Today I was working a pretty slow breakfast shift. One of my first tables wandered in, I sat them and they immediately had questions for me…YAY!!!
First the woman wanted to know how much the eggs were a la carte, which I told her 2.00 each. She exclaimed, “Really for ONE egg!” ”Yes, Ma’am, they are organic, free range eggs from a local farmer,” I replied. She then wanted to know how much a side of fruit is, even though it is clearly marked on the menu. I told her $8.00, which apparently was too much as well, even though I explained we get our fruit directly from the grower, it is all local, fresh, and in season. She wanted to know then if we could do a half order of fruit, no…banana…no I didn’t list that….can I have egg whites…yes but they are 2.00 more because we use more eggs and waste the yolk…no, no no, too expensive.
She finally settled on our egg breakfast which is just two eggs and a side of our toast that we only have ONE kind of due to it being freshly baked in the building each day. The plate is 8.00. Due to the fact that this woman wanted plain white bread, which we do not have, only the freshly baked italian batard toast, she then proceeded to ask me all the things she could substitute for toast…fruit, no…tomato…no…bacon…no…avocado!, “I’m so sorry ma’am due to the price breakdown none of those options are of equal value to the two slices of toast which cost about 10 cents.
I can order your eggs a la carte and offer any side you’d like for the proper charge as listed on the menu if you do not want toast. “Isn’t avocado the same thing as toast?? I can buy it at the grocery store for cheaper than 2.50, why do you charge so much? ” she whined. Well ma’am, not only do we have to pay for the avocado to be delivered here, we also have to pay the person who is preparing your breakfast to slice your avocado, so that brings the price up a bit. She eventually gave in to paying for it a la carte, not without a fight of course and a strong reprimand that our prices were ridiculous and I should really do something about it. Sure Ma’am, as soon as I’m finished serving your table I will go over the budget and pricing of everything in the restaurant because I totally have that power!
