Thursday, June 26, 2008

Why can't "good ice" just be the "normal ice" from now on? I've never worked in food service, so maybe there's a really good reason. Do those type of icemakers cost more? Does it not go well with certain types of drinks? Does that ice melt faster?

I think most everyone is familiar with the "good ice" by now. Each of the past two days, I have overheard people during lunch at adjacent tables commenting on the restaurant we were in having "good ice" or as one person called it, "Sonic ice". If you didn't know what I was talking about before, maybe you do now. It's those little pieces of ice that are somewhat barrel-shaped, or if you'd like a completely random reference, shaped like Cap'n Crunch cereal. It's the "crunchy" ice, but not crunchy in the will-destroy-your-teeth-and-line-your-dentist's-pocket kind of way. While it is crunchy, I'd also say it's "fluffy" in a way.

At this point, if you still don't know what I'm talking about, you can stop reading for now. Go ask the first person you see to give a better explanation of "crunchy fluffy barrel-shaped Cap'n Crunch Sonic ice" and see what they say.

Surely someone in an important position with restaurants and other ice-dispensing facilities across America thinks that this ice is the good ice. If everyone made an effort to have the good ice, then places that didn't have it would stick out and people could start choosing their dining options based on that criteria. It could rank up there with type of food, price and quality as a sole determining factor on where a nice meal would be enjoyed.

I know I always think better of a food establishment when it has good ice. Of course Sonic has proven that good ice goes well with any of their 1831* drink combinations, but many others have seen the light, including my lunch destinations of the past two days. I just don't like feeling like I'm having to "drink around" my cubes of ice and invariably, you're going to have those big chunks of ice stuck in the bottom of the cup, poised for an avalanche onto your mouth area when you tip too far.

Franklin, Tennessee is clearly a city on the move.

*Note: I can't remember how many flavor combinations Sonic has. This is a nice number, though.

2 comments:

mrs jarrod allen said...

This is funny. We have a "good ice" machine here at work and that's exactly what everyone here calls it. I have to walk a little bit further to consume this good ice. It's well worth it. A coworker/friend of mine was recently at a dinner party and she met this guy. They were discussing what each of them did for a living. When she said "I work at Southern Progress" he responded by saying "My company provides your company with the good ice!" My friend and I laughed because even the ice professionals call it the good ice.

Saucy said...

We have a "good ice" machine at work, but it has cloudy water. The fact that it has "good ice" in it overshadows that. The water used to smell like grass to me. The company has recently installed a new water machine that is down the hall from the "good ice"/"cloudy water". This water tastes weird, too.