Profitable profiteroles
The pork chop was supposed to take 20 minutes, a fact the waiter warned me about. That's OK, I had no place else to be. But it took more than 30 minutes, so the waiter said we would get a free dessert. Not necessary, but as long as he was offering, I figured we'd take advantage. So we scrolled up and down the dessert menu to pick our freebie, and landed on the profiteroles.
"Profiterole" is a French word meaning "very difficult to eat". Cutting into these with the fork caused ice cream to spill out, and the chocolate sauce didn't make them any easier to break down, so we ended up with a plate full of ice-cream soup before we were done. Not a bad problem to have, in fact if you have to choose a problem, a plate of delicious sweet liquid could hardly be the worst.
But the check came, and I saw we were being charged for the dessert. An oversight, no doubt. But when I asked the waiter what happened to his offer of a free dessert, he said, "Oh, I was going to give you a piece of ice-cream cake to take home." In other words, we were now on the hook for the profiteroles. I wasn't going to make a fuss over 8 dollars, though I suppose I could have.
But if you're a waiter and you offer me a free dessert, naturally I'm going to assume that you mean something that's on the dessert menu, because as far as I'm aware, that's what your restaurant serves for dessert. Those are my dessert choices - and ice cream cake was not among them.
Really, he should have clarified his offer. How was I to know he was offering ice cream cake, unless he made that clear? And if I had known that the impending ice cream cake was free, simply put, I would not have ordered the profiteroles.
The waiter had a SECOND chance to clarify, when we placed the order for the aforementioned profiteroles. Yet he did NOTHING as we added to our bill, and didn't find it odd that we were ordering off the dessert menu when we had the free ice cream cake coming our way. That's because he did NOT explain the terms of his free offer.
Look, I know I need to lose a few pounds - did he just think I was a big fan of desserts? Dude, I just ate a double-sized pork chop and what most people would call a two-person order of polenta. Even I can't double up on desserts at that point.
Nope, he played innocent bystander and then offered us the ice cream cake to take home. I'm guessing that there was some kind of big party there the week before, or perhaps an in-house staff meeting where a Carvel cake had been served, and the management was saying, "See if you can move this ice-cream cake, it's taking up too much room in the freezer."
Well, we live in Queens, so what do you think is going to happen to that ice-cream cake when we ride home on the subway, genius? Cooler evening weather might be here, but it takes the subway platforms an extra week or so to lose that summer feel. So we can enjoy another plate of ice cream soup when we get home, great.
It's all about communication. I've gotten dessert buy-backs before, one notable restaurant thanked me for attending my 20th monthly beer dinner (in a row, mind you) with a plate of fondue for me and my guest. But if you're going to give me a P.O.S. dessert for free, please inform me of the details of your offer BEFORE I drop some more simoleans on the high-priced sweetmeats.
Thank you for your attention.
Profitable profiteroles
The pork chop was supposed to take 20 minutes, a fact the waiter warned me about. That's OK, I had no place else to be. But it took more than 30 minutes, so the waiter said we would get a free dessert. Not necessary, but as long as he was offering, I figured we'd take advantage. So we scrolled up and down the dessert menu to pick our freebie, and landed on the profiteroles.
"Profiterole" is a French word meaning "very difficult to eat". Cutting into these with the fork caused ice cream to spill out, and the chocolate sauce didn't make them any easier to break down, so we ended up with a plate full of ice-cream soup before we were done. Not a bad problem to have, in fact if you have to choose a problem, a plate of delicious sweet liquid could hardly be the worst.
But the check came, and I saw we were being charged for the dessert. An oversight, no doubt. But when I asked the waiter what happened to his offer of a free dessert, he said, "Oh, I was going to give you a piece of ice-cream cake to take home." In other words, we were now on the hook for the profiteroles. I wasn't going to make a fuss over 8 dollars, though I suppose I could have.
But if you're a waiter and you offer me a free dessert, naturally I'm going to assume that you mean something that's on the dessert menu, because as far as I'm aware, that's what your restaurant serves for dessert. Those are my dessert choices - and ice cream cake was not among them.
Really, he should have clarified his offer. How was I to know he was offering ice cream cake, unless he made that clear? And if I had known that the impending ice cream cake was free, simply put, I would not have ordered the profiteroles.
The waiter had a SECOND chance to clarify, when we placed the order for the aforementioned profiteroles. Yet he did NOTHING as we added to our bill, and didn't find it odd that we were ordering off the dessert menu when we had the free ice cream cake coming our way. That's because he did NOT explain the terms of his free offer.
Look, I know I need to lose a few pounds - did he just think I was a big fan of desserts? Dude, I just ate a double-sized pork chop and what most people would call a two-person order of polenta. Even I can't double up on desserts at that point.
Nope, he played innocent bystander and then offered us the ice cream cake to take home. I'm guessing that there was some kind of big party there the week before, or perhaps an in-house staff meeting where a Carvel cake had been served, and the management was saying, "See if you can move this ice-cream cake, it's taking up too much room in the freezer."
Well, we live in Queens, so what do you think is going to happen to that ice-cream cake when we ride home on the subway, genius? Cooler evening weather might be here, but it takes the subway platforms an extra week or so to lose that summer feel. So we can enjoy another plate of ice cream soup when we get home, great.
It's all about communication. I've gotten dessert buy-backs before, one notable restaurant thanked me for attending my 20th monthly beer dinner (in a row, mind you) with a plate of fondue for me and my guest. But if you're going to give me a P.O.S. dessert for free, please inform me of the details of your offer BEFORE I drop some more simoleans on the high-priced sweetmeats.
Thank you for your attention.