Five Song Friday: The Burrito in the Coal Mine
This Week: Jury Duty, Damp Sheets and Poppy Swedes
Maybe it’s my fault for overpaying for beans and rice.
Maybe I’m expecting too much and I should just take my food and get on with it.
But I can’t help feeling like my paper bag full of disappointment is the sign of worse things to come.
I realized it when I walked in this place.
I remember they used to have a line out the door. Back when watching the grill felt like a theater experience. Flames! Tattoos! Laughter! It was all so exciting and electric and you needed two hands to carry your food.
Now it feels like a bus station up in here.
Kinda sad and dirty and not special at all.
A handful of customers are seated and standing in the dining area. Faces locked in the tractor beam glow of their phones. Waiting to get their food and LEAVE this godawful place.
Behind the counter is hopeless chaos. Disheveled employees perform their sad, slow dance. Glazed young faces look like they lost a bet to be here.
It’s quiet except for the hiss of sizzling meat and crunchy footsteps from kitchen staff walking on a carpet of chips. There’s a phone ringing that won’t get answered.
Somebody yells “CARNITAS” while banging on an empty metal container with a holey metal spoon.
The place is a wreck. The food line looks like a Shoney’s salad bar after the tour buses leave.
The inside of the fridge from your first apartment.
Or a makeshift kitchen on The Walking Dead right before Daryl grabs his crossbow and says, “I’m going out for supplies.”
What I’m saying is that it looks EMPTY.
When I ask for the white rice, I try to hide my disappointment while the young lady clangs and scrapes the bottom of the pan, dribbles the watery dregs into my tortilla and moves forward down the line.
Some of this. Some of that. Yes, I understand that queso is $19.95 extra. Fine.
I ask for guacamole and receive one heaping tablespoon for a small down payment and reasonable monthly installments.
I watch her fold my pile of food like a sloppy hobo bindle. I think there’s no way this thing holds together after one bite. (Spoiler alert: It doesn’t)
What happens next? I bring it home and put it all inside my mouth.
Oh sure, I’ll complain. But I’ll go back again, because I always do.
I’ll go back because next time MIGHT NOT be so terrible. I’ll go back because I’m lazy and it’s close and change is hard.
But maybe the real reason I go back is because I have HOPE.
I hope that one day I’ll go back and someone will CARE. Someone will TRY.
Maybe one day, this place won’t feel sad or be dirty. Maybe people will be excited about the work they do (or at least pretend harder). One of the twelve employees will bend over to pick up the trash in the dining room.
Maybe my burrito will be in the shape of a burrito and I’ll be able to eat it with my hands!
I don’t mean to pick on this one place. They’re not alone. Businesses adopting the mission/vision statement of NOT-GIVING-A-SHIT is rampant. More and more it feels like restaurants and stores are just phoning it in.
I’m not picking on the employees either. I was a surly food service foot soldier for years and had nothing but contempt for customers. But I always had people that forced me to fake it.
I had uptight managers, hotel owners and angry Greek restauranteurs who forced me to stand up straight and tuck in my goddamn shirt tail.
It wasn’t exactly Full Metal Jacket, but they all made it clear that “If I had time to lean, I had time to clean.”
Maybe I’m just getting older and crankier, but it seems like more captains have abandoned their ships. More establishments feel like rudderless vessels adrift at sea, with the crews doing the bare minimum to survive.
These places overpromise and underdeliver and honestly, it just bums me out.
I know it sounds like I’m making too much out of a bad burrito, but this isn’t really about food.
This is about caring about what you do.
If we can’t even get people to care about making a decent burrito, how do we get people to care about anything…
…or anybody?
Sincerely,
DJ CrankyPete
Five Song Friday 049
“Sweet n Sour” - Waterbed
Here’s proof that a silly song can also be deeply profound. You want the joys of life? Well fine, but you are also going to have to do things like yard work and jury duty. SORRY!
“Bad Love” - Dehd
Is bad love better than no love at all? It depends on how bad the love is. If you’re talking Dateline-level bad love, then NO THANKS!
“Part Time Punks” - Television Personalities
Probably the worst thing about being a part-time punk is that you don’t get the health insurance. You also don’t enjoy as much of an employee discount. UNFAIR!
“Night Sweats” - Findlay
Much less sexier than day sweats, which can fool people into thinking you are working hard, the night sweats just get your sheets damp. MOIST!
“The Comeback” - Shout Out Louds
A Swedish indie pop band from Stockholm? Yes please! Want more details? Too bad!
Listen on Spotify
Listen on YouTube Music
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
“Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.” - Joseph Addison