Place: Taco Del Mar
Lunch: Fish burrito, crispy taco
Taco Del Mar has come to Nebraska, and I'm passing through Lincoln. It's a good thing I've been to Taco Del Mar before out West and know better, because if this was my first experience, it would probably be my last.
Before I start, I'll note that the names "Dave" and "Rick" may or may not be correct. That's just what I remember at this time.
Our story starts as I walk into a shiny new Taco Del Mar, where three people are working behind the counter, two people are talking at a table, and a couple of people are in the order line. I enter the order line.
I place my order for a fish burrito. Counter Guy takes my choice of tortilla (they have four different types of tortillas to choose from) and puts it in the tortilla steamer. A magical whoosh of steam and noise happens, the tortilla is removed, and I am asked what kind of beans I want. A pile of black beans is heaped on the tortilla. He then gets out a taco shell for my taco and work basically stops.
"Rick, we need you over here!"
Rick is this skinny kid who sounds a lot like Woody Allen. He's sitting at a table talking to some guy. Rick says in a condescending voice "Hey Dave? I'm going to need you to handle the register for awhile, okay? Great."
Rick is apparently the boss. Dave's mad. He looks like he wants to smack Rick upside the head. As do I, actually.
One of the two girls working the assembly line has put my taco together and wrapped it. She's confused about the flour tortilla with the beans on it that's just sitting there. "We're waiting on fish", says Dave.
Dave has problems at the cash register and needs Rick's assistance. Rick FINALLY gets up, comes over, shows him whatever, then says to the two girls "You need to stay at your stations. You have stations. We have a system here!" Then he opens the door to the back and says "You guys need to come out here and help. There's people out here. You need to stop prep work and get out here!" Whoever is back there never does.
Several minutes, customers, and confusion later, Rick comes out with the fish. There's two empty bins in the assembly area. One is for fish, and one is for shrimp. Rick dumps the shrimp into one and part of the fish pieces into the other...but one piece goes into the queso. Rick says aloud "...Aaaand the fish is in the queso", LEAVES it there, and wanders off.
There's other people waiting for fish items, and the girls make their food. My burrito shell with the long-since cold beans still sits. One of the girls takes a piece of fish from the fish bin and puts it in my burrito. "Are these supposed to have two or three pieces of fish?" she shouts to anybody listening. Dave notes "Two". She looks in the queso bin and says "Well we can't use that."
Dave is getting really frustrated. "Throw that out. We'll start over", he says regarding my sitting pile of cold beans on a tortilla. Then Rick says "Well did you ask him if he minded if the queso was on the fish?" The girl says "No." Then Rick says to me (as if I wasn't standing there watching all of this the whole time) "Sir, one of the pieces of fish fell into the queso. Would you mind if there were some queso on your fish?" At which point I pointed at the queso where the almost completely obscured piece of fish was and said "That piece of fish?"
"Yes", Rick said.
"Well what about that piece of fish?" I said, pointing to the other piece of fish that was in the fish bin that nobody but me noticed.
Rick sees the other piece of fish and exclaims "You guys need to look before you start a crisis!" Girl says "But I didn't see that!" And I'm just like, Whatever.
So of course I get the cold beans and burrito with the fish. They finally finish the assembly process and bag my stuff. Dave doesn't apologize outright, but he says it with his eyes as he rings me up. He rang up the burrito and NOT the taco, and he gave me a drink cup. And chips. Dave's the man.
Naturally, everything (included the just heated fish) was cold. The taco had so little meat in it that it may as well have come from Taco Bell. The fish tasted like freezer burn.
Sad.
I was correct about me jinxing the Avalanche. Their winning streak is over.
Rats.
