At the risk of being judged insignificantly discerning about our fast food choices, I have a tale to relate.

Occasionally we are (okay, I am) not interested in cooking dinner. This can occur because of my exhaustive labors during the day, my forgetfulness about thawing something from the freezer, or because nothing in the pantry or refrigerator appeals. When this happens, which is perhaps once a week, I go down to the shopping center at the bottom of my hill and wander through the food court there. We are sometimes in the mood for tacos or quesadillas or burritos, so we have been know to frequent (don’t sneer!) Taco Bell.

I was in one of those moods tonight, so I headed down the hill. When I got there and rode the escalator down two levels to the food court, I discovered that the Taco Bell/Pizza Hut space was boarded up and there was a sign on the boards which read “Restaurant Space Available.”

Oh no! No tacos for us, no Chicken n’ Cheese quesadilla, no nuthin’! Woe!

Now, I walked past that space earlier this week and I’d swear there was no indication the place was gonna shut up shop. There have been two new restaurants that opened next door, a Pieology pizza parlor and a Five Guys burger palace, but neither of those are what I’d call direct competitors to Pizza Hut or Taco Bell. Neither’s been open more than a month, either, which seems an awfully short time for the fast food guys to decide they were getting hurt.

I went to Subway and got a foot-long hot pastrami melt with veggies on the side instead.