August 11, 2008
How 'Bout a Nice Cuppa Soy Sauce?
Plenty of people put soy milk in their coffee, but soy sauce? John Ulaszek, who also goes by the DCist Flickr contributor pseudonym F1.4, was eating breakfast at what he describes as one of his favorite restaurants in Northern Virginia over the weekend, when he had an experience that makes us a little queasy
The ever attentive waiter noticed my empty cup and promptly topped me off – by now I was rockin the caffeine, the birds were chirping, the sun was smiling, so I gulped down another mouthful and……and something is really wrong here – what the hell did I just drink – It looks like coffee, but I don’t think it is, as a matter of fact it tasted like hot Soy Sauce?! Suddenly I wasn’t sure if I just drank coffee, soy sauce, or maybe some cleaning chemical ended up in the coffee. I am almost instantly nauseous, probably not from what I drank, but my mind and body running in overdrive trying to figure out if I should hurl, because whatever I just drank sure as hell wasn’t coffee.Consumerist also picked up the story.I call the maitre de over and explain they had a serious problem with their coffee. About two minutes later the manager stops by to tell me they had a mix-up, and that I had indeed just enjoyed a steaming mouthful of Soy Sauce. Apparently they keep heated Soy Sauce in a coffee carafe for fish dishes, and somehow the carafe of Soy Sauce was mixed in with the carafes of regular coffee. The manager was mortified, and comped my breakfast and acknowledged that I was probably not pleased at the moment and she hoped I would be enticed to come back with a fifty dollar gift card.
So which restaurant was it? John tells us that it was the Carlyle in Shirlington. Despite the bad taste in his mouth, John says he feels the bistro's management handled the mistake exactly as they should have, and he fully intends to go back again.
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I wonder if you can get hot soy sauce over ice at Murky Coffee.
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Once you go soy, you don't go back.
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Why the need to mention the restaurant if they handled it well?
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For a $50 gift card, I'd put a bunch of my own boogers and nail clippings in the coffee.
Who am I kidding? I'd do that for free.
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I think restaurants who handle things that well should be given credit. Mistakes happen, this was (fortunately) not actually dangerous or harmful, the restaurant did exactly what they should have, everyone is pleased.
Oh, and Henry Krinkle? BWAHAHAHAHAHA! good one.
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He should be happy he didn't get the carafe they keep the hot urine in. The one they reserve for people who order their steak well-done.
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I wonder if you can get hot soy sauce over ice at Murky Coffee.
No, because the ice brings out the acidity in the hot soy sauce, thereby destroying the nuanced flavors of [JUNKPUNCH]...
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Reading about a mixup like this reminded me to check the expiration date on my Epi-Pen. With my luck, I'd have gotten the soy sauce that had already been fish-i-fied. *shudder*
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It's all about how someone goes about fixing a mistake. Nothing goes 100% all the time. Just ask Pres Bush.
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reminds me of when i was eating waffles at Teaism, i wasn't thinking, and thought the soy sauce bottle was syrup....
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Reminds me of going to parties and accidentally taking a swig out of a beer can that someone's been using as an ashtray. Kids nowdays will never know simple pleasures like these. Thank you, nanny state.
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The teaism soy-sauce-on-the-table-around-brunch-time approach is disasterly. Hopefully you were sober enough to taste the difference.
The Carlyle deserves credit for handling it well. It sounds like the manager on duty was all class and should be thanked.
Unlike that time at Murky when they filled my paper cup with Kambucha instead of coffee, and when I politely let them know of the mistake I was taken out onto Wilson Blvd where I was stripped, beaten with mop handles, and tarred with "I'd rather be in Seattle Circa 1996" bumper stickers... Of course that was before the junkpunch was invented, I'm sure things are better now.
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Sounds almost as tasty as when my friend had a cup of coffee at Whitlow's and discovered the "sugar" he was generously pouring in his cup was actually salt. Apparently someone had mistakenly re-filled the containter. Mmmm. Nothing like hot, salty coffee.
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The salt-in-the-sugar-bowl thing has happened to me twice. Once in Chicago, again in Baltimore. In both cases, my complaint was met with a smile and a shrug.
And, no, Junkpunchers wasn't open, unfortunately.
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Actually, it was a mix up between sugar and salt that led me to the realization that sugar (with salt) on french fries is awesome. First class ticket to Angioplastyville, true. But who the hell wants to take coach?
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Carlyle *does* handle things well. We once ordered a couple of mojitos, and at first they said they had run out of mint...but lo and behold, the bartender ran down the street to get some mint from a neighboring establishment and made them in a short amount of time...complete with sugar cane swizzle sticks.