The curse began when we were engaged. My sister, Ryan and I were talking around and around in circles about where to go to dinner. We couldn't decide and we couldn't decide, and then someone suggested Rosie's. The little mexican restaurant on Bulldog in Provo sounded perfect to everyone. My mouth watered thinking about their chips and salsa as we headed over. "Closed for Business," the sign read when we got there. No delicious cilantro salsa for me.
Fast forward about a year. Ryan and I are now married living in Orem. It was my 23rd birthday, and I selected the restaurant I wanted to eat at: Black Angus on University Parkway in Orem. It had been the the restaurant where our parents had first met each other, and over dinner, they planned our entire wedding and reception BEFORE we were even engaged. It held fond memories (and great steaks), so I called my sis and her husband to meet us there for my bday dinner. We both pulled in the parking lot at the same time to discover their sign had been removed and that the place was dark. Definitely closed for business.
Destitutely poor, one Friday night that following winter Ryan and I decide to splurge and go out to a real restaurant for dinner. I frequently drove by a restaurant on my way to work in American Fork called Chef Plex (State Street in Lindon), and I thought it sounded neat to have different chefs specializing in different cuisines of different countries. We'd been talking about going for months, and this seemed like the perfect time. Any guesses to the end to this story? We drove into the parking lot and... Out of business. Dark and deserted.
Our "restaurant" of choice in Orem was Panda Express: it was close, fast, and relatively cheap. So as soon as we moved to Madison, we googled it to find the nearest one. To our pleasant surprise, there was one listed across the street from West Towne Mall. We drove the 15 minutes to the location... Any guesses about what we found? The dirty, outlined shadow of where the sign USED to hang on the white stucco building. No more Panda in Madison.
Since having Collin, making it to the temple has become quite an excursion. Fortunately, my parents live close to the St. Louis temple so every other month we drive down there on a Friday night, and Saturday morning we head to the temple while they watch Collin. When we come out of the temple, I always call my mom to see if Collin is behaving himself and to see if we have time to go to lunch too. In May we called and everything was fine (at least that's what she ALWAYS says), so we started the food discussion. If you haven't noticed so far, it is hard for Ryan and I to agree upon a place to eat, so we got out the Garmin and started searching for a place that sounded good to both of us. After lots of bantering back and forth, we decided on PF Chang's. To our surprise, there was one at the very next exit. As we pulled in the lot, things didn't look good again. No sign. No lights. No other cars. No PF Chang's here anymore.
Today is Ryan's 28th birthday. Each week we go to lunch together. Sometimes I pick him up and we eat peanut butter and jelly in the park; sometimes we meet at a restaurant; sometimes we heat up leftovers in the cafeteria microwaves and eat at Cat. Today he wanted to meet me at ChiliWorks on Allen Road. We had seen it many times driving by, and we had been wanting to try it for some time. And since the high today was only 55 degrees, chili was sounding mighty delicious. I arrived first. From the road I could tell it wasn't good. I could see that the lights were off, and the tables we stacked on top of each other. "The last day of business for Chili Works will be May 31st" the sign on the door read. Uh oh. I'm pretty sure that's past.
So, are Ryan and I cursed? Does anyone else have this problem? Do you EVER pick a restaurant only to find it has gone out of business? If this has ever happened to you, has it happened this many times???
Anyway, happy birthday Ryan. Sorry we ended up at Hardee's. Maybe next time we'll have better luck... or maybe not.
7 comments:
That is so funny. It has happened so many times to us, especially when we tried to use our coupon book in Salt Lake.
Sorry it happened on such special occasions to you guys!
Ha ha! I actually can't really remember a time I really wanted to go somewhere only to find it closed for business... maybe closed because it's too late, but never out of business. I think it's a Williams curse. :) Thanks for sharing.
Maybe Adam and I need to go out more often ... I don't think it has ever happened to us.
LOL! Jonathan and I drove several of our favorite Madison restaurants out of business in a similar fashion. It hasn't happened yet here, probably because we have no favorites.
That's terrible Lindsey. And I had always thought someday we'd try that Chiliworks place too... oh well!
It's only happened to me once; I really loved to eat tacos at the mexican restaurant next to the dollar theater in Provo and one day I headed out there for dinner and it was closed. It hasn't happened to us in Madison yet but John and I really only eat out at Qdoba, Noodles and Company, The Great Dane, and Imperial Garden; we're not very creative. Yeah, you guys are definitely cursed.
I don't think that has ever happened to me! What a funny curse! Collin is so cute by the way!
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