EAT ME
Chicken Wings and Negotiations
Chicken wings have come a long way, from
disposable offal to a loss leader or even a main attraction. Unless the birds
have been given some dubious and weird Russian hormonal steroid, chicken wings
aren’t awfully meaty; they’re essentially delivery systems for the flavours of
their various sauces and coatings, stuff that gets under your fingernails.
In Vancouver
once Ann and I killed time in a shabby sports bar which proclaimed itself
famous for its wings. There were so many varieties listed on the laminated menu
that there was no space for descriptions under the cutesy names. I asked our
bartender what Hail Caesar! tasted
like. Caesar Salad? A Bloody Caesar? She didn’t know; she didn’t care; we were fortunate
she’d shown up for her shift. She was no a shill for a fantastic franchise
opportunity even though those terrific and exciting details had somehow been squeezed
onto the menu.
Wings are often served with strings
attached. Years ago when I still lived in Calgary
I frequently hooked up with my friends Rene and Kevin. We had worked together
for a time and the three of us were still in the advertising business. One
particular evening we convened at the James Joyce pub in the Mission District
which abuts the Elbow
River . It was wing night,
our server informed us. Two bits apiece provided patrons ordered a minimum of a
dozen.
Kevin looked at the waitress for a moment
and then said, ‘We’ll have a dozen wings, please. But since we’re getting
separate bills, could you charge us each a dollar as we’ll eat four each.’
Rene stared up at the ceiling smirking. I
fiddled with my beer mat.
Our server replied, ‘I can’t do that.’
Kevin said, ‘But they’re twenty-five cents
each.’
‘But you have to order a dozen. That’s how
I enter them into the system.’
‘Then why don’t you advertise them at $3 a
dozen?’
‘Because they’re twenty-five cents each.’
‘Okay. Since the three of us are splitting
the order, do we have to get all the same flavour or can we get four each of
three different flavours?’
Our server’s head exploded. We laughed and
ordered another round. And she came around once it dawned on her that Kevin had
just been giving her a hard time.
I was reminded of that exchange Tuesday
night. Stats Guy and I drove beyond the darkness on the edge of town to meet
our bedroom community friends Roy and Dave at The Sawmill in Stony Plain. The
distant venue for the Tuesday Night Beer Club was Dave’s idea. It was wing
night; they were to be had for just $4.95 a pound.
As our evening was wrapping up Roy ordered an additional
pound of wings to take home to his wife Connie. Our waitress was gracious
enough to inform him that the $4.95 wing special was eat in only and that if he
wanted a pound of them to go she would have to charge him full price, $11.95.
For the most part, you can understand
limits and restrictions in restaurants and lounges because conniving gluttons
waddle among us. I asked her, ‘What if we ordered those same wings for the
table and then asked for a doggie bag?’
She said no. She then considered the
absurdity for a moment (and likely how much money we’d already spent and her
tip) and added, ‘I can do that, but you’ll have to eat at least one.’
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