Surcharge for a sub sandwich

Just a little irritation but probably won't go back. My wife and I went to a small locally owned Italian restaurant today about 4PM. This not a coat and tie place by any means and in fact it looked like at least have the business was takeout Pizza. I was in the mood for a sub which I knew was on the menu from seeing it earlier online. There were no sandwiches on the menu period. I asked the waitress and she said they don't serve the lunch menu on Sunday but if I wanted a sub she would have to charge an "extra" $1. She then tried to talk me to a Chicken Parm dinner for about $6 more. I said I just take the sub and that's exactly what I got, a chicken cutlet, cheese and sauce and bread. No sides. Food was OK but the $1 surcharge just didn't sit well with me.

She probably had to get all the ingredients for you sub out of the refrigerator instead of having them all ready right in front of her.

I have mioxed feelings about a surcharge if they really wanted you for a customer and wanted to bend backwards, but a policy is a policy often for good reason and what they offered you seems like a fair compromise. They may not have had a scheduled bread delivery unless the bake their own which they probably don't do on off days. Veggies if used, are packed in boxes in the walk-in and some are probably not prepped for immediate use if not bought pre-prepared. Cutting boards,utensils, sandwich station surface, rotary slicer if needed need to be cleaned and quatted again after an unscheduled use, Etc. Lots of exta work and time for a buck to accomodate you and probably the reason you ended up with the parm on day old bread that can pass on a hot sub. It's not like everything is at hand's reach in a sandwich station and a fresh sub can be thrown together at moments notice. An extra buck using what they already had on hand is fair enough with the equipment that's currently in use like a deck or impinger/tractor oven and minimal prep & cleanup. Be thankful they accomodated you.

DawnT

Be thankful they accomodated you.

Got to stand with Dawn on this one
 
Many places in Cincinnati have lunch specials, or a lunch menu.  Those that do generally do not let you order such items outside their posted lunch hours, and those that do will - 99% of the time - charge extra.
 
I would go to Indian restaurants more often if their dinner prices were not (generally, in my limited experience locally) 1.5x or double what the lunch price is for roughly the same amount of food.   I don't ask for the lunch deals at dinnertime, I just make sure If I am craving Indian cuisine, that I get it at lunchtime.

Yeah I think you guys are right, I just felt like I was being pushed toward toward the $15.95 dinners and I was surprised that subs weren't on the regular menu. As far as extra prep goes I ordered a chicken parm sub and since they had a chicken parm dinner the only extra prep was slicing and toasting a sub roll. This is not a fancy place, very blue collar, lot's of retirees from the adjacent seniors mobile home parks.