Al's Deli Sucks the Big One

On Saturday we went to Al's Deli briefly with Don and Liz. Like many people, we have gone there several times to enjoy a refrigerated, iced sugar cookie. They are pretty good - basically like sticking any decent sugar cookie in a refrigerator. But, upon closer inspection, we found that they were a little bit puffed up in thinking their product is awesome.

They have a plaque up that states they are one of the neighborhoods best restaurants for 2010 - 2012. WOW! They can see into the future! That IS impressive. The cookie is pretty good, but not so good that I can be confident they are one of Evanston's best restaurants in 2012, let alone 2010. There are plenty of restaurants better than Al's.

After standing in line (of only like 10 people) for a ridiculous 30 minutes, we finally got to the counter. In order to save the establishment time, we decided to combine our order of 3 and 2 cookies into just 5 cookies and pay together. The following conversation happened:

Man: You can only buy 4 butter cream frosted cookies and 1 of any other cookie. 4 is our limit per party.

Don: Okay, we'll pay separate.

Man: 4 per party.

Me: But we aren't together. I am ordering for myself and my wife, and they are ordering for themselves. We combined to save you time.

Man: 4 per party, you can have any other cookie you want.

Don: But we don't want your other cookies (because let's be honest, they look stale and gross and only reason to even go to Al's is to get one of their refrigerated cookies).

Man: (rudely) Its 4 per party.

Me: (matter of factly) So if I had walked in here 10 seconds later and not have spoken to these guys, I would have been able to get a cookie for me and my wife (who happens to be standing outside to not crowd the place, holding our baby for 30 minutes).

Man #2: NOW YOU CAN HAVE NO COOKIES! GET OUT!

Me: Fine, your cookies aren't worth the trouble. I will never spend a dollar in this place again.

And I won't, because honestly, the place isn't that great and its owned/run by douche bags who wish they were French, but are just old farts.Here's Caitlin just laughing and waiting patiently for her cookie. Little did she know that I was dealing with a bunch of idiots at the time.

So in short - PEOPLE OF EVANSTON. I call you to boycott Al's Deli. Do not spend another dollar there. Go buy a cookie from Jewel Osco and put it in your refrigerator. You'll have a better tasting cookie for less many and significantly less douche bagginess. Also, feel free to get on Metromix, Yelp! and menupages to trash the place. I know I did.