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We used to go to Applebee's all the time before my CD diagnosis.  I have
hardly been there since because of the people I have run into there and
the attitude.

However, last night my dh was hungry and we were going to the Whole
Foods Market which is about 35 minutes away from where we live.  There
is a Chipolti's next to it so I thought we could eat there.  But he took
a wrong turn and we were face to face with an Applebee's.  So I
said...okay, let's just go ahead and go in there I will have their steak
salad.

He had a burger and I ordered the salad telling the guy waiting on us,
'no croutons, no blue cheese, no dressing...I am allergic to *all* of
these things and can't eat them.  The man said 'really'?  I
said...yes...and then he repeated it all back to me and my dh.

The food came and it all looked good.  Didn't see any offending items.
Started cutting and ate 4 or 5 bites when I noticed what looked to be a
slight crumb of blue cheese on a tomato slice.  I simply moved the slice
to my dh's plate figuring...well a crumb spilled.  I ate another bite
and then suddenly felt the urge to look further into 'spot' where the
tomato had been sitting.  I moved a big lettuce leaf and there
underneath, where I could not have seen earlier, was sprinkled small
crumbs of blue cheese.   Like it had been sprinkled on and then hidden
carefully.

In the past the blue cheese is usually sprinkled all over the 'top' of
the salad and not mixed in.

I called to the waiter and said to him - I'm sorry I can't eat this -
there is blue cheese on it. He looked at it quizzically.  I lifted up
the lettuce leaf to show him where it was.  He said he was sorry and
asked if he could bring me something else.  I said no.

Then the manager came out and said, "I understand you may have
accidentally ingested some blue cheese.  So - what type of reactions do
you have to it?"

At that point I just wanted out of there.  I was upset that someone
would pull something so sneaky.  He gave me his card and told me to call
him if I had any reactions...and then gave us the bill.  They had
stricken the salad off it, so it was only what I had to drink and my
dh's dinner.

I had explained to the mgr. about the allergy and CD and that the blue
cheese mold's relationship to wheat.

That was pretty much it.

I'm still *really* upset about whomever decided to sneak a little blue
cheese on the salad and then hide it.  I will *never* eat at another
Applebee's....and will most certainly spread the word about what
happened to me there.

BTW - Yes I still tipped the wait-person on what the bill *would have
been* before the salad was removed from the bill.  I didn't yell or
'make a scene'. I'm not that sort of person.  But I was felt pretty
disturbed about it all.  Very unhappy.  From now on *if* I go out to eat
- I will dissect the entire plate before ingesting anything.  At least
if it is something I can 'see'...I can avoid it *before* I have to
wonder what I've done and have the pain after.

Robin
MN

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