Restaurant #4: When to Break a Rule

We shouldn’t have gone to this restaurant.

There are five of them in our county, and one in the county just north of us.  By our own definition, that makes it a chain. If there were only four of them, we would have been fine, but we still went.

So, if our Cuisine Quest is to visit every non-chain restaurant in our town, and the list is very long, why did we waste our time on a restaurant that should have not been on our list?

Soccer.  Or, football.  Depends on where you’re from.

You see, we are soccer fans in America without cable TV.  So, unless we invite ourselves to someone’s house to watch the game, we have to go to a restaurant to watch.

The best restaurant we’ve found that our whole family can watch soccer is a chicken wings chain restaurant the next town over.

That restaurant is the only place I’ve ever eaten wings.  During FIFA World Cup, and during the Summer Olympics, we eat a lot of wings.

That is why I broke our rule and visited a border-line chain restaurant.  I wanted to know what chicken wings were like at other restaurants.

My husband refused to order wings. His salad turned out to be really tasty!

It looks and tastes the same as at our usual wings restaurant. But the bread sticks are amazing!

Would we go again? Yes, for the food. Two forks up. Will we go again? Not during soccer season!

Is it ok to break a rule just because I want to?  There are many reasons for rules.

• Courtesy – open the door for someone with their arms full.

• Law and order – don’t take something that doesn’t belong to you.

• Social behavior – look at the person, not your phone, when they are talking with you.

• Business – If it’s not necessary to ‘reply all’, don’t.

• Health – don’t start smoking.

• Family – ask first before borrowing.

• The Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them to unto you.

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Restaurant #3: How Do You Eat An Elephant?

How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

How do you break a bad habit?

One day at a time.

How do you eat at every restaurant in your town?

One street at a time.

Some things in life are overwhelming.  School, work, family, finances.  How do you handle it?

1. Step back

2. Take a deep breath

3. Break down the situation into small parts that you can tackle one at a time.

For our Cuisine Quest to eat at every restaurant in our town, I was feeling overwhelmed, until I looked at the small picture.  I looked at one street.

This one-mile-long stretch has strip malls, auto repair shops, a church, apartments, businesses, and 12 restaurants!

There are chain restaurants: El Torrito, Starbucks, Subway, El Pollo Loco, and Yum Yum Donuts.  That’s 5 restaurants we can skip.

There is one catering place that is open for lunch, and one pancake house that isn’t open for dinner.  That’s 2 restaurants we can skip.

That leaves 5 more restaurants that we are supposed to eat at.  Restaurant #1 and #2 are on this street, so we already checked them off the list.

Only 3 restaurants left!  That is very manageable!

Restaurant #3 is a “pizza and grill”.  It seems to be mostly for takeout, but they do have a nice small dining area in front of the order counter, with tablecloths and a TV to watch the game.

I assumed they would basically have pizza and a few sides.  But they have an extensive menu of sandwiches, pastas, salads, and sides.  It was hard to choose, so we went with their recommendations.

A simple salad came with the dinner.

The garlic bread was also included, and perfectly tender and had good flavor.

The chef recommended his cheese steak. The photo isn’t attractive, but in my husband’s expert opinion, the sandwich was tasty!

Would we come back again?  We have to, so we can try their pizza!  But, even though the dining area was pleasant, we would probably get it to go. Two forks up!

When you feel overwhelmed, how do you break a big situation into small steps?

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