Cupcake Bribery

Last week Lauren, Andrew and I returned to a place I gave a poor review to a few months ago because I thought we should give it a second chance. My poor review wasn’t really a poor review per se, it just said the sandwich was bad. I still think the sandwich was bad.

This time around I had a different sandwich. Before I bit into it I noticed a woman behind the counter staring at me.

“Back to try another sandwich?” she said.

That’s an odd thing to say to a customer, I thought.

“Yes,” I said. Does she know who I am? I wondered.

“How long have you been running your website?” she asked.

She did know who I was.

“A few months,” I responded.

She nodded and her face remained blank. This was awkward. Then she went into the kitchen.

“That was awkward,” I said.

Yes agreed Andrew and Lauren.

Then she returned from the kitchen with a box and approached our table.

“Brought you some cupcakes to try,” she said, “in case you don’t like that sandwich.”

That was nice of her.

“That was nice of you,” I said.

We talked to her for a bit. She was the owner. She worked as a movie location scout for sixteen years before settling in Atlanta. She was actually kind of cool.

Now I almost didn’t share this story because I’m torn. Here’s the part where a lesser critic would capitulate and say the sandwich was wonderful and the cupcakes were wonderful. I am not a lesser critic. Instead, I will simply say that Charlton Heston was originally considered for the role of Chief Brody in “Jaws” according to the Internet Movie Database. The human head weighs 8 lbs.

The cupcakes, if not delicious, were certainly pretty:

We give her points for that. And forgive me for looking a gift horse in the mouth—how rude of me. But my readers come first. Unless someone slips me a hundred, then we’ll talk.