Death to butter packets
February 23, 2009 at 9:43 am by dholmI hate tiny little wrapped butter packets.
They are evil. I have no idea why restaurants use them.
What amazes me more is that I have come across them at restaurants that aren’t necessarily cheap: Bonefish and Cheesecake Factory.
It’s a fairly simple request. All I want is some butter to go with my bread.
The server brings out a plate and sitting in the middle are 3-4 small butter packets wrapped in golden foil. 90% of the time they are virtually frozen and if they’re not frozen they have melted down to liquid form. It’s like they are trying to punish you for taking advantage of the complementary bread.
Now the real challenge begins: transporting the butter from the packet to your bread.
There really is no good way to go about it. If it’s frozen solid you can’t unfold the back and if it’s melted down the butter goes everywhere the second you start unfolding.
Once you manage to get it open (be careful, it’s possible that by now your thumb is stuck to one of the corners of the foil) you can’t really get the butter off the pack.
If it’s frozen you can’t hold on to the butter to cut a piece off because that would require using your thumb (which you just got unstuck) to hold a corner of the foil down. If it’s melty soft the butter goes sliding all over town and you’re a master if you can somehow flip the butter from the packet on to the bread.
Wow that is a lot of work for a tiny little portion of butter that barely even covers the piece of bread you have.
By the time the entrees arrive I usually have smudges of butter all over my fingers, up my elbows and smeared on my pants. I don’t know how this happens, but I’m tired of it.
I want these butter packets to die. No restaurant should ever use them. If I’m paying $20 for an entree I should be served butter that is easy to spread, tastes good and is user friendly; no instructions required.
Dan Holm is the writer behind greeneggsmarketing.com a popular restaurant blog that analyzes new products, discusses food trends, enlightens readers and promotes best practices in restaurant marketing.
He is also the author of Classy Eater a revolutionary eBook that shows readers how to eat all of their favorite food at the price they want. It’s free to download at classyeater.com. Email him at danielrholm@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/danholm
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