The Impossible Sandwich

In case you don’t read my blog on a regular basis, well, shame on you!  You may have missed my compelling, sad tale of my seemingly fruitless quest for a Tuna Cheddar Melt from Eat n Park, which I first published this past April.   You see, on Easter Monday I really, really wanted a Tuna Cheddar Melt sandwich advertised on the restaurant’s website only to arrive at the restaurant to find that it was a Lenten Special.  It was perhaps the only time in my life that I was sorry to see Lent come to an end.

Anyway, I wrote a lengthy comment of complaint to the Eat n Park website and ended with a plaintive plea that the restaurant reintroduce the Tuna Cheddar Melt as a regular menu item.  Several weeks later, I received a nice letter of apology from the restaurant, and a $5.00 gift card for the confusion.  Not one word about adding the sandwich to the menu, though.

Despite my ongoing ache for the taste of the Tuna Cheddar Melt, I resigned myself to the fact that you can’t always get what you want and thought that I would perhaps live out the rest of my days without ever getting no satisfaction.  Yes, my life was now like a Rolling Stones song, or two.

Then it happened.  I went on the Eat n Park website one day, and they were having a 7 Days, 7 Deals, 7 Dollars Special where they were featuring a different sandwich for $7 each day of the week, and Friday’s special sandwich was…. the Tuna Cheddar Melt!  I decided on the spot that I would have one that very evening.  Luckily, I held myself back from getting too excited, because when I got home and told my husband the good news, he gently reminded me that it was Tuesday, and the Tuna Cheddar Melt was the Friday special sandwich.

Drat!  I would have to wait three more days before achieving the dream.  Then I started to question myself.  Had I idealized the Eat n Park Tuna Cheddar Melt?  Would the sandwich be as good as I remembered it to be?  What if it were a huge disappointment?

Friday finally came, and I had a plan.  I had rehearsal that evening, so I would order a Tuna Cheddar Melt to take out.  I programmed the local Eat n Park’s phone number into my cell phone so that I could make the call just as I left work.

 

The Tuna Cheddar Melt was everything I remembered it to be and more. With its lightly buttered toast and the melted cheddar and the slices of tomato on the tuna salad, it is the perfect tuna salad sandwich.  I plan to buy one every Friday until the Special is over.

I’d like to think that my impassioned plea to Eat n Park that sad day in April brought back the Tuna Cheddar Melt, even for a short time.  But I doubt it.

The Tuna Cheddar Quest

For the past 10 months, with the exception of a handful of major holidays, I have weighed, measured, and assessed the nutritional information of every morsel of food and beverage that I have consumed.  I have tracked this information using a variety of different criteria, alternately counting Weight Watchers points, calories, carbohydrates, fat, fiber and protein.


When eating out, I find it helpful to go onto a restaurant's website to choose my meal ahead of time.  When I was planning my visit to my local family restaurant chain known for its reasonable prices and friendly cookies on Easter Monday I discovered that I could have the Tuna Cheddar Melt, which was listed on the website as a "NEW" item.  

I have obviously always enjoyed food (or I wouldn’t be in this predicament to begin with), but when you watch every bite, the food you do eat (or plan to eat) takes on a new special kind of import.  I cannot even begin to tell you how eagerly I was anticipating enjoying this tuna melt - my mouth was watering thinking about it.  I thought about it all day long.

My waiter let the air out of my balloon when he informed me that the Tuna Cheddar Melt was no longer available because it was actually a Lenten Special and Lent was now over.  I was despondent.  I was one of those tiresome customers who requested the nutritional information pamphlet so I could choose an alternative meal, none of which had any appeal to me in place of the Tuna Cheddar Melt I had wanted so badly.

Later at home, the thought occurred to me that I may never be able to have a Tuna Cheddar Melt from this restaurant again.  My blood ran cold.  Someday before I die, I want to enjoy this sandwich again.  Would that be an item for my bucket list? 

Remember the olden days when you wrote letters of complaint to businesses?  You would read it over in the light of day, and then decide whether you actually wanted to send it or not.  Well, nowadays, it is all much more immediate.  You can fill out the feedback section on the restaurant website and then hit the “send” button before having a chance to think it over.

Here is the feedback I sent to the restaurant:

1)  If a menu item is available for a limited time, the menu item should be removed from your website the MILLISECOND that it is no longer available to the customer.  Otherwise you are advertising a product that isn't really available, setting yourselves up for disgruntled customers (like I was yesterday).

2)  If you are planning to offer a dish for a limited time only, you might want to think twice about advertising it as "NEW."  This implies that it is an item that will continue to be offered.  Perhaps you could replace that with something like "LENTEN SPECIAL" and maybe even state that it is for a limited time only (e.g. "*Only available through April 6th!").

3)  Finally, I remember a time when Tuna Cheddar Melts were a regular menu item at your restaurant, and the store manager verified that this was true, and that it was actually a pretty popular item.  May I respectfully suggest that you reestablish the Tuna Cheddar Melt as a regular menu item?  How hard could this be?  I assume that you have everything on hand for the sandwich already except for the tuna, and how inconvenient could it be to stock some canned fish in the store?  It doesn't go bad.

I am still waiting for my reply.  Maybe they didn't take me seriously when I told them that their restaurant would be the place for my smiles again when I am able to order a Tuna Cheddar Melt from their menu.