Place: Qdoba Mexican Grill
Lunch: Chicken Mole burrito, tortilla soup
Yes. They're FINALLY open. And I left early to make sure I beat the lunch crowd (see Popeye's).
As far as I know, I was their first customer. There were lots of people, but they were all employees or Qdoba reps. The franchise owner, who has several stores in multiple states, was also in attendance.
"Is this your first time to Qdoba?" he hollered at me from the kitchen.
I shook my head.
"So you know what's going on, then!"
I nodded my head.
"What other ones have you been to?"
I replied with a list of stores across various states that I could think of (official count: six not counting this one). When I got to Davenport, Iowa, he said "Oh! That's one of mine!"
"Yes," I said. "You also own Bloomington, right?"
"Yes I do," he said.
The Bloomington, Illinois Qdoba is the worst Qdoba ever, specifically due to access. The street address is 1505 N Veteran Parkway. If you arrive there on Veteran Parkway heading south, you can see it, but you have to go all the way down to the next light, turn around in the parking lot of the half-abandoned strip mall, and come back up the street. But that still won't get you there, because you can't get there from Veteran Parkway. You have to go up to the next light, turn right, then go back south on the next block in what effectively is an alley. The sign when you turn in says "No Outlet". At the end of the non-outlet is a big circle with three driveways, but you'll only notice two…the one on the left (which goes straight into an alley behind a building) and the one on the right. The one on the right won't take you there either, but it looks like it does. So you pull in and fail. So you backtrack and realize there's a middle drive too. The middle drive takes you right at about a 45 degree angle into a cramped parking lot where you zig and you zag until FINALLY you're there, and you're REALLY mad.
Didn't seem to be hurting business.
This store is much more readily accessible. Franchise Owner told me they're planning three more stores in the metro, none of which will be more convenient for me than this one.
Everything was Qdobalicious.
I'll probably be back for dinner.
