Bad enough our No Name came out overcooked, rock hard, waaaay to sugared up, and completely inedible in every way, but the folks at Grasshopper refused to take it off our bill. Despite the fact that we returned it virtually untouched, the manager/owner (not sure what his position was. He didn't identify himself) flat out refused to take it off our check stating "It's not a store, you can't return it. If we give you your money back it's not fair to us"

At first I thought he was kidding. Who says that?

Then the guy got insulting and explained to us how the No Name is a very special crispy dish. Yeah, crispy as a brick. Totally rude, especially since I already told him I had been a customer for well over a decade and never had a No Name come out rock hard or completely crystalized in sugar like that. The guy went on to rant about how it's not fair to return food to the kitchen. Seriously on and on. Then he wanted me to order something else. Finally, he "generously" took half off the horrible mess. Then he continued his rant about how unfair it is if customers return bad food after ordering it. I swear, at this point I was ready to pay him just to stop talking. He. Just. Kept. Going. On. And. On. And. On.

Basically, the folks at Grasshopper would rather get a few bucks from me for a completely inedible meal then continue to make money off me for the next several years. That's sad. Yep. Bad move, but what do they care -- like so many college town businesses, they are largely sustained by transient folks, a new batch come to town every year.

It's all good for me. Grasshopper is kind of far from me, and other places have outrun Grasshopper in that mock meat junk food kind of way. There are so many great places in the area, I prefer to patronize businesses that respect their customers. And I might just loose that ten pounds after all, now that I won't be picking up lunch specials on a weekly basis and traipsing over to Alston for dinner anymore!