Quiznos' signature a forgery

I actually used to like Quiznos sandwich shop. They offered a pair of decent sandwiches -- the black Angus steak on rosemary Parmesan bread and the steakhouse beef dip -- one decent offering of chips -- the original Sun Chip -- and free water.

Now, however, all that is changed and, for the life of me, I can find absolutely no reason to ever set foot in one of their establishments again. For one thing, the black Angus steak sandwich has disappeared from the menu. Second, the original Sun Chip is gone, replaced by a cheddar-cheese flavored one (the person who came up with the idea of flavored chips to begin with should be drawn and quartered) and the only water available is in the eco-unfriendly bottles that cost 100 times more than they are worth. The only other drinks available are Pepsi products that are fine for many, but not yours truly.

Today, however, a very close friend and I planned to lunch together and, since he was buying, he got to choose the location. He picked Quiznos, which was OK with me because I could have sunk my teeth into one of those steakhouse beef dip sandwiches. At least, I thought I could.

When we got there -- the one located on the southeast corner of Fitzhugh and North Central -- the person at the counter told me I couldn't have the steakhouse beef dip. Of course, I wanted to know why and he said because the home office was phasing it off the menu. But, I said, right now it is still on the menu -- right there being promoted as one of Quiznos' "Signature Subs." Sorry, he said, I couldn't have that.

After our lunch, obligatory visit to Starbucks and a run by the Movie Trading Company, I came back here, made myself a sandwich that was far superior to anything left on Quiznos' menu and then decided to check the company's Web site. If you download its menu, you will find the steakhouse beef deep still listed as a signature sub with no notification -- at least none that I could find -- that it's being taken off the menu.

I don't mind a restaurant taking anything off its menu. It's the right of the restaurant in question to serve whatever it wants. I do mind something being on the menu, with no official notice in the store or on the company's Web site that it can't be ordered, not being available for someone who wants it, unless, of course, that were was, for some reason, a great run on that item and they were all sold out. But I doubt that's ever going to happen with an item at Quiznos.

Of course, I'll never know, because I don't intend to ever set foot in one again.