Straw Poll: Is Dos Gringos’ Hands-On Service Gross? was originally published on City Desk on Jun. 01, 2009, at 4:01 pm
Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights do not lack for coffee shops. The Heights has two Starbucks and the awesome Sticky Fingers—not to mention a new coffee shop on the way. Mount Pleasant has... Dos Gringos.
Dos Gringos has never been my go-to coffee shop. The place smells bad. Its service is indifferent. And, well, the place’s legendary bad rep (at least online) puts me off. On Saturday evening, I went over there anyway out of sheer laziness.
There were just a few people inside. The place was quiet. I scanned the complicated menu and then simply ordered an iced coffee. Pretty standard fare. The fat, sweaty guy behind the cash register seemed nice enough in taking my order. He politely told me about the various sizes in which I could order my iced-coffee: small, medium and large. He made change quickly.
I then sorta spaced out as he was filling my order. It is not all that exciting to watch a fat, sweaty man take out a pitcher of ready-made cold coffee and pour it into a cup filled with ice chips.
But then things got weird. The sweaty man took out a straw.
Normally when ordering iced-coffee, the clerk will just give you a cup and you are then free to select from the various sugars (natural, conventional white, artificial), and decide if you want a straw or not. The straw option is crucial. It should be your choice. [Maybe Tommy Wells will get around to writing legislation that would call for a two-cent straw tax].
Anyway, I looked down at my iced-coffee and a straw was already nestled into the cup’s plastic top. The man had clearly smacked the straw into my cup with one of his sweaty mitts.
“I don’t need the straw,” I said.
“Too late,” the clerk said.
I wanted to punch this clerk in his man boob. Instead, I walked out and tossed my new sweaty straw into a trash can. So was this coffee clerk’s behavior gross or not? Unnecessary or did he just simply provide a nice service in giving me that straw?
