Mmm Willy’s…

My wife and I had our pre-op visit with our son’s surgeon this morning. We spent more than four hours visiting with the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, and waiting. Mostly waiting. Once we finished at the hospital we were starving. Fortunately, we were right around the corner from my favorite burrito place, Willy’s.

When I first started working in downtown Atlanta, a found that there was a Willy’s about 15 minutes from my office. If the traffic was good I could drive there, eat, and drive back to work all in the sixty minutes I was allowed for lunch. This was rare for the part of town I was in unless you wanted fast food, so I made the trek about once a week. After a couple of months the staff got to know me, and would occasionally give me a free drink or half off my meal.

Then they opened a Willy’s even closer to the office. This one was 10 minutes round trip from the office. I started eating burritos at least twice a week. Within a month, everyone there knew me, and it got the point that I never paid full price for a meal. I got spoiled. When new employees were working the cash register they didn’t always know that mine was supposed to be discounted. I never said anything, but usually by my next visit things were back to normal.

So then, last August, I had to say goodbye to my friends at Willy’s. I found a new job, near my house and way outside the perimeter. There isn’t a Willy’s for at least 30 miles. We do have a couple of burrito places near where I live and work, but none even come close to comparing with Willy’s. One is a franchise of a chain that I refuse to eat in. It’s bad enough that they scream at every patron who opens the door (forget it if you were thinking about doing some reading on your lunch break), or that you can’t just order a burrito you have to figure out what the lame code word is for the burrito with the toppings you want, the food isn’t that good. The rice is usually crunchy, the beans taste like they’re from a tin can, and the meats aren’t that good, the steak is resembles the various chunks of leftover beef supermarkets package as ‘stew meat’ more than it does a nice cut of beef. The other place it a mom and pop shop, and I’ve only eaten there once, and won’t be going back. Taco Bell is a better choice, even if you factor in the E. Coli problem they’ve had recently. There was one other place that had a go of it, they were another small chain franchise. They weren’t as good as Willy’s but they were the closest thing to it in this part of the world. Sadly, they closed their doors after six months of operation.

So I was excited when my wife mentioned it after our hospital visit. The line was almost out the door, but in no time I was peeling back the foil on a freshly made burrito, with grilled garlic marinated sirloin steak, black beans, rice, crisp lettuce, cheese, and their awesome chipotle salsa. Mmmm….

I can’t wait to go back.