All Things Woompty

There is a limit to the hotness of soup

There's a Coco's not far from our apartment that we go to on a semi-regular basis. Okay, so it's more like a once a week regular basis, but what can I say...it's fast, it's cheap, and there's pie. And we are nothing if not addicted to pie. Plus there's nothing too weird on the menu, and the familiarity is kind of comforting. Anyway, we go there a lot and we went there today for lunch.

Every time we go there, we end up having some kind of adventure. We live in an interesting neighborhood, and the most interesting characters always end up at Coco's eventually. Once, a pint glass slipped out of my hand and exploded on impact with the table. Another time, we got to hear a woman go on and on to the older couple she was with, complaining about how horrible her girlfriend was as they agreed with her. We realized as the conversation went on that the older couple were actually the horrible girlfriend's parents. Nice, eh?

Today found us seated next two a pair of women, one a middle aged brunette and one an elderly grandmother type. I figured they were a mother and daughter, but once we sat down and their conversation drifted over, I heard the brunette asking questions of the grandmother as though she was conducting an interview. They had been seated for awhile before us, so their waitress brought them their food (chicken tortilla soup and salads) soon after that. And then the fun began.

Waitress: Here you go, test it and make sure it's warm enough.

Grandmother: Oh no, this is nowhere near hot. (Brunette agrees)

Meanwhile, the soup is steaming and the cheese sprinkled on top is all melty but hey, customer's always right so the waitress took the soup back to the kitchen to microwave it. Brought it back, and the scene was repeated.

Three. More. Times. Three more times the waitress took the soup back to make it hotter, even going to far as to dump the old soup, stand there while the cook ladled it out and take it to their table within moments. And it still wasn't hot enough. Kevin and I were sitting there in amazement, because in the time it took for this to happen, my own soup had finally appeared (after being forgotten by the waitress) and had been plenty hot. We could see the steam coming off the soup and yet these women were still sitting there insisting that the soup pot must be set too low because the soup was barely warm.

Imagine their surprise when the waitress came back later and told them she had no idea what could be wrong, since she spoke with the chef and he said the soup pot was at 160 degrees. I half expected to see their faces start melting off from the atomically hot soup, because at this point (we found out later, when we talked to the waitress on our way out) the waitress had microwaved it like...5 times. Maybe they had some secret plan to get the soup nuclear hot and then spill it on themselves so they could sue the hell out of Coco's. Or maybe, just maybe, they were from an alien planet where anything less than 200 degrees is considered cold.

The best part of the meal today though? Free pie, as an apology from our waitress for my soup being late. Hey, lunch, a show AND free pie! See why we keep going back there?

posted by Melinda @ 6:12 PM