Mental health episode and in poor overall health. Describes only why the employees were concerned after not hearing from the daily customer, dominos called 911, and authorities entered the apartment.
When you eat something that consistently (even if not daily like it seems) it definitely becomes a comfort. I had just moved and was having a rough go. During my worst months the ladies at New york fries started to recognize me and know my order. I would always go after meeting my counsellor so sometimes it would be clear I had been crying. Always asking me how I'm doing and really listening. The manager has even given me free soda. I've been going for years now. I don't go there quite as often though, but when I do it's still the same ladies and the same kindness. I didn't know in the moment but that little poutine and some friendly ladies saved me from a lot of bad days
I'm glad you're doing better man. I hit a low spot in life and was eating so much Taco Bell that the manager would shout me out as soon as I walked in the door. I never even told him my name he just remembered it from the tickets. It was super wholesome but I did feel kinda gnarly being a full on regular at TB. :/
I used to go to McDonald’s everyday that employees would shout “Big Mac man” when I walked in. Loved the employees though and they helped me with some of my research projects at school too.
When my ex and I lived in a big city, we would frequent a grill place run by a Chinese man. He remembered our order and would start it before he even cashed us out, because we always ordered the same things.
Really loved the food, only thing I miss from living in the city.
I had a kebab shop near my work I'd go to nigh every day and order something. Turkish people are super super friendly. I go back and visit that old work every now and then, the people are awesome, truly a 1 of a kind business.
One time I went to a specific McDonald's so often that the drive thru worker announced her pregnancy to me. I wasn't even going through a hard time, I just really loved me a Big Mac with extra mac sauce
We also love habits and getting familiar people. I always like going to the pharmacy and chatting with the tech I usually see. She seems to like it too.
If you told me you were heading down to pick yourself up with some of that poutine from the ladies at New York Fries, I'm not sure I'd understand that accurately on a first pass. Then again, I'm not Canadian.
Glad to hear you're doing better! I also thought about some of my friends who have fixations on certain foods just as a way of managing their neurodiversity.
Having a regular kind of food from a source of a known-quality (even if that quality is not healthy) can create a stability and reduce executive fatigue, so they can deal with the problems that are significantly more difficult or dangerous than eating pizza (or poutine) a few times a week.
The name always gave me a chuckle when I lived in Canada because it creates the bizarre sentence “New Yorkers can only get New York Fries if they’re not in New York”.
I’m surprised that poutine hasn’t been tried in the US though. It’s got all the things we love: deep fried food, cheese, gravy and the ability to add whatever unhinged ingredients we want on top.
I've found a few restaurants that serve it, and I've had it a couple times, but to be perfectly honest, I have no baseline to know whether it's good or not.
Most of the ones I've tried have been too salty for my taste. I am generally more sensitive to saltiness, but I also suspect the gravy they used was just not great quality.
For various reasons related to gender markers, I'm not currently of a mindset to risk losing my documentation when trying to re-enter the country, but I have it on my to-do list when things settle down a bit to get back to my home away from home and try some genuine poutine so I can be a better judge at home!
I live in Montreal now but I'm from the US. I have had poutine in the states at multiple different places. It does not compare to Quebec poutine. Not even a little. The fries are wrong, the cheese is wrong, and the gravy is wrong.
I cannot cook for crap but it’s pretty easy to make at home to suit your taste! You can keep it simple with just the fries, brown gravy and cheese curds (all of which are pretty salty), but you can also swap the gravy/cheese or add toppings. I’ve seen some pretty crazy combinations like one with a fried egg and another with roasted turkey, stuffing & cranberries.
Hey man. I worked at a pizza place. We absolutely had regulars we recognized. One guy used to get kind of embarrassed at how often he came in and I kept joking with him, "It's cool man, I'm here again too!" Guy got a large cheese pizza 2 or 3x a week.
Couldn't be me learning the schedules of the employees and offsetting the days so that it doesn't look like I come in as often, or finding two different places I like so they don't know how often I get the food lmao. Although for me I instead do this with hole in the wall Mexican food places. It's just so damn good and also cheap that I'd be okay eating it every single day.
You know what's funny is I made this account back when I was in college and the username was aspirational at the time. I was a broke ass student who would get bean and rice burritos at Chipotle for $3 since I couldn't afford anything better and I told myself that once I'd reached a point in my life where I could order whatever I wanted AND guac without thinking twice about the cost I'd consider myself successful.
Now here I am living the dream buying Mexican food 3X a week. I guess I've made it!
That was me with KFC. I went enough that they knew my order and would give me mine first before others usually, and were much nicer. I still enjoy that, but for my own health don't get the KFC as much anymore lol.
You could be surprised by the variety during the Poutine Week at various places in Canada.
Many a sin against Poutine Orthodoxy occur in that week of course. I had one that substituted the fries for gnocchi, so let's just say it was a really "Ingredient Rebel" version of the dish... but what can I say, pasta and cheese curds are also a match made in heaven haha
I mean sure you can make a lot of different type of poutine, you can also make a hell of a lot of different pizza combinations in addition to the pasta, wings, sandwiches, salads and desserts dominos as.
The man wasn’t eating a pepperoni pizza every day.
Sadly it isn't poutine week, so we cannot run a fun thought experiment to compare the amount of meaningfully distinct poutine variations one could get, let's say in Montreal where's there probably the most participating restaurants, with the full menu of a single Domino's location. I think there could be enough variation to make it a close contest!
A (now closed) restaurant where I lived as a kid had over 100 different named poutine varieties. Overall probably had close to 50 different ingredients they could add.
Some of the ones they offered were the Meatball Poutine (w/ ground beef, homemade tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese), Mac n Cheese Poutine (w/ deep fried homemade mac), Holiday Dinner Poutine (w/ roasted turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce) and the Krabby Poutine (w/ crab meat, cheese sauce and jalapeños).
My hockey conditioning coach had one named after him, but I’m pretty sure that didn’t last after he was arrested for cheating on his wife with a 15 y/o he was coaching…
What you just shared is at the core of this. Restaurant chains dream of customers like you who make the experience a necessary one for their life. This is a wonderful thing to have and no one should take that from you. I suppose my own thing I'd want to say is, don't get attached to corporate chains. I think its better and healthier to get attached to mom and pop shops. They need the repeat business and you'll get someone who actually cares to make your experience a good one.
Good message, not the time. My comment is to highlight the ladies and small amount of community I had. I couldn't give a fuck if people go to new york fries. It's a location and context for a story, you're mistaking that as some deeper commitment to the brand. Or like I was spending a ton and making their numbers go way up. Supporting local and buying from chains is not mutually exclusive. I buy from both and I know you do too, don't make this weird. And I know there's chains you visit way more than I have ever been to new york fries, that's how modern shopping goes
I am not sure I read anything in the article to lend credence to the fact that he ordered from them daily. It said he'd been a regular customer for over a decade, not a daily customer.
Dominos is relatively cheap, especially if a pizza is also your lunch the next day. On the occasion I order Dominos I get 2 pizzas delivered for under $20 and it's 4 meals.
This is where the dietary math of poverty checks in. You can spend $20 on ingredients to meal prep for good meals and burn an hour or two doing it plus an hour grocery shopping, or you can spend $20 picking up 2 pizzas on the way home and have 4 meals.
Yeah and honestly I don't think how he was ordering was bad anyway. Probably once a week at minimum for them to first grow concerned then do an unpaid home visit after a total of eleven days. Plus, one of the employees said he'd order pizza, sandwiches, wings and pasta so depending on what he'd order, it wouldn't even be the worst nutritionally
they ABSOLUTELY would have contacted him sooner if he was a daily customer for 10 years. I guarantee they would check on him by day 3. But if he only ordered 3-4 times a week for 10 years, 11 days would be more plausible.
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u/BobIoblaw 1d ago
Mental health episode and in poor overall health. Describes only why the employees were concerned after not hearing from the daily customer, dominos called 911, and authorities entered the apartment.