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1

If only a man could tell his waitress he thought his chili was too sweet, and thus weird, right there in the restaurant or bar, rather than wait until later and have to post it on the Internet. But I know if it had been me I'd have been so scared I'd have probably wet myself if I even tried to give them any feedback to their faces.

Anyway, I'm just pissed that one thing or another has always prevented me from watching the bike races at Smarty Pants. Missed this week's race too -- and naturally Rossi won, all because I couldn't see it. Guess I'll try once again a week from Wednesday to see the Le Mans race.

Posted by elenchos | May 10, 2008 8:15 PM
2

@1 -- The hyphenates are different from you and me.

Posted by Jubilation T. Cornball | May 10, 2008 8:28 PM
3

If you don't like her chili, why do you shake her beans?

Posted by NapoleonXIV | May 10, 2008 8:53 PM
4

Why give them some constructive criticism and give 'em a chance to improve their chili by telling them it's too sweet when you can just publicly (and snarkily) shame them on Slog?

Sure, I come here every day and read Slog. But you guys are so fucking lame sometimes.

Posted by sigh | May 10, 2008 9:41 PM
5

I had the chili there years ago. I was told that the sweetness comes from Coca-Cola. Maybe they need to cut it down by a can?
Maybe they should switch to Tab?

Posted by bucket | May 10, 2008 9:56 PM
6

Tab, now you're talkin'.

Posted by Fnarf | May 10, 2008 10:50 PM
7

Y'know, it's a minor point to most, but probably a pretty major point to journalists: If you're going to amend a Slog post, you really ought to mark it as such, i.e. "Update" or whatever.

You couldn't just change something in print, right? You couldn't just add the "PS" after you got feedback from readers, making it look like it was always there.

I guess what I'm saying is acknowledge that you added the "PS." Let the original post stand as it was published - flaws and all - and make it clear that the new part was added later.

(I'm not articulating this well, I know. Bottom line is amending the post this way allows you to get away with the original, and that's weak.)

Posted by larry | May 10, 2008 11:25 PM
8

Yup, SLOG is too voluminous because the people who run it treat it like Twitter.

Posted by Christopher | May 10, 2008 11:39 PM
9

Some chili cooks go for a certain degree of sweetness - I personally don't care for it, but i once placed in a chili cookoff with a recipe that had a healthy dose of molasses in it. A buddy of mine even uses a bouquet garni of prunes in is chili.
:::shudders:::

Posted by playswithknives | May 11, 2008 12:18 AM
10

@9,

A bouquet garni of prunes? Now I've heard everything.

Posted by keshmeshi | May 11, 2008 12:38 AM
11

Because we've all heard the story about cooks retaliating against customers that criticize their food. If not that visit, then the next (assuming it's still good enough that you want to return).

Posted by gaffe | May 11, 2008 12:52 AM
12

I ordered it once and thought the same thing (I love chili). Then came back another time, forgot about how much I disliked it, and ordered it again. Damn! Anyway, most of their other items are quite tasty, as you say.

Posted by Justy | May 11, 2008 8:04 AM
13

@4 -

as the owner of another Georgetown eatery, I read the post and was totally psyched for Smarty Pants (where I had a couple drinks last night during Art Attack).

Ever hear of the notion that all publicity is good publicity?

I wish JSL had complained about too much celery seed in something at *my* place. It drives business.

Posted by rtm | May 11, 2008 8:10 AM
14

If there's anything sweet about my chili, I suppose you would have to blame it on the Jack Daniels. Yes, Jack Daniels. In chili. Haven't had a complaint yet.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | May 11, 2008 8:36 AM
15

@7

It doesn't matter so much whether you say update or ps or edit, but what's really missing is a date-time stamp. If you know what time the change was made, you can make sense of the comments that appeared before the change.

@13

The issue isn't really how much everyone loves Smarty Pants. It's more a question of how big a pussy Jonah is. Winky winky.

Posted by elenchos | May 11, 2008 8:56 AM
16

You have to admit, the fact that a bunch of more-or-less anonymous posters are criticizing Jonah for failing to criticize something in-person is well, I think the word I'm looking for is - "ironic", doncha think?

Posted by COMTE | May 11, 2008 9:54 AM
17

Mmmm, near as I can tell, at most only one of those above has not shown up at the Happy Slog, so in theory we will be there to tell Jonah to his face that we don't really think he's that big a pussy.

To be fair, I would think after this post there's a good chance that the next time he shows up at Smarty Pants they will remember who he is and what he thinks of their chili. A good time for him to do that would be a week from Wednesday to see if Rossi can two-peat. Just saying.

Posted by elenchos | May 11, 2008 1:51 PM
18

We're all about the irony, here, Comte.

Irony, and pitbulls.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | May 11, 2008 1:59 PM
19

A little off topic. I was having frites at Cafe Presse this morning and I thought there was only one way they could be improved.

troublemaker sauce.

good god, serve smartypants troublemaker sauce with those frites. .. .

Posted by rtm | May 11, 2008 8:40 PM
20

Smarty Pants rocks. Now I wish I had one of their yummy sandwiches! (and didn't realize they had chili so I might have to try it myself)

Posted by madster | May 11, 2008 9:05 PM
21

ahh...I remember the old days, back when SP had just opened, and Tim was using red shop towels for napkins. And the cooks were actually good. Last few times in, the food has really been unreliable, and has led my wife to institute a family boycott. And for the record, the chili is better when you get it as the frito pie. or at least it used to be.

Posted by brian | May 12, 2008 10:44 AM
22


@19 - brilliant! frites & troublemaker sauce - now that's the kind of fusion food that I can get behind

Posted by jackseattle | May 12, 2008 11:17 AM

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