Yesterday Lauren and I were near the Arboretum area having a coffee at the beautiful Segafredo-backed 360 Hills Cafe on Jollyville. As hunger crept up on my lady she admitted to having a bit of a hunger for “Fresh Choice” which is a salad buffet that also sells some overcooked carb-heavy things on the side ( pasta, cardboardy pizza, etc. ).
We walked in and checked out the menu options and saw that the limitless buffet was $9 mumbledy mumble.
Nine-plus-dollars.
3 gallons of premium?
For salad?
( “You don’t put burbon in it or nothin’?” )
I appreciate that the rich eat better than the poor and that establishments like this are the barometer of that ugly truth, but ten dollars for a salad bar is just beyond the pale of good sense. Maybe this is why my very expense-conscious sister only goes for lunch.
For some of you not in flyover locales ten bucks may sound pretty reasonable for a meal, but ‘round here ten bucks will get you: - A wonderful taco plate at Kerby Lane - A wonderful chicken / salad ( fajita salad ) at The Hyde Park Bar and Grill - An asian chicken salad at the Alama Drafthouse movie theatre - A big greasy plate of something Mexican at Chuy’s - Sesame Chicken at China Café - Lot of other unhealthy stuff.
So, we turned on our heels smartly, walked over to the HEB and bought sauce, lettuce head, bleu cheese crumbles, and Bac-O’s and provelone, Duvel Golden Ale, Corn-Nuts, and french rolls. We put breaded chicken, made a parmigiana sauce, put the chicken and sauce to cook in the oven.
After it was cooked we put it on a french roll, covered with provelone and served with a salad with champagne dressing with bleu cheese.
Bill from HEB $40.00 with some premium / multi-use items in there.
And that doesn’t even top off the score: my girl and i talked and laughed as we cooked, we shared some ranch corn nuts in a decadent display of growling stomach staving off, and after a quick washing up of the plates together, we watched disc III of “Ergo Proxy” ( it gets really good there! ).
I hear that many revolutions have begun when one individual said “enough”. Not to compare this lowly servant to Rosa Parks or anything, but last night we said enough to being ripped off at dinner for decent food.
I read in a blog post about “how to save money” that every time you think about going out for food, don’t and make a great meal instead. You’ll wind up thanking yourself. Words to weigh your decisions by.
Dude, as far as FreshChoice, I totally agree. It’s like a cross between Sirloin Stockade and Souper Salad, and both cost less. I love eating out, and since I’m single, it’s not usually that much more expensive than cooking. However, you gotta pick and choose where you go.
If I want salad, I walk 5 minutes to Souper Salad on Anderson.
As far as the other restaurants: Mmmmm Kerbey. I love Alamo too, but more for programming and beer, of course.
And also, mmmm, duvel. I just drank some Kwak. Another fine Belgian strong brew. And then I followed it up with Fin du Monde, which is a good Canadian beer. What is it about beer brewed where the French and the Germanic meet? It’s like beer meets wine, the best of both worlds. Damn, I love it.
Let’s go to the Ginger Man or Draught House sometime soon. We need to properly catch up. Sorry I missed your Bday. Email me if you like.