USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
From day one, we believed taking care of people and building a great business go hand in hand.
Today, we're making that belief official: P. Terry's is becoming employee-owned and launching profit sharing for eligible employees.
Here's to the next generation of P. Terry's. ❤️
I’ve been in New York since early this afternoon and I can tell there are a ton of Spurs fans in the city because the honking has been non-stop. #PorVida
Dallas Mavericks (virgin losers), are moving out of the downtown American Airlines Center to an abandoned mall to develop an “entertainment district”.
San Antonio Spurs (total chads), who are currently in the NBA Finals, are moving back downtown.
Coincidence? I think not.
@SecondAmendment Killer deal. In the future, try to avoid steaks with sections like this. That part is actually sirloin where the strip starts to meet the sirloin part of the cow. That way you fully get what you pay for.
I’m sure it was still great either way.