The Keg

Traditions are something I love.  I have a lot of them that only I am privy to and won't share them with anyone, even if you ask nicely.  (Though I'll admit sometimes my "traditions" get mingled with "process"). Every family has traditions, at least I hope every family does. They're fun. They remind you that you have something solid to look forward to.  Maybe it's a tradition your great-grand pappy passed down to your grand pappy who passed it down to your pappy who passed it down to you.  Maybe it's one that you just created in the last week/month/year. Either way, I like traditions.

One of my favorite recent traditions is Sunday dinner.  I love that I started this.  The tradition of getting friends/family together on a regular basis to eat good food...does it get much better?

Sometimes there are traditions INSIDE traditions.  For example, Sunday dinner is a tradition in and of itself.  EVERY Sunday dinner we take two photos: one "normal" one "not so normal".  Anyone who has attended more than one knows this to be true.

Another of my favorite traditions is going with BigBro, Seattle SIL, and Blueberry to The Keg in our birthday months.  We all signed up for their birthday deal (if you haven't you should, it's a good deal. A free meal up to $23.95 in the month of your birth.). Which means every April, September, October and December one of us gets a free meal, and the other three tag along ... because it's a tradition.

I hesitate to also say that the discussion of signing up every family member we know for each month of the year every time we get our free meal could also be a tradition. We'll sit and rattle off family members who's birthday's fall in months our's don't. For example, the MomUnit would give us a November free meal.  We'd never do it, of course, cuz that would be fraud.

Last night was our traditional Keg meal for Blueberry's April birthday. I won't say that she'll be OLDER than me, but she'll officially be older than me in a week.  Then for 8 months I can give her crap about being old.

I happen to love the Keg.  I've never had a bad meal there and have always had exceptional service.  Last night was no exception.  My steak was ordered medium - which in Keg terms comes out just as I like it, usually.  This time it came out WELL DONE.  It was still tasty and still edible. When Jenny, the waitress, came back to check to see if our steaks were cooked ok, I mentioned mine was WAY over cooked. She offered to cook me a new one.  Not wanting to waste anything, and not wanting to wait another 15 minutes for a steak, I said no thanks. It was fine. But thank you for the offer.  She asked a couple of times to make sure I was sure.

After Jenny walked away convinced I didn't need a new steak, Ian, the manager stopped by.  He "heard" that my steak wasn't cooked to my satisfaction and could he have another cooked for me. Again with the, "No it's fine, but thank you for asking." Ian then said he'd take my meal off my bill.

Now, it should be said that I did not say my steak was not cooked right to get a free meal. Didn't even cross my mind in fact.  Jenny asked how our steaks were, and I told her.  The Keg and their service did the rest.  I love when they don't even balk at giving you another steak or offering to take it off your bill.  They showed they believe in their product and if I'm not satisfied they will make it right.

It got even better though...since it was Blueberry's "birthday" meal, Ian brought her a piece of ice cream cake with a candle. THAT put the customer service over the top for me. Never before have we ever got a piece of birthday cake for going because it was our birthday's!! Bigbro, Seattle SIL and Blueberry all but licked the plate too.

I refrained. 

Prior to going to the Keg, for the first time ever, I looked up their menu items and the calories for items I would normally eat.  A normal meal I'd have there, without any concern of calories ranged at about 1400 calories. Oy vei.  That's almost my entire days worth of calories.

So I looked, I plotted, I planned. And eventually came up with three options.  I knew 1) no salad would be permitted. Too many calories there. 2) had to not get any potato of any type, and not get the rice pilaf (500+ calories for that alone).  Eventually I opted for steak and steamed asparagus.  I managed to get to the gym before meeting the fam, so I had some room to work with. Still wasn't going to waste the effort on a salad and potato.  BigBro shared a bit or two of his potato and Blueberry shared her sauteed mushrooms.  At the end of it all, I was pretty happy with my decisions and I wasn't stuffed to the gills like I normally am.

So to Let me 'splain. [pause] No, there is too much. Let me sum up. (movie reference?). 
1. Traditions are awesome. Make some.
2. The Keg is awesome. Eat there.
3. I'm awesome. Period.