Saturday, September 15, 2007

I Love Free Food

This post is a few days late but I am posting it anyway. During the day Thursday Jessica went to go do some "crafty" things with our friend Lisa. Lisa tells Jessica about some new restaurant by Target that is supposedly giving away free food.

When I got home from work we were trying to decide what to eat for dinner when Jessica tells me about this place. We decided to go and see what we could find. It wasn't too difficult to find, it was the only place in the area that had a line of people around the building. Turns out it is a newly opened franchise of Chipotle (who by the way have the worst website so check out the information here).

Since we had the good fortune of learning about the free food from Adam and Lisa we gave them a call and said "free food is on, get down here." The only caveat was it was 6:40 and the Chipotle staff were cutting the line off at 7:00. Unfortunately they arrived shortly after 7 and were denied access. They then came up in line with us to chat and the chubby, crabby owner approached us and said "if you weren't here by 7 you can't get food". We told him that was fine. The best part was Adam and Lisa hung out with us a bit and the employees kept eagle eying us to make sure they weren't going to get any food.

Jessica and I were able to partake of the food and it was delicious. It was completely free (well we did have to stand in line for an hour but it was worth the $20 in food we got). The burritos were fantastic and we even got a taco "for Penelope".

After we got the food we met Adam and Lisa on the grass by the parking lot. They had gone across the street to get Cafe Rio. We gave them the taco so they could have some free food too.

The free food tactic worked. It got a lot of people to the restaurant (I bet the restaurant gave out a few thousand dollars worth of free food), it got noticed by a lot of people, and they made plenty of people happy with free food. I think that we'll be heading back there again and will, of course, pay.

What I think will be interesting to watch is to see if the the quality of the food decreases or if they reduce portion sizes. The burritos we got were humongous. If portions stay the same it will be well worth the money. Unfortunately I've seen it happen too many times in the past. A new restaurant opens, the food is great, portion sizes are generous, and customers are happy. Once the restaurant gets rolling along, the excitement of the new restaurant wears off, things get a little tight, and the restaurant does one of two things: they either cut portion sizes or get lower quality ingredients. I can't think of a worse thing the restaurant can do. I worked for a restaurant that did exactly those two things (instead of other, better money saving tactics). It ultimately led to their demise. Luckily for me I left the restaurant a few months before they went out of business.

7 comments:

Becca said...

You won't have to worry with Chipotle. It's one of our favorite fast food restaurants. You seriously get a brick of food every time you go! Always very very tasty. I'm jealous you guys have one near you! The closest one to us is in Kentucky.

Mrs. Olsen said...

Chipotle is one of our favorite places, too. And yes, they give a gone of food! But, if I had to choose between Cafe Rio and Chipotle, I think I'd choose Chipotle. Can't beat that pork!

Eric Miller said...

Rachel,

I'd have to choose Cafe Rio's pork barbacoa over the pork at Chipotle...Cafe Rio's pork is the best!

Mrs. Olsen said...

lol, I guess I wasn't paying attention. I meant to type Cafe Rio. I miss it!

Eric and Jessi said...

Free food always taste better. Same with food someone else cooks. (*hint *hint..)

Eric and Jessi said...

What's with calling me "Jessica" all of a sudden?

Eric Miller said...

I thought it'd be a nice change to call you by your full first name. :)