Monday, May 28, 2012

Stop #54: Coldwater, Fort Wayne (#173); also, Interlude: Rosemont, IL

May has not provided me many opportunities to make progress on my quest. It has, however, provided me an abnormally high number of opportunities to attend concerts -- and for each of those activities, a stop at Steak 'n Shake was involved.

And thus, you have a post featuring both Rammstein ...





... and Lacuna Coil.


First up was a concert in Chicago, Illinois, featuring Rammstein the first Friday of May.


I went with my BBW friend Jen. She was really excited about seeing Rammstein.

I was really excited about stopping by the Steak 'n Shake in Rosemont beforehand.

Of course, I was also relatively excited about seeing Rammstein. I was a little familiar with their music, and I've yet to attend a concert that I didn't at least have a marginally positive experience at.

But mostly, the Steak 'n Shake was what I looked forward to.

And so, we ended up at the Steak 'n Shake in Rosemont with my friend Kathy, where we saw many fellow Rammstein concert-goers, mostly due to the fact that this particular Steak 'n Shake is just down the road from the concert venue.

It was pretty exciting. I noticed that on our placemats, new milkshakes were being promoted.


Specifically, banana milkshakes.


Unfortunately, these were the only two photos I got from that Steak 'n Shake. You'll have to take my word for the fact that I had a Guacburger, side salad with French dressing, and French fries, as well as accepting the following as a "group picture":

Note: This does not qualify as the Catch Caragher image for this post. Too, too obvious.
Because this was not an official Steak 'n Shake quest, I feel very little remorse for missing these valuable, valuable photo ops.

The concert ended up going well as well, and I can say that Rammstein has earned a new, if slightly disturbed by content, fan.

The next Steak 'n Shake stop, which happened on May 19th (and also a little bit in the wee early hours of May 20), was following a Lacuna Coil concert at Piere's in Fort Wayne.


Again, I went to the concert with my BBW friend Jen. Because she is awesome. And in this instance, I had relatively equal levels of excitement for the concert and the Steak 'n Shake stop.

 

 Steak 'n Shake stop #54 took us to the location on Coldwater in Fort Wayne. Just in time to hit rush hour by prom-goers. Seriously, there were about thirty billion high school kids in their prom get-ups when Jen and I got there. But having to wait to be seated wasn't a super-huge bad deal, as we were also waiting for a couple of friends, Sean and Paul, to show up to join us.

Sadly, this was not the wait for our table was not the most disappointing part of our stop.

For starters, we were seated without placemats. As placemats are valuable to my Steak 'n Shake stop experiences, I went to the front of the store to pull a variety of mats for our whole table.

This batch included one kids' placemat.


Correction: One used kids' placemat.

I swear on my life, I did not connect-the-dots that Steakburger.
Also, I did not inhale.
Also, I did not have sex with that woman.
Most importantly, though, and most true, I did not connect-the-dots that Steakburger.


Also in the placemat collection I selected was yet another placemat advertising the new banana blended milkshakes.

And so, when our server arrived to take our orders, Sean felt obligated to ask what the difference was between the Ultimate Banana milkshake and the regular banana milkshake.

Friends, I cannot put into words the horror Sean felt at the answer. Indeed, Sean had to illustrate just to capture it.


The following is his artistic rendition not just of the answer, but also of the horror he felt at the answer, and the lack of a soul our friend Paul has that was revealed by this interaction.


Yes, folks, you read that right: Not all Steak 'n Shake banana milkshakes contain banana. Rather than being a banana milkshake containing rather large pieces of bananas, or a banana milkshake that turns you into a banana superhero, or a banana milkshake that comes with a banana hammock, or any of the other various awesome things that an "Ultimate Banana" milkshake could be, the reality is that the Ultimate Banana milkshake differs from the regular banana milkshake in that it is made with real bananas, whereas the plain old banana milkshake is made with plantains fake bananas the tears of children banana-flavored syrup.

Also, apologies here to Sean, who didn't know until reading this now which of those shakes was syrup and which was real bananas, and had said he would rather keep it that way. The server's actual answer to the question was as Sean displayed above, just a statement that some milkshakes are made with real bananas and others are not.

As a result, Sean opted not to get any banana milkshakes. Given that I'm not a banana fan in the first place, unless it's artificial flavoring that comes in candies such as runts, was not tempted in the first place. Instead, I opted for a brownie sundae, and was not disappointed.

Pictured: Real cherry, real whip cream, real ice cream, real brownie, real fudge.
Real delicious.
 All in all, this trip to Fort Wayne and Steak 'n Shake stop were enjoyable, even if in some cases disillusioning. And I got to bring home a piece of artwork, which I promised would be hung on my refrigerator as examples of what my four-year-old step-daughter should aspire to.

Because I'm nothing if not a terrible stepmother.
And so thanks, Steak 'n Shake #173!