Had some interesting news in the Hoodspender's household which has kinda distracted from every other outside world occurence. Ahh but things are calming down and posts are piling and shall be posted soon enough. Hang in there, hoodies.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Mea Culpa for the lack of posts.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Shitty Fast Food Joint of the Week - This week: Shitty McDonald's!
Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Hoodspenders
where we go over the shittiest fast food joints Inglewood/East
Nashville has to offer. Oh yes, there are QUITE a number but the King
shittiest of them all, the Inglewood McDonald's right next to the
WONDERFUL Gyro place GhoulieJulie wrote about below, gets the Krooked Krown this week. Read on for the grievances!
Do you want to know what makes Hoodspenders drive out of the Inglewood/East Nashville area and head to Madison or ANYWHERE other than here? Well, go to any of the "fast food" joints around here and you'll get the picture mighty quick.
Yes, we get it.You are young and unskilled and have to have a job at a fast food
place. Yes, your life sucks so why don't you take it out on the people
trying to spend some money at your place because they legitimately want
a fast, quick meal so they can go about their business....what's that
you say...you already do? Well, welcome to the Inglewood McDonald's.
Although it's definitely not "good for you" sometimes you just wanna say, fuck it, I want some shitty fast food. What you don't want is slow children with bad attitudes, a permanently busted ice cream/shake machine (because they are too lazy to clean it and it's too much trouble to take apart), dirty, filthy parking lots that lead to an even more disgusting store where the employees sit in the dining room complaining about the store with their friends. You don't want a place where they tell you in the drive-through, if you want your drink cup filled up any more than halfway up the cup, you need to come inside and "do it yourself." Apparently, this is what you DESERVE if you dare to venture to the Inglewood McDonald's.
Contrast this with the Madison McDonald's just over the Briley parkway overpass next to Jenna's Toybox (I think.) A clean, well landscaped and well lit store awaits you. Thoroughly efficient managers keep the drive-through running at an excellent pace and you can see by the countdown clocks on the wall how quickly you move through the line. You have workers who you can actually understand on the drive through speaker, and even though these are kids of the same age and background, they seem to have been raised in a prep school compared to the juvenile delinquents in Inglewoods fast food places and Kroger stores (oh yeah, we'll get to that laters!)They smile and seem to care about their appearance. Makes for a better experience I find when the workers weave isn't dangling into your fries.
So congratumalations to you, Shitty McDonald's in Inglewood, for being the first recipient of the Krooked Krown of Shame in the Kingdom of the Shittiest Fast Food places in Inglewood/East Nashville.
Feel free to tell us about your experiences at this or other fast food joints here in Hoodspender territory.
Friday, August 24, 2007
What other style gyro would you want?
The best gyros come from an old Long John Silver's, ya know? Gallatin Pike's very own Chicago Style Gyros has totally turned me out.
Before I ever started eating gyros on a regular basis, I thought a gyro was a gyro and wouldn't vary too much from place to place. Since I've gotten hooked, Chicago Style, the others just can't compare. Now I notice the difference in the seasoning of the meat, and don't even get me started on the horrible iceberg lettuce "salads" other places give you with their gyro plates. Ugh! Chicago Style Gyros provides nice salads with lettuce not simply made of water, cucumbers, olives, feta and tomato. The hummus is excellent and nicely garnished with paprika and parsley, and the menu offers other standards such as stuffed grape leaves and baklava in addition to a few "western" items like philly steak sandwiches, fries and cheese sticks. The prices are very reasonable, and for me (believe me, I can eat!), the plate dishes can be stretched into two meals, making them that much more budget friendly.
This place also has a very personable staff, especially once you've become a bit of a regular. My dog has occasionally received surprising amounts of chicken in the drive-thru, which is very sweet and endearing. They used to have a tip line on their charge slips, which I detest at places where a)you don't get waited on and b)the staff is not on a serving wage. However, I would tip since I really like these guys and go there a lot. One day they started telling me not to tip, but I'd ignore them. Eventually I realized they had not been charging my tips when I balanced my checkbook, and soon there was no longer any line encouraging tips on their charge slips. I wish more owners of coffee and bread shops, etc. would be this conscientious, 'cause you know when you don't drop a tip in the jar at those place the workers think you're an asshole even though all they did was just pour me a cup of coffee and take my precious money. The real work is sweetening and creaming it, and I have to do that! Anyway, too ranty? Sorry, I'll move on (I was just so impressed by that).
What I like to get: In a recent effort to eat "healthier", I started getting the chicken plate ( I don't know if this is actually healthier, but whatevs). Let me tell ya, at first I felt like I was depriving myself, but now I am absolutely hooked on it. I splurged and got the gyro plate once in all this, but I really missed that tasty skewered chicken! Not that the gyro meat is bad - it really is quite excellent, personally, I've just grown to prefer the chicken . I recommend getting some tabouli and sprinkling it on top of your meat and rice plate. I asked the nice gentlemen that work there if it was completely unconventional to use this salad as a condiment, and they very politely avoiding telling me "No, stupid American!" It really is yummy though, and I am working my way up to eating tabouli the proper, respectable way. Next, I'm gonna get a little experimental and try the stuffed eggplant and stuffed cabbage.
Visit the nice guys at Chicago Style Gyros, 2804 Gallatin Pike by McDonald's. They're open every day 10:30am - 9:00pm.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
A tale of Love and Potstickers....
Several of us stopped by The Eastland Café for drinks and appetizers after The Tomato Fest.
It was my first time there since it changed hands.
I enjoyed the experience to the extent that I decided upon it as the location
In which to propose to my girlfriend.
I spoke with the Manager beforehand and outlined what I had in mind.
She was very helpful, open and willing to accommodate my requests.
The big night came and we arrived at the restaurant to find a very enthusiastic
staff, a perfect table and an amazing dinner. My plans went off without a hitch and I’m happy to say that we are now engaged. The entire experience was truly wonderful.
I highly recommend this establishment and hope for their continued success.
JKS
How wonderful is that? On behalf of Hoodspenders, Congratulations!
So was anybody there when it happened...let us know in the comments!
Monday, August 20, 2007
Castrillo's is Slacking big time! Pizza Real is picking up the slack.
Hey there, readers, Hoodspenders has been out there in the world awhile getting some story ideas together and checking out as many businesses as we could and noting our experiences. Looks like I've come back to the blog with a not so fun post about one of our local neighborhood pizza places. Sometimes it's necessary to point out the fact the a local business has been sucking a bit lately. Hopefully it causes them to take a look at themselves and fix the situation....which leads us to some tings I have been documenting about what used to be one of Hoodspenders fav pizza joints in East Nashville, Castrillo's - 1404 Mcgavock Pike, Nashville, TN Tel: (615) 226-9606. Follow me after the jump to get the skinny.
Being rude to customers just for the hell of it will get a special one way ticket to Hoodspender's sHit List. Being rude and unhelpful to a Mother with a small child who is trying to spend her money on your products reserves you a special place in hell. Unfortunately this is the kind of things that are being noted lately at Castrillo's by the people who actually choose to take the time to go there instead of delivery and choose over every other billion pizza places in town to give Castrillo's their hard earned money.
I don't like to use the name of the people who have these stories, but suffice it to say that they are truthful people and there is no doubt that what they have experienced was plain out and out poor customer service. If you are a business owner and you are having a grumpy day....suck it up. Do NOT take it out on a customer. Sure, a customer may be having a sucky day and take it out on you, but guess what....tough shit. Just note that they are still paying you and you don't have to do anything special other than what they ordered and purchased. You also need to ACKNOWLEDGE when a customer has stepped into your business establishment. No one likes to step into a place that they are planning to spend money at and be ignored. A SIMPLE SMILE and or NOD will do the trick. HELP a mother holding a small child into the door with her tray of food that she just bought from you when you see she is struggling. Surely your head is not so far into the vicinity of your own colon to do that!
Hoodpsender's doesn't care about how amazingly delicious your Large Italian Sausage with Feta Cheese on thin crust your pizza is - and let me tell you Castrillo's makes some REALLY REALLY GOOD Pizza - GUESS WHAT - nobody wants it when you are rude to them. No sir, I will spend my Pizza portion of my paycheck at Pizza Real (203 N. 11th St. 226-2206. Noon-2 pm Mon.-Fri., 5-10:30 pm Mon. Sat.) , across from the Red Door East where the Pizza is just as good, some say better and the Gentleman and the people he employs who staff the place really know how to bust their ass and take care of people.
So, help me out readers, tell me GOOD OR BAD stories from your experiences with Castrillo's and Pizza Real...let's share a slice! And Castrillo's...take a deep breath and get back on track.
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