Dining Al Fresco - Sort Of

After the recent town meeting, we stepped out of the steamy auditorium into the misty but mercifully cooler night air. As we walked to the car we realized we were really hungry. Banking on a short meeting, we’d only eaten a late lunch. But at near 11:00 p.m. nothing in our little corner of the world was open. I began listing dinner options available at home. Soon, Chuck began listing off other options. That’s how we found ourselves driving into a nearby town to the “open late” Wendy’s drive through window. We ordered a couple of cups of chili and parked neatly between the lines in the not quite deserted lot. (Yes he does take me to the nicest places!) I unpacked the containers of chili from the bag; then the little pouches of Saltines; then a couple of pre-wrapped napkin-knife-fork packets. I looked in the bag. I shook the bag. No spoons were included. Sigh...

Chuck chivalrously high tailed it on foot to the drive through window to get the spoons. He returned quickly, opened the back door of the car and grabbed our container of traveling supplies. He sat back in the driver’s seat, pulled out a couple of our own plastic spoons and announced that Wendy’s no longer provides spoons. Yes they still sell chili, but they no longer carry spoons! The staff had no explanation, but found it equally odd. Wendy’s chili isn’t an eat it with a fork sort of food. It’s a more liquidy, sloshy sort of chili. As we dined we continued to speculate on the the corporate mindset. As we crumbled our Saltines onto the chili, Chuck wondered if their plan was for us to use the crackers to sop up the liquid and then fork the chili cracker mixture out. I suggested maybe we were supposed to eat all the chunky bits with the fork and then try to drink the liquid at the end. When all was said and done - including the theorizing and the chili - we had no good and logical explanation for Wendy’s no-spoon policy. It struck us as just some corporate pencil pusher’s misguided attempt at cost savings. I did call Wendy’s headquarters and left a message suggesting it wasn’t a good idea to tell customer’s to stick a fork in it - the chili that is!