Steak 'n Shanked

Since today is my birthday (thank you very much), I thought I'd reminisce about one of my favorite blog stories of yore. Roger Ebert recently posted about his great love, Steak 'n Shake, and seeing as it is one of my great loves, I wanted to write about it today. (What could I possibly eat at Steak 'n Shake, you ask, when I don't eat cows? The answer: grilled cheese and tomatoes and fries and SHAKE. And when I remember to ask: pickles.) Here is a bizarro, true tale from January 3 of last year (tweaked a little for greater drama):

Matt and I went through the Steak 'n Shake drive-thru for a quickie dessert while my mom babysat.  Matt ordered the Peppermint Chocolate Chip shake, and I ordered my usual Double-Chocolate Fudge Sippable Sundae.  When we parked our car to scarf down the shakes, Matt, who I think has a pretty poor sense of taste, swore his shake wasn't right, although he couldn't pinpoint why.  Eventually he figured out that there were no chocolate chips, no peppermint, and no fewer than 50,000 Maraschino cherries.  We went back through the drive-thru and told the mesh order microphone (does this part of the drive-thru have a name?) we did not get the right shake.  After waiting and finally arriving at the pick-up window, the cashier said, "Yeah, we're out of peppermint. They didn't tell me.  So they just made something up."  Say what?  You don't mess with a man's shake (and they best be glad they didn't mess with this WOman's shake).  Plus, they made something up? That is beyond weird! Why didn't they just ask us if we wanted something else? And if they were going to experiment, all they could think of was dumping in a jar of Maraschino cherries? The shake master whipped up a different shake, no comp or anything, and we drove off, confused.  I called the store and talked to a manager because Steak 'n Shake has the best managers there.  Really.  Anytime I've had a screw up, they do me one better, give me the shake for free, and make it even BIGGER.  He was very apologetic and as confused as Matt and I were. He said if I left my name, I could have a free shake at another time.  But I didn't want to leave my name.  Because what if someone got fired because of me, and my name was sitting there and when I went in to claim my free shake, the friends the fired-ee left behind shanked me or something.  Ha!  Steak 'n Shanked me!  That was not at all funny.  Except that it was.