Do you remember when I told you about walking around the park with my voice teacher Nark? If so, then you may also recall that we generally ended up at a restaurant afterwards, and last night was no exception. In fact, we ended up at the same diner that we had eaten at the last time we had walked around Central Park, but to understand why, you need to know what happened the first time.
Nark took me to this diner because, well, it is a great diner. Everything there is good. We sat down to order and Nark, who is on a low-to-no-carb diet, ordered his usual Cobb Salad. But wait! Something was amiss! The description of the salad on the menu was not that of an exact Cobb Salad. This faux salad had corn in it, and it contained neither egg nor bleu cheese (two Cobb Salad staples)!
We called the waiter over and Nark told him that he would like to have the Cobb Salad, and with the egg and cheese in it. The waiter said that would be extra, and so we asked for the manager. Now, before we go any further, let me assure you that Nark is absolutely correct. A Cobb Salad is a specific salad, like a Waldorf Salad, that was invented by a chef and has an official list of ingredients. Garden salads and Greek salads may vary from place to place, but a Cobb Salad is a real thing. That being said, I suppose it is within the restaurant’s rights to alter it if they so wish. Anyway…
The manager agreed that Nark could have the salad the way he wanted it, but not content with that knowledge, Nark proceeded to look up theofficial Cobb Salad wikipedia page on his phone, and then hunt down the manager to prove his case. We got our food, it was good, and that was the end of that. Until last night.
Our path home brought us past the same diner, and Nark decided to go give them some more of a hard time about the salad. He walked in and stepped up to the hostess and informed her that he wanted to eat there, but because they didn’t know what a real Cobb Salad was, he was leaving and never eating there again.
The hostess seemed confused by this, but luckily for her the manager was standing right next to her, and he took over immediately, asking Nark what the problem was. Nark reiterated that he could no longer eat at this diner, due to their lack of Cobbish respect, and when the manager made the mistake of asking Nark what he was talking about, he walked over and grabbed a menu, pulled out his phone, and showed the man the precise differences between a wikipedia Cobb Salad and a diner Cobb Salad.
Honestly, before Nark even got to the comparison the guy was nodding his head and saying “Yeah, I know, egg and bleu cheese.” He clearly knew what a Cobb Salad was, and also knew that they made it differently there. But he told Nark that he could have his Cobb Salad any way he wanted, and so then we had to eat there.
Nark had another delicious Cobb Salad, just the way he likes it, and I had lasagna. No complaints.