$19 Salad.
I was driving down from San Luis with Mia on a Sunday night back to LA. We were wanting a salad so cleverly, Mia searched her phone map to find a Cheesecake Factory off the freeway ahead of us. She called in the order for curbside pickup and timed it perfectly to when we would be there.
The salad, and a drink was 13 something, round to $14. I figured the waiter who would walk out with our food would have some denomination of at least $20 - some $5 and ten $1s, that’s how we did it in the valet world. I assumed I could give him a $20, get change, leave a tip for a few dollars and be back on the road.
He took my $20 for my $14 salad and came back with a $5 and $1. There I am, having to give him he $5 bill as a tip as he stands over me out the window. It was that or stiff him with just $1 after he brought our food and ran back for bills he should’ve had in his pocket and ran back to our car. This was a trick valets would use, giving the customer only two options- to look cheap in front of his date, or to too us a big bill. You win, Cheesecake Factory server.
That’s the story of the 19 salad.