Potbelly - y'all sure don't make it easy

After stocking up at the co-op on course packets for the second mini-mester (since I'll be buying my books on Amazon), I carefully weighed my dining options - 900 calorie Strawberry Hulk from Smoothie King or sandwich from Potbelly? Potbelly was closer. And my wife's probably reading this blog and would not be happy when I was not hungry for dinner...

But boy did Potbelly try hard to make sure I don't make the same choice again. My 3 previous Potbelly dining experiences have gone something like this:

1. Heavenly unbelievable ham and swiss
2. "I can't believe that there was no drop in quality from eating it fresh in the shop to eating one of 500 delivered to campus during orientation" good turkey sandwich
3. OK, so the roast beef on wheat wasn't really my favorite. Nor was the short, fat, stoner of an 18 year old working the cold line. But I'll certainly be back.

A month later, I'm back. And here's more or less a screenplay of what happened:

Morgan: Yeah, hi. I guess I'll have an original ham and swiss.
Tall 20-something working bread and hot line: Cool man. What type of bread?
M [remembering that he didn't like the wheat from last time]: Regular bread.
Tall guy: Cool man. You want anything else on that?
M: Well yeah, I guess... what do I need to tell you now versus on the other side of the toaster?
Tall guy: Bacon, mushrooms, different kind of cheese
M: Oh, mushrooms. Yeah, I'd like mushrooms.
Tall guy: cool. [with some indignation] what kind of bread though?
M: Regular
[short fat stoner of an 18 year old enters from stage left and approaches cold line.]
30-something hyper Cashier: Nice work today man! Only 5 minutes late!
Stoner[to Morgan]: Yo, what's happening? Whaddya want on this roast beef?
M: Is that mine? I thought I had the ham and swiss?
Tall guy: Oh no man, you said roast beef. But it's all good, I'll get you a ham and swiss
M [temporarily forgetting he didn't like the roast beef and letting his anti-confrontational tendencies take over]: No, it's no big deal.
Tall guy: Good choice. Roast beef's especially good today
Stoner: Alright, so whaddya want on this roast beef? Mayo, mustard, lettuce, onion?
M: Mustard, hot peppers, and are those red or white onions?
Stoner: White. Ok cool, so I got mustard, white onions, and I'm sorry dude. I wasn't listening.
M: hot peppers. And a lot of them; I like hot peppers.
Stoner [as he sprinkles just two thumbnail-sized hot peppers across the entire 9in sandwich]: Right on man
M [not noticing Stoner's inadequate pepper-putting]: And a little lettuce. Just a little
Stoner [as he covers the entire sandwich in heaps of lettuce]: Gotcha
Cashier: Anything else man?
M [again, not noticing Stoner]: Um, I'll have a drink. No chips though
Cashier: Ok so chips and a drink?
M: No, no. Just a drink.
[Morgan heads over to table, unwraps his sandwich. Outloud:]
M: Is that? Yes, my god. That's wheat bread. Jesus.
[Morgan takes a bite]
M: What the... Is there any...?
[Morgan opens sandwich up. Lettuce falls everywhere. Camera zooms in on sandwich to reveal no white onions, two hot peppers, and...]
M: No mushrooms. Good god.
[curtain]

Maybe the Potbelly employees should stop taking drags off the "good vibe" inducing ganja weed and try paying attention to their customers... Otherwise, I'll be going to Smoothie King next time and we'll all lose.