tomatoes on a tomato sandwich?. i took a group of folks from work to lunch at solstice. most everyone enjoyed the hamburgers that are made from fresh ground steak and cooked to order. having ordered a burger fromsolsticeon a previous occasion that was over-cooked, i tried something different from the menu, a “fried green tomato blt”.
expecting a bacon, lettuce, and tomato (a “blt”) sandwich made with fried green tomatoes instead of ripe red tomatoes, i was disappointed. what came on the plate was basically an order of fried green tomatoes served on a large kaiser roll. on the side was a piece of lettuce, two red tomato slices (of all things) and two small pieces of bacon. already disappointed with the entrée, i proceeded to rake off the stack of green tomatoes from the bun and try to make a sandwich. when i picked up the two slices of bacon (really looked like one slice cut in half), they were what could only be described as “refrigerator” cold.
at this point i stopped trying to make an edible sandwich and waited for the waitress to come back to the table. when she stopped by, i complained about the bacon (both the temperature and quantity) and handed her the two strips from my plate. she of course apologized and offered to bring out more bacon with which to make a sandwich. what came out next was a small plate (three half slices this time) of burnt bacon. at this point, i stopped trying to create anything out of my meal and just waited for everyone else at the table to finish.
when the waitress finally came back to bring a check, she noticed i had not eaten the sandwich and asked if anything was wrong. i looked at the small plate of burnt pork flesh and asked if the kitchen had sent that out as a joke. she assured me they had not.
not wanting to make a scene and discuss the situation in front of my guests, i paid the bill and left the restaurant. i called back later to express my displeasure with the meal.
tonight the owner calls me to “get to the bottom of the situation”. after i explained, he told me i was being unreasonable and no restaurant would actually cook bacon to order for a blt sandwich. he said it was normal practice to cook the bacon at the beginning of a shift and leave it out on a sandwich station until it was ordered. as far as the side of tomatoes on what could only be described as a tomato sandwich, he said that was the way all sandwiches were plated.
if you want a quiet place for lunch, i would recommend solstice. the place only had one other table with people at it (i wonder why?). if you want a good blt, i would recommend going somewhere else.