The end is near...

I went to Chuy's for dinner tonight. Nothing new there, I go alot. They just finished the Green Chile Festival which is usually a celebration of unique uses for the Hatch green chile. The dishes are often very different than the standard menu and provide a break from the standard fare.

This year, there were only a couple of 'non-standard' items in the special menu and they weren't exactly inspired. Still enjoyable but nothing that knocked my socks off. In a conversation with our server, we found out that Chuy's had decided to cut back on the innovation on the Green Chile menu and they were also going to take some items off the menu when the festival ended. Carne Guisada, possibly the chipotle chicken enchiladas...maybe some surprises.

I don't like surprises.

We sit down at our table tonight and my wife, Jennifer, orders the Green Chile Stew. She explains to the server that when she starts to feel a cold coming on (like right now) she has a bowl of the stew to stem the tide. Excellent, he said, that seems like a good remedy. Off to the kitchen. We take one more look at the menu and notice they have, indeed, removed the carne guisada and they added the Wild burrito. Not a very good trade. We may need to talk to someone about this. We laugh.

Frank (our waiter) is headed back to the table with a menu. Seems odd. "I have bad news", he says, "the green chile stew has been taken off the menu."

Funny...Who writes your jokes...What's that...You're serious...Right...but seriously...OH MY GOD HE IS SERIOUS.

Frank goes on to explain the the owners have decided to make Chuy's corporate. I ask what that means and he explains that they are standardizing all menus and specials across all restaurants. Less variation = lower costs = higher profits. Very good, I say, I am all about capitalism but what about the green chile stew? Casualty of war.

I can't handle this. I am trying to be reasonable. I am trying to be good about change. But seriously, what's next? I will start the letter writing campaign tomorrow. I hope you will help me by joining. It is hard to keep Austin weird if one of the cornerstones of that slogan is mailing it in.