No such thing as a free lunch…

An article by Don Quixote

… Well, that is unless you’re eating at Logans Steakhouse in Fort Wayne.

I honestly have no idea what the problem is. But 3 out of the last 5 times I’ve eaten there, I’ve ended up with a free lunch. It started innocently enough a few weeks ago. We always order from their lunch menu (they have this huge sign next to it that says lunch in under 15 minutes) because we’d like to get in, get out and get back to work (and by work I mean blogging, watching Strong Bad, playing board games online, and then doing some web design stuff). Well for some still unknown reason our lunch took like 30 minutes. We expressed our displeasure, so when the waitress brought us the bill, I said, “The manager is going to discount this correct? I’m not looking for a free lunch mind you, I simply want to be compensated for the long wait, so I think 20% off is fair.” So she went and talked to the manager and then he came over to talk to us (he was rather a jerk mind you), and said the meal took longer than it should, normally it comes out much sooner (didn’t say he was sorry). So I asked him what he was going to do to make things right. “Well what do you want me to do, I said I was sorry.” “Well I think some sort of discount is fair, like say 20%. I’m *not looking for a free lunch, just something that’s fair, we did wait 30 minutes.” So he storms off, the waitress comes back with the check, and he’s given us a free meal (though we still had to pay for drinks), I tried to plead my case again, but that was it. Well, then the other couple that was with us looked at their check, they were charged full price (which lead to another trip back to the manager). So, I left with a rather bad taste in my mouth for Logans.

The next two times went fine, but the last two, again with the free meal. First they messed up the order, which was okay because they brought me a new one, and they gave me the meal for free. And then yesterday they took a long time and without even mentioning it a manager (not the same dorky guy) came over, appologized and then said, “Hey, your lunch is on us.” I was a little stunned. But hey, there you go a free lunch.

In the same line of free stuff from lunch outtings, last week Michelle and I went to O’Charlies for lunch, she found a block of ice at the bottom of her bowl (normally caused by the temp in the freeze). So she just took it out, set it on the plate next to her and we had lunch. Everything else was fine. The waiter (Matt – have him every time we go – the same guy that Tom and I had when he was here), cleared the plates and we didn’t say a thing. Next thing we know the manager comes over, says he noticed the ice on the plate, and wanted to appologize and gave us gift certificates for the next time we went.

So moral of the story, there is such a thing as a free lunch, but the downside is you’ll usually have to have me for company.