Qdoba.......or.....Qwonta

Having recently returned to living & working in downtown DC after nearly a year absence, I indulged in a guilty pleasure from my past - a grilled steak quesadilla from Qdoba on E Street NW, next to the Landmark E Street Cinemas (another guilty pleasure - I highly recommend seeing a serious movie at Landmark). I discovered back in late 2007 that it is highly addictive when dipped in a bit of Qdoba's Ancho Chili BBQ Sauce, so I always ask for a little plastic container of it to go with my quesadilla.

I try to brown-bag it most days, but sometimes I just feel like getting something I didn't have to make myself. It was one of those days, so I walked a few blocks to Qdoba. Ordering was pleasant enough, but when I reached the register, my quesadilla had gone from costing in the high sixes to the mid eights. DC's 10% sales tax on dining out couldn't account for all of that. I looked at the cashier and said, "Uhhh.....," but before I could get the words out, she informed me that they charge for the sauce.

"You charge for that now?"

"Yes."

"How much?"

"Seventy-five cents."

"You're kidding??? Seventy-five cents for the smallest container?" (gee, many times in 2007 and 2008 when I got the side of sauce for free the employees used the next size up - a container that probably holds 3-4x as much liquid)

(These small containers are the same kind that Five Guys has piled up adjacent to their ketchup pumps. El Pollo Loco has an entire chilled bar of five salsas with the same containers setup as an "all you want" arrangement - for free)

"Yes, we do."

"Well, I used to get these quesadillas all the time a year ago, and I always ordered a side of sauce and nobody ever charged me for it before. I'll take it this time, but you should know that seventy-five cents is way too much for that little container of sauce. If it was twenty or twenty-five cents I'd probably live with it, but at seventy-five cents, I'm not going to be back here to order another one of these." (maybe they should charge $0.23, so that with tax it comes out to an even quarter, in case somebody needs to buy one after they've paid for their main purchase?)

Mumble, mumble, mumble........ no discernible response from the employees to that.

I guess the two employees who were working at the register, and who were involved in the conversation, did not care that I wouldn't be returning to Qdoba.

I wonder if the general manager or owner would have cared.