Monday, October 31, 2005

Glass!

Last night was my usual Sunday night out with the crowd. This Sunday, the "crowd" was only Spencer (the organizer), Sara and I. For a while, I was worried that it might only be Sara and I, but eventually Spencer arrived (which wasn't too unexpected, he's been working hard in his basement too).

Sara and I talked about random things and listened to the guys behind me complain about how poorly their fish sandwiches were cooked (apparently even the replacement sandwich was poorly cooked). The manager tried to sooth rumpled feathers, but I don't know if those guys will be coming back any time soon.

It wasn't going to be a good night for the manager.

I was maybe three bites into my bacon and cheese chicken sandwich when I bit down on something hard. Thinking it was just overcooked bacon, I bit down harder until I heard a loud snap! and I was through it. A fraction of a second later I thought, "that didn't sound right". I stopped chewing and looked at the sandwich to see what I just bit into, thinking it was a bone or the like. A piece of shredded lettuce didn't look quite right. When I grabbed it, it turned out to be a shard of glass a about half an inch long, a few millimeters wide, and maybe a millimeter thick. I promptly, though not too elegantly, emptied the contents of my mouth back onto the plate.

We called over the waitress and explained it to her, and she promptly called over the manager (whom we know quite well from years of doing Sunday nights here). We gave her the piece of glass that was pulled from the sandwich and found the bit that had been in my mouth, which was probably about 2mm square. She asked if I was OK and I said I was, though I had cut the tip of my tongue, though not to the point of bleeding, but it sure did feel weird.

I got a replacement sandwich, and had my sandwich taken off the bill, as we pondered how a thin shard of glass could get into the food prep area, which for obvious reasons is kept free of glass containers. The best we could come up with was that something may have fallen and shattered, scattering pieces much father than expected. The odd part was that it was a pretty thin piece of glass, thinner than any of their drink glasses -- at least the ones that I've seen. Perhaps a Martini glass?

Oh well, no harm, no foul, and I'll be back there next Sunday.