A RARE EVENING AT RUBY TUESDAYS....

I have been married to Pat for almost 11 years - and learned almost right away that he will NOT eat anything in the meat category that comes even close to RARE. He wants - and orders - everything WELL-DONE. It is for this reason that his restaurant karma has been worse than anyone's I have ever known. He has sent more steaks back to the chef than fleas on a dog. Not an appetizing analogy I realize. It is common for everyone to be finished eating while the restaurant is still trying to get the pink out of his NY Strip. So it was not out of the ordinary when we ordered at RUBY TUESDAYS last night and our burgers which were ordered well - came rare...maybe medium rare if I were to cut the chef some slack. Pat told the waitress and she said "we will cook you a fresh one, sir - my apologies." When she returned a few hours later (exaggeration) there was his original burger, bite gone and and all! He managed to get the manager to our table. She had this annoying whiny shrill voice and told Pat that au contraire! They had cooked his meat to KST standards - whatever that means. When he inquired about how he could know for certain that it was actually HIS burger (after all there might have been others who took a bite and sent theirs back) she claimed to have watched the chef cook it. I could see the veins sticking out on Pats neck at that point. I would have been on his side if he had popped her one. I mentioned that for the second visit in a row, their salad bar looked terrible. Most everything was gone. Ham was swimming in water. The salad plates were HOT...so somehow the restaurant MANAGER MANAGER came to our table. She said she had been called in by corporate to get this Rubys shaped up. We wished her luck. She comped our meal - and we left hungry. It would take a LOT to get us back into that place again.