t worth paying for (I get it free at work and the price is almost right).
Here’s one for ya metropunks…I’ve never been in a starbucks, let alone drunk one of their coffees. Am I a deviant…or are you?
[QUOTE=fetus]
Hey, it’s your money. Me, I can’t remember the last time I bought something at Starbucks; and I won’t anytime soon, either. Partially because I like to support local businesses, partially because I can’t drink coffee anymore, and partially because IMO Tazo tea isn’t worth paying for (I get it free at work and the price is almost right).
[/QUOTE]
Thank you for that concession.
fetus, let us stop the hijack by veering into how I spend my money (by us, I mean you). I promise you I’ll consult you if I order the bologna and lutefisk hoagie for lunch, but only if I request the raw quail egg over it.
Even GrizzRich’s semi-snarky response to my post was on-topic, i.e., about continued patronage of an establishment lacking certain essential items.
And please don’t respond to this post. Since I know you will, let me provide you with a draft of your post:
“But why would you patronize an establishment that charges $2.00 for a cup of coffee *and * forces you to call a “large,” a “venti”; an establishment that I can’t afford to frequent because I fucked up my credit?”
[QUOTE=devilsknew]
Here’s one for ya metropunks…I’ve never been in a starbucks, let alone drunk one of their coffees. Am I a deviant…or are you?
[/QUOTE]
Neither; you’ve just made a different choice than I have. 
Obviously this is departing from the food theme but my mom used to refer to the post office near her college as the cheese shop.
Sorry, we’re out of change.
Sorry, we’re out of stamps.