It’s Taco Tuesday! There is a restaurant that I learned about recently that serves tacos for only 99¢ on Tuesdays: Kalaveras. It has been so long since I’ve heard of such a wonderful deal. The restaurant has two main areas – the inside where there is loud music playing and dimmed lights, and the outside patio area. I have sat in both areas before and prefer the patio area more than the inside because of all the loud music and lighting, but since there was an event in the patio today, we were seated inside the restaurant.
For the Taco Tuesday special, you tell the server how many tacos you want to order and they give you a ticket or receipt for that number. Then, you walk up to the taco bar where they make the tortillas fresh and let them know your choice of meat. The toppings – onions, cilantro, salsa, etc. – are on the side and you serve yourself.
On this Tuesday, we had a table of four. We were seated right next to the taco bar, with only the walkway between us. I sat to the right of one of my friends, facing the taco bar, while my other two friends sat on the opposite side. Our table was next to a partition and pole, decorated with fake vines, on the left.
I ordered three tacos and went up to the taco bar. I got carne asada, al pastor, and lengua as my meats, then added my toppings. It was pretty tasty.
We also got some Happy Hour appetizers for the table. Dinner was going great and we kept laughing at how my friends couldn’t stop drinking water because of how spicy the salsa they added to their tacos was. Suddenly, my friend on the other side of the table moved her chair back. She just saw a huge cockroach on the pole. My other friend on the other side of the table saw it too.
I stood up, ready to charge out the door if it ran toward me. They watched as the cockroach climbed higher up the pole and disappear into the fake vines. Where did it go? I panicked in my head. My friend stayed with her chair back, smack in the middle of the walkway between our table and the taco bar. We were getting looks, but we didn’t care.
I looked closely at the partition. I looked carefully at the pole. My eyes scanned the floor. Something moved and my heart skipped a beat. It was just my backpack strap. We asked for the check. I refused to sit back down. We wanted to get out of here ASAP.
“If you are okay with it, we gave you a 10% discount.”
A 10% discount??? For the cockroach??? No discount could make up for the fear stirring inside of me, but all that didn’t matter. I just wanted to get out of here. As I stood there, the memories of my previous cockroach encounter filled my mind. I felt movement behind me and jumped. It was the staff coming back with the credit card.
We left immediately after paying. We still had food on our table, but we’ve lost our appetite. We never want to return.
When I got home, my friend texted me that we were in such a rush to leave she forgot to take her credit card back – but we’re not going back for it. She had already ordered a new one. The cockroach can keep the card, and I’ll never look at tacos the same way again.