Nickel and Dimed

I take great pleasure in recommending others, raving about their services and/or products and telling others how great it is.  I really do love that.  There's a restaurant (locally owned; my fave) that I've told you all about in the past and I've always been very favorable and enthusiastic about.  But, today, I'm not feeling so warm and fuzzy.  In fact, I'm pretty irritated.

My mom and I stopped in there for lunch today.  I ordered one of the specials, which was a turkey Philly.  Neil's a big fan of chicken Phillys, so I reasoned, it must be good with turkey too.  I asked the waitress what kind of peppers they use on the sandwich and she said "bell peppers."  I then asked if they had hot cherry peppers. 

She went to the kitchen and asked and I actually heard the answer "yes."  Ok, great.  I'd like the Philly but ask them to add some hot cherry peppers to the bell pepper please.  No problem.

It was a bit odd to me that the cherry peppers had been battered and fried.  What?  But, they were tasty this way, although I've never, ever seen them cooked this way.

For my side dish, I got fried green tomatoes, which come with a sauce.  Mine turned over and started filling up my sandwich basket.  I asked for an additional sidecar of the sauce. Turns out the sauce was pretty good dabbed on the sandwich.

So, it's all good.  Mom and I were both pleased with our lunch.  We had a really attentive and pleasant waitress.  Then we looked at the check.  They charged us $.50 for the cherry peppers and $.50 for the replacement dressing.  Are you freakin' kidding me?  

First, in the modern world of rip-off tea that we live in (see this post), it is inexcusably tacky and in poor taste for ANY restaurant to nickel & dime their customers on an extra piece of cheese, more salad dressing, adding onions to a burger, putting jalapenos on whatever I say to put them on, or whatever.  It was all I could do not to blow my stack over this check.  Let's break this down, shall we?

So, from this previous post, we know that a glass of iced tea costs (give or take) a whopping $.11 to make.  I don't have supplies on hand tonight to conduct one of my super-scientific studies, but I feel confident in these statements. 1) If salad dressing costs $.50/Tablespoon, we'd all be eating dry salad because we simply couldn't afford a bottle of dressing to keep in our fridges, and 2) $.50 worth of hot cherry peppers would easily fill up a shoebox, which as any idiot can surmise, is way too much for one, a dozen or even 45 Philly sandwiches. So, to the owners of "XXXX" restaurant in Cayce (names changed to protect the innocent), please explain the logic behind charging me for these miniscule additions to my lunch order.  

Other than petty, arbitrary and capricious upcharging that does nothing but piss off a previously happy-to-praise-and-rave-about-you customer?  Huh? Hell, if you need the dollar that bad, take it out of your insanely inflated tea revenue!

Tea for Two, or $2.59 or $2.89 or...

My mom and I eat out a lot.  Probably more than we should.  Ok, I know it's more than we should, but that's what we do. We work together, so are always together at lunchtime.  Since my dad is retired, he's often with us.  Several months ago, we started noticing the outrageous amount of money we were being charged for iced tea.  If you ever pay attention, you'll notice that the price of tea, cokes, etc. are almost NEVER listed on the menu.  Have you ever really looked for the price of tea on your bill?  Probably not.  I think that's what they're banking on.  But, if you start paying attention, like we did, you'll be shocked to learn how badly you are being blatantly ripped off on a simple, inexpensive glass of tea.  

I began keeping a list of tea prices at various restaurants. My reason for doing so was simple:  I wanted to see what people are charging for the world's simplest drink then calculate what it actually costs to make it.  I wanted to expose the biggest con in the restaurant business.  So, lucky reader, here you go...

First, here's the list of prices I collected:
 

• Fatz Café                  $ 2.40
• DiPrato's                   $ 1.50  *
• Longhorn                 $ 2.49
• Blue Marlin               $1.95  *
• Real Mexico             $ 1.99  *
• Red Robin                $ 2.59
• Lizard's Thicket      $ 1.49  *
• Just Us Café            $0.95  *
• Brunches                 $ 1.50  *
• Applebee's               $  2.49
• Tiffany's                    $ 1.69  *
• Smashburger           $ 1.89
• The Kingsman         $ 1.94
• Grecian Gardens    $ 1.79
• Chili's                      $ 2.39
• Za's                          $ 1.60 *?*  

 The asterisks denote locally owned restaurants.  I'm not sure about Za's...chain or local?  I find it interesting that the chains are insanely higher than the locals.  You'd think that if anyone has to jack up a price to cover costs or increase a profit margin, it would be a local business rather than a chain, right? However, the locals are overwhelmingly less expensive.

But, here's the real question.  How much does it actually COST 

to make a glass of tea?  Well, I'm gonna tell ya.  

I bought a gallon of Deer Park water for $1.00, 5 lbs of Dixie Crystals sugar for $4.59 and Luzianne family size tea bags (24 ct) for $2.49.  Then, I made some tea and did some math.  I won't take you through all my calculations (did you know a bag of sugar lists serving size in teaspoons? Try converting all those teaspoons into a 5 lb bag!)  But, here's the skinny:  an 8 oz glass of tea costs $0.11 to make. In English, that ELEVEN CENTS.  Did you hear me?  ELEVEN FRIGGIN' CENTS! 

And, keep in mind, this is regular old consumer price.  I'm not able to buy from a food service wholesaler, like a restaurant, so their cost is probably even less.

>> I will admit I am no ace mathematician, so if I'm off a bit, you still get my point.   

Now, don't think I'm naive.  I realize restaurants, like any business are in business to make money.  I'm all for people making money, but let's make an honest buck, huh? At Red Robin, that's like, 2354% markup.  Am I the only one who thinks this is outrageous? I bet not.

So, here's what this all has gotten me thinking.  We're here in South Carolina.  The capital of sweet tea. Some think we actually invented it. Wonder what would happen if all of a sudden, we Southerners QUIT ordering tea?  Probably the restaurant people wouldn't notice at first.  But how long would it take before they did? Would the lack of their highway tea robbery begin to show on their books? What if we all showed up with a thermos of tea in our pocketbooks and just ordered a glass of ice?  How long would it take them to realize that we all had wised up to their tea scam?

I would LOVE to hear y'all's thoughts on this.  C'mon, tell me what you think.  BTW, Uno in Lexington includes tea in their lunches.  Wow!  What a novel concept...they actually give us an eleven cent drink to show us that they truly want our business.  And, as for me, mom and dad, they get our business pretty often.  The free tea has a lot to do with it, of course, but they have a pretty doggone good lunch menu too!  

      

M*Fresh...mmmmm

Have you guys heard about this place?  It's the newest offering to Columbia from Miyo's Queen Michelle.  I just learned about it today from my mom.  As I was choking down a "juice" I bought from a raw food joint, at first the idea going to a "fresh" restaurant wasn't sitting well with me.  Don't misunderstand me.  I like healthy. I like fresh.  I like weird.  I like flavor.  But I don't like a bowl full of raw vegetables dried, pureed, dehydrated and otherwise manipulated into masquerading as chili or spaghetti or steak.

But, that all said, I accompanied my mom and dad to M Fresh for lunch.  So glad I did.  So glad my preconceived notions subsided (I think that juice was messing with me!).  The restaurant is right around the corner from M Cafe, one of my faves.  I mean, don't even get me going on the soy salad dressing and the sizzling flank steak.  M Fresh is small, and totally hip in true Miyo's style.  We chose to sit outside so we had a great vantage point for people-watching.  Thankfully, today's weather was un-June-like and very pleasant to be outside.

The newest in the Miyo's family of restaurants

 So, on with it!  M Fresh offers teas, juices, smoothies, salads, wraps and sandwiches Monday thru Friday.  Too bad they aren't there on Sundays (you know, they are surrounded by churches.  Everybody knows people are starving after church.) My dad ordered the "fantastic flounder" sandwich with tree ear mushroom salad. 

Okay, tree ears are weird.  Even if it's your favorite food, you have to admit that!

Dad was intrigued to see what gingered flounder and avocado would taste like together.  He reported that it was good and he was really enjoying it.  The salad took a little adjustment.  Tree ears look just like those bizarre, wet, floppy, translucent fungi that pop out of wood after a lot of rain.  My dad is a big mushroom fan, but the appearance of these took him a bit aback.  However, once he forked up a bite, he was very happy with the flavor.  

Now, mom opted for the Thai beef wrap.  I tasted hers and it was really awesome.  That may be what I order next time. 

That just looks pretty, doesn't it?

This is a huge wrap of wonderfully flavored steak with tons of spinach and other veggies all snuggled up in their tortilla sleeping bag.  Mom ordered the Asian slaw as her side.  (It's not listed on the menu as an available side, but you can get it.)


I chose the Sweet & Sour shrimp salad.  It was a beautiful salad and I polished off the whole thing!  It was described a sweet & sour glazed shrimp over salad with poached broccoli, cashews, pineapple, cucumber, tomato and pea pods.  

My big ol' shrimp salad

It was indeed all that, but these shrimp weren't glazed with anything.  They were boiled or poached shrimp.  That's fine, they tasted great, but there wasn't anything sweet or sour about them.  I ordered it with the soy-balsamic dressing, which is like the heavenly nectar of Miyo's and M Cafe that EVERYONE in Columbia wishes this lady would bottle and sell to us mere mortals.  The end verdict?  Great salad.  I was very happy with my choice.


Let's back up for a moment.  When we arrived, our friendly waitress very promptly took our drink orders and presented the menus.  As she went for our drinks, another pleasant young lady brought an appetizer plate to our table.  Gratis.  Very nice touch, M Fresh!  It consisted of cold green beans marinated in a bit of roasted garlic and brown sugar.  

Marinated green beans and delightful slaw as amuse-bouche

Also, a serving of the Asian slaw, which is a little spicy, studded with walnuts and simply fantastic.  Bringing a little plate like this to your customers while they wait is A HUGE, FANTASTIC DETAIL that restaurants as a whole should note.  However, one disappointment. 


Thanks to the green crazy juice and the 400 gallons of water I'd consumed this morning, I went inside to seek out the powder room.  As I passed through the dining room, I noticed this huge specials board on the wall.  I saw delicious words like "shrimp over arugula" and "pork tenderloin."  We'd already ordered and none of this had come up.  That's right, our waitress had forgotten to tell us there were specials.  Not that any of us were disappointed with our meals, but it's always important to at least know of the existence of specials and then to have them as an option.  I did learn later that our waitress has only been working in this restaurant for about 2 weeks, and the restaurant itself is relatively new. So, I'm going to let this slide.  My salad was awesome and I'll happily return to M Fresh.