I Expect Fresh-Grilled Chicken From 'the Grill'

Ok so it happened again. I went to South Austin Grill today for lunch with the family for Mothers' Day, and ordered the Southwestern Caesar with grilled chicken and dressing on the side (of course). The chicken, which is supposed to fresh-off-the-grill hot on this salad, was indeed grilled...but cold. But before I continue, a little background is in order.

I've been going to the South Austin Grill in Old Town now for more than a decade. It is my family's joint, plain and simple. Birthdays, Mother's Day, Christmas gift certificate time, we go to the Grill. Don't get me wrong, I love TexMex food and the Grill is some of the best you'll find. But I love salads and I could never find a good salad there. So lately as the ol' metabolism continues to slow down I've been kind of down on it. I used to order the Bevo's Salad, my mother in law's fave. But it comes with cold chicken on it, which I just can't enjoy. Eating cold chicken reminds me of that scene in "Alive" where they finally... well, you know the one. It's just tasteless flesh, to be blunt. So for years I tried to order it like this: "Can I get the Bevo's Salad with the chicken but can I get the chicken hot? Like not microwaved hot but like off the grill? Like fresh cooked?" "Sure!," they'd tell me. But I'd get cold chicken every time. So then I tried the Southwestern Caesar once on a lunch date. I figured I'd ask for chicken and just deal with it that it's not cold, instead of subjecting my girlfriend to my OCD tendencies. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Southwestern Caesar's chicken is chargrilled! Like that's how the salad comes; if you want chicken, shrimp or steak it comes hot. I finally got it, my dream salad: cold crisp greens adorned with hot, chargrilled chicken! [With the dressing on the side.] I was so happy. I had finally found my dish at the Grill.

But every now and then they still get it wrong. Like today. I ordered the Southwestern Caesar, ready to crush some crunchy greens and right-off-the-grill chicken, but I could tell as soon as the salad was put down in front of me that the chicken was cold because there was no aroma or steam coming off of it. Even worse. The chicken was indeed chargrilled but perhaps earlier in the day and had then been refrigerated or simply left out to the point where it was now cold cooked chicken. It changes everything for me. I cannot eat cold flesh on a salad. Or rather I prefer not to, as I certainly have done it. The little black charred parts certainly don't taste very good cold and the consistency of cold chicken is dry and chewy [see aforementioned allusion to "Alive"]. I love steak, shrimp, chicken, pork, tuna, any kind of meat on a salad--but it has to be hot off the grill hot.