Patrick Carroll’s

I'm not one to usually give any kind of rant on a pub but what I encountered at Patrick Carroll’s on Tennyson really got me thinking.

While watching some football I ordered the Pub Burger to go with the many beers I was drinking. Just your basic straight burger. No bacon, no blue cheese crumbles, just a nice thick piece of meat on a bun for my football watching pleasure.

When the nice waitress brought my burger to the table I noticed what seemed to be the obligitory set of vegtables for your burger, lettuce, tomato and onion. What was really next to my burger was a frilly lettuce leaf, a few strands of onion and a thick pink slice of something they call a tomato.

Now, the burger tasted fine and I might even go so far as to say tasting good but the pink thing on my plate was really disgusting. I couldn't take my eyes off it and I wondered who in their right mind would serve a pink tasteless tomato in the peak of tomato season? I've been enjoying fantastic sweet tomatoes from the garden for the last month and when I saw this round pink eye staring at me on my plate I couldn't comprehend putting that in my mouth.

So, per the usual, I waved the waitress over and told her that who ever orders the food here should be ashamed of serving this in the middle of tomato season. She told me she was from the midwest and understands how depressing the slice looks. She then shrugged and said “Well it's a restaurant.”

I thought to myself, “Hmmm, I seem to know a lot of restaurants in the neighborhood that use fresh ingredients and many that buy local from the farmers here in Colorado.”

I just don’t get it. When did eating at a restaurant or a pub make it all right and even acceptable to be served sub-par food and expect us to pay for it? Going out to eat is expensive and I expect good food when I pay for it. Otherwise why would I pay for it?

I can only assume they use some type of SYSCO food service that brings in ”vegetables” from anywhere in the world at the cheapest price just to fill a space on my plate. Yuck.

People, lets not forget were ordering food when we go out to eat and not a commodity.