Alright - no fancy pics, no fancy pizza. It's a Little Caesar's- and by now, I'm sure you know what…read moreyou're going to get. If you somehow don't know, well, it's a pizza place that has a drive thru - think about it. Anyways...
Im here in Leavenworth KS. It's as small and as deserted as you'd probably expect. There isn't many options here, but, Kansas City has absolutely AMAZING places, and is approximately 15-20 minutes away. So Leavenworth doesn't really NEED much. For me though, I'm here on business at Fort Leavenworth (the military installation / infamous federal prison). It's a very busy conference here, doing stuff im not at liberty to discuss. Just know, when I leave the secure facility, it's too late to find anything in town, and too soon before I have to be back to change and go to KC. So Little Caesar's was basically built for the exact situation im in. But, Amos, stop stalling and just get to how/why you gave 5-Stars to the Long John Silvers of pizza! - Aiiight.
So being that the town is dead, and it was 2130 (9:30pm), and it's 20 degrees - Little Caesar's had only ONE brave man working the entire store. In addition to that, I rolled up to the drive thru approximately 30 minutes prior to closing. I'd wager that there hadn't been a patron for about 2 hours at this point. So, I was sitting there, at the drive thru window, for about 10 minutes before the young man noticed I was there. Do I wish he'd seen me earlier? Sure - it's late and I was hungry and need to clean up and get to bed. However, if there's one thing I like, it's young people taking initiative and working hard. The reason he didn't notice me (I'd seen him in the act), was because as he was the lone attendant, he was working hard cleaning the store, preparing stuff for the next day, just straight handling business. Good for him.
So he sees me, he apologizes, and I tell him it's no problem at all and we are square. I ask him if he has just a plain cheese? Yup - one left. Then I ask if he has some ranch dipping sauces? Yup - gotta whole box. So i ask for the plain cheese and 3x ranch. He grabs it promptly and I hand him my card. He mentioned the price, but I don't hear (or care), because if the price of drive thru pizza is a concern, I shouldn't be getting drive thru pizza. Card swipes, receipt and card is given back, and he heads to the back. He comes back, and hands me the pizza and 3x ranch. I say thanks and start to roll up window. He immediately says wait, you wanted the Crazy Bread too, right? Im like, Crazy Bread? Naw fam.. just the pizza and ranch. He's like, oh man, hey I charged you for the Crazy Bread too. I was like yoooo, that's ok, it's not a issue. He's like naw hold on, lemme take that charge off. Hmmm - ok, if ya must. About 15 seconds later, he's like hey, sorry I kept you waiting and over charged you, here's the receipt, I just refunded the whole thing. I was like, wait, what? Like refunded everything, as in it's free? He's like yea man, I'm sorry about that. I very politely thanked him, and went on about my way.
Surely this store is ballin' - it's not like they have money to throw away. And I'm sitting here typing this hoping that he didn't come out of his own pocket for this... but regardless of all those unknowns, the fact remains, that dude was working hard. Working alone. Doing a good job. And for no reason, without even stopping to assess whether or not I needed "help", he just gave me a free dinner without a second thought. And that's 5-Stars all day. What a good young man.
Now I need to go pay it forward somehow.