There are so few pleasures in life that haven’t been tainted by nanny-state legislation, threats of terrorism, or other forms of fear-based knee-jerkism, or just by people being people: you know how people now are just rude, unpleasant, and unreasonable? I thought dining out was one of those last, lingering pleasures that one could partake in without being hassled, or otherwise jerked around. I was wrong.
Last night, the Mrs. and I went to one of our favorite restaurants, the Prairie Rock Brewing Company in Elgin Il. It had been a hard day at work for both of us and we needed a hump-day-hurdle mini-celebration. We decided on Prairie Rock because we had this coupon for one free entree and while we wouldn’t normally have spent so much money on dinner during the weekday, we thought the coupon would even things out a little. The wife had the salad bar and I had a mini-pizza. About a 1/3 of the way through dinner, this constipated-looking man, who must’ve been the restaurant manager, came over to inform us that our coupon was not valid for the salad bar. He quickly walked away as fast as he’d come, as if
he had been the B-52 bomber who had dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. We were immediately suspicious, so we looked the coupon over and saw nothing that excluded the salad bar from the coupon. In fact, the only exclusions were appetizers and desserts. We protested to the waitress but she pulled the I-just-work-here routine.
After some discussion, the wife and I decided that the restaurant manager had seen us coming. We look like chumps. We look like we can easily be taken in and fooled, and his initial assessment was right, since what kind of people, but the elderly or the cheap, protest the unwritten exclusions of a coupon? Mostly though, we were tired after a long, hard day at work, and didn’t want to be messed with, nor did we want to argue.
Today, however, I’m calling the Prairie Rock out. I get it. You’re probably in some financial trouble right? After all, the Prairie Rock in Schaumburg was closed down. So all the more reason not to infuriate your regulars. Actually, we were your regulars. We’re not anymore. Your treatment of us was beyond inappropriate and just plain rude. Moreover, we can’t help but get the feeling like we were swindled. Like that wasn’t really the deal with the coupon but you made it so because you summed us up based on appearances and decided we looked like schmucks who you could pull that on. Indeed, we can’t help but feel like the coupon was a scam: lure them in with the coupon on a weekday when your numbers might be a little low and then tell them for whatever reason that the coupon is void. I think they call that a bait and switch, which I believe is illegal.
But how dumb was that? For the cost of a soup and salad bar (what was it $6.95?) you lost two regulars for life! Moreover, you may have lost customers who read this post and decided they don’t want to be treated so poorly and will dine elsewhere. And yes, that is the reason for this post: to let the public know how shabbily the Prairie Rock treats their customers.
So, for all those Elginites looking for a better place to eat, may I recommend Cafe Magdalena on 13 Douglas Avenue. These folks are incredibly nice, incredibly attentive, and make some of the best Italian food outside of Italy. Or, there’s always South Elgin. If, however, you think being treated rudely is novel, try Ed Debevic’s downtown. You’ll at least get a souvenir out of it.