NOTICE: This contest is now closed. Full winner’s list here.
We know how much y’all like free stuff. And that’s why we’re super pumped to give away a pair of tickets to see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Walton Arts Center. Sound good? Cool.
Sweeney Todd is the musical that inspired last year’s Tim Burton and Johnny Depp movie. It’ll be here in just a matter of weeks but you can try your luck at getting in for free right now by entering our very first Fayetteville Flyer contest.
If you’re at all familiar with the plot, you’ll know that Mrs. Lovett makes her famed meat pies from Sweeney’s clients. While in the bake house, her assistant, Toby, finds a hair and fingernail in one. Can you think of the grossest thing you’ve found in your food?
If so, just leave your story in the comments section below to be automatically entered to win two (2) tickets to the Monday November 17, 2008 showing of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Walton Arts Center at 495 W Dickson Street, Fayetteville, AR 72701 valued at $42 each.
If you can’t think of a gross enough story, just make one up. As long as you give it a decent try, you’ll be eligible to win. We’ll randomly select a winner and you’ll be notified by e-mail so make sure you put in a valid e-mail address (you know, one that you actually check frequently). At the very least, check your e-mail the day after the contest ends, OK?
A few rules (read ‘em carefully):
- You may only enter this specific contest once. If you enter this contest more than once you’ll be automatically disqualified.
- This contest is open to anyone anywhere…except Fayetteville Flyer writers and their immediate family.
- Contest is open until 11:59pm CST on Tuesday, November 11, 2008.
- You will have three (3) days to respond if you win before you lose the prize to someone else.
- You’ll have to provide us with your first and last name if you win and then be prepared to show a valid photo ID when picking up your tickets.
- Don’t mention any restaurants by name or you’ll be disqualified. This is a contest to win tickets, not a place for complaints. Cool?
Big props to the Walton Arts Center for sponsoring this contest. For more information about this performance and to purchase tickets, visit waltonartscenter.org.
Once, in high school, I found a fried retainer among some french fries. True story.
true story – the wife and I are at dinner many years ago, lets just say it’s a chicken place. our food comes out and there is a fly deep fried into the batter. but that’s not the worst part … IT’S STILL ALIVE!!! One wing is submerged in batter the other wings is flapping and buzzing away…
The fella and I went to this italian joint near my office for a quick lunch not so long ago. I hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning, so I remember being SO hungry. I ordered my usual. It was, unfortunately, far from usual. My first bite was greeted with a longish stringy hair. At that point, I was still so hungry that I pulled the stinker out and tried to keep eating.
Second bite, another hair. I decided to pretend this didn’t happen as well, I pulled that stinker out and put the second bite on a napkin. And began to cut into my eggplant again. HAIRS!!! There were 8 or nine more.
Didn’t go for a fourth bite. Went for a fourth meal instead.
If you dined at a certain Tex-Mex joint in town, during the summer of ’01 and were the rudest couple on planet Earth to your waiter, whose name rhymes with Mice, then you unknowingly have a great story for this post.
I hope this counts as an entry…
I know that tex-mex place! Used to work there…with you. I would LOVE to see what the rudest couple on the Earth has to say for themselves! I guess it makes people feel good to be a total jerk to the last person that handles your food before you eat it. Smart.
a restaurant located adjacent to a building that was being torn down served a group of five of us some dinner. My friend got a fish dish, which was creepy enough that they left the head on it, hypnotic eyeballs and all. Halfway through the meal, my friend has eaten half the fish, and with a gab of the fork, he pulls up a bite of fish and a whole cockroach stuck to the underside. He freaks, and the server comes by to say, “oh no, I pray that no happen again.” Again?
I once went to this restaurant who’s name rhymes with “Mac Ronald’s”. I ordered a burger. I’m not sure what that meat was, but it was definitely not beef!
This story haunts my dreams. One night after the bars closed, some friends and I went for some breakfast at a 24 hour chain. On the way inside, the sidewalk was covered in crickets that attacked you as you went by. They were everywhere, bouncing off my arms, legs, and face! As we sprinted through the cloud of black bugs, I violently squashed as many as I could on the sidewalk. Once we were inside and safe, we ordered, got our food, and as I went to take a bite of toast…there they were! The bodies of the fallen insect army, grilled flat to the bottom of my toast! Their revenge was to spoil my late night munchies with bodies of my own victims. I never killed a cricket again.
I once went to a restaurant with a group of friends for an enjoyable Saturday afternoon snack and some brews. This particular place was very famous for their wings, so that’s what we ordered. We were surprised to see that more than one of our wings still had feathers attached. Long. Covered in sauce. Feathers.
TRUE STORY: Everyone was brunching one morning after some hard core tailgating. Friend of mine orders a breakfast burrito type deal…sounded like a good mix with bloody marys. Order comes, we dig in. Half way through aforementioned burrito, she cuts into something that makes her knife slide across the plate. after further inspection and unwrapping of the burrio, a red solo cup was revealed and had been wrapped up and cooked inside the burrito – so it was all melty, but still had the shape of a solo cup. Ironically that is what had been binge drinking beer the day before…
Obviously it was sent back with no need to bring another one as all appetites were lost, however, drinks were on the house the rest of the morning.
We all still go there though… surely lightning doesn’t strike twice…
Not sure if this is my worst ever…but it’s the one that haunts me the most. It was totally self-inflicted. I let a gallon jug of pre-sweetened iced tea out in my garage (beer) fridge for like 3 months. It was kind of stashed away. I said to myself, “Self, how bad can it be? I mean, it’s only iced tea for godsake.” As is often the case…I was wrong. Apparently the sugars tend to coagulate after a while. So about the third drink I took, my mouth was filled with this giant blob of congealed tea and sugar. I’m not sure how gross that sounds, but it sucked! I’ve had hairs and bugs. This was way worse. Kind of like a giant loogie in your mouth. Still makes me shiver.
I found an entire cricket in Moo Goo Gai Pan from a Chinese restauraunt one time. It was the most disgusting thing ever since I had already eaten about a third of it.
This isn’t really a gross out story but I’ve worked at alot of pizza places and have a quick story. One time a family came up to me and asked if I could come look at a weird shape above their table in some lattice work. I looked up and saw a live bat above them… Needless to say I had to get it down so I scooped him into a pickle bucket and put him outside. They freaked out and left. End of story, I want some tickets…. Thanks.
I was in the military and while stationed in San Francisco I went to China Town for lunch at a restaurant one of the guys kept raving about because the beef and broccoli was “so damned good.” Halfway through my plate a nagging question in my head could no longer go unanswered, because while the food was that damn good the beef just wasn’t right. It didn’t taste quite right for beef and the texture was off. So I asked “What kind of meat is this” and the nice girl serving our food replied “dog.”
*blink* *blink*
Well it was really good so I finished it. And I went back the next weekend. Sadly I can’t look at my best friend to this day and wonder how he would taste slow roasted with a nice cashew sauce.
When I was 14 my Mother and Father did not get along. My dad was an alcoholic who could not control his drinking or him temper so one day he came home very drunk and wanted supper.. my mom being the “lady” she is went to the Pantry and made him some chili .. but the chili was actually ALPO Dog Food that had been warmed and served with crackers!
During my short stint at a pseudo-Mexican fast food joint, my boss used to give the beans his seal of approval: his ass print. This was done to prove he could endure the scalding heat, but we all know its about the flavor.
When I was working at a certain restaurant on restaurant row…getting ready to make some burgers…we found that the sealed package of buns had a little extra surprise…a dead rat…seriously…a dead rat fused in with the bread!
My wife and I had just finished our meal at one of our favorite local restaurants and decided to split a dessert. We went with the coconut flan.
The dessert looked great when it came out and we both dug in. The best way to describe the flavor is baby formula burp breath. We immediately flagged down our server and told him something was wrong. He took the dessert back to the kitchen and about 10 minutes later the manager came to our table and explained that somehow a can of concentrated baby formula had gotten mixed in with the sweetened condensed milk.
To this day I can’t enjoy sweets. Or babies.
This isn’t quite about food, but once, while leaving a certain Mexican food establishment in Bentonville, I purchased a toy dog from the quarter machine. Whoever put the anatomically-correct pooch in the plastic bubble for distribution took the time to wrap a long, coarse, black hair around it. Why? I can’t be sure.
If I could, I would at this point mention a delicious chicken restaurant on 6th street that consistently provides Fayetteville with quality chicken sandwiches, waffle fries, and–-for a limited time–-chocolate peppermint shakes. But that is against the rules. So I won’t.
This touring production of Sweeney Todd is magnificent. I saw it in Dallas this past January and was amazed at the wide range of talents in the production. Each of the characters comprised the orchestra…a great soprano who is an amazing cellist…
Even if you don’t win these tickets…go, go, go see this production!
JP
This did not happen to me, although I have had my share of bugs, hair, and, once, a band-aid in my food. It happened to one of my former classmates. She was eating at a local restaurant when she realized there was something in the bottom of her half-empty iced tea. The crushed ice seemed to be in a large chunk and she couldn’t break it up with her straw. She used her teaspoon to bring it to the top of the glass. It was a little frozen mouse! She said the manager and waitstaff didn’t seem too concerned or shocked. They offered to buy her meal but refused to buy her companion’s food.
The restaurant has since closed.