Boston Market, formerly Boston Chicken

[SeanMike]

(I fully expect this to be moved or resubtitled or something...no worries there...)

So I go there occasionally. It's not awful, but it's not much better than that, really. Sometimes it just fills that lunch craving I have for something fast and not a burger, and it has Coke Zero in the soda machine (at least, the Courthouse branch does).

But they've started seating you. Not like a hostess stand, but when you pay, the cashier picks up your food and walks you to the table, and you have an honest-to-god real plate and silverware and everything.

I'm not certain I like that!

I hate decided where to sit, but they always ask "where do you want to sit" and I don't know, I just want to sit somewhere, and not somewhere that is right in front of someone else eating, so they're staring at me, and not so I'm staring at someone else...can't I just take my plate and pick a seat? I'm okay with that. I'm not enfeebled, or even THAT lazy.

I just want to quietly eat my lunch and read my book and not interact with society, please.

There. Got that off my chest.

(And act like the stuffing is healthy, because the gravy is thin enough it can't be bad for you, and there's so much celery and carrots in the stuffing it's practically a veggie!) (Yes I know it's not and that most of the stuff there ain't that good for you.)

(I do like their hot sauce collection now though.)

[Pat]

All I can say about this chain (and maybe the preparations have changed by now) is that when my dad was dying of cancer, he would eat their food when he wouldn't eat anything else. He especially loved the mashed potatoes. When I tried them, they had a slightly distinctive chemical-y flavor, but he loved them. It really seemed like there was something in the mashed potatoes that appealed to his appetite.

(My parents occasionally got food from them before this, but it wasn't like their regular diet.)

[jayandstacey]

I just want to quietly eat my lunch and read my book and not interact with society, please.

Yeah, but...that's not what the focus group wants.

[synaesthesia]

I vaguely remember Burger King experimenting with something like this during the early 90s. (And Wikipedia proves me right.) You'd sit down and have complimentary popcorn before they'd bring out your food. So weird.

[DonRocks]

All I can say about this chain (and maybe the preparations have changed by now) is that when my dad was dying of cancer, he would eat their food when he wouldn't eat anything else. He especially loved the mashed potatoes. When I tried them, they had a slightly distinctive chemical-y flavor, but he loved them. It really seemed like there was something in the mashed potatoes that appealed to his appetite.

(My parents occasionally got food from them before this, but it wasn't like their regular diet.)

I've witnessed a cancer patient (who was undergoing chemo) craving a McDonald's cheeseburger, and that's after spending a lifetime hating everything that McDonald's stands for.