Jason Pearce

Eight of us went to the new Rock Bottom on 86th St to celebrate my 100th unique restaurant (where Cooker used to be). Sadly, we left disappointed.

Most of us signed up for their Mug Club, which is a rewards club for their bar. As a member, you get larger beers. I, however, was given a normal-sized pint. When I pointed out the problem, nothing was done to correct it.

Most of us weren’t too happy with the food either. I could tell because all but one tossed their Lunch Punch card (a rewards card for food) back on the table — after having previously placed it in their wallets.

Me? Well, my burger was soggy and messy.

When the manager came over — he heard about our story in the paper — to say hi, he offered his card and hinted I should reference the address of his restaurant on my website.

He didn’t offer a free round, he didn’t toss in desert. In fact the only compensation we did receive was one free meal because it arrived well after everyone else was served.

I enjoyed the old Cooker much better.

My co-workers were good sports. They say I shouldn’t end on a bad note and should instead visit 101 restaurants. What a great idea.

Tomorrow is the “Taste of Broad Ripple.” Now that sounds like a much better way to end my “No Repeat Lunch Week” campaign.

My appetite made the news. On the front cover, beneath the fold, section E, in the “Just 1 Minute” sidebar, of the Indianapolis Star, you’ll find a few words about my “No Repeat Lunch Week” campaign.

Reporter Shari Rudavsky from the Star called me earlier this week. We conducted the interview over the phone and I emailed her the photo. Some of our staff knew I’d be featured in the paper, but others were completely surprised.

The title of my story is “Now He Can Go Back for Seconds,” and it’s featured in their Indiana Living section.

Today is the last day of my campaign and will mark my 100th unique restaurant. Most of the staff will attend today’s luncheon. Right now, everyone is pushing for the new Rock Bottom Brewery that opened just a few blocks away.

On some evenings, taking work home with me takes on a whole new meaning. I’ve found it’s far more efficient to set up new laptops from home.

My home internet connection is 6Mbps, while the office’s T1 is only 1.5Mbps. This makes the process of implementing all of Microsoft’s patches via Windows Update and Office Update more tolerable.

It still bugs me to this day that brand new, out-of-the-box machines arrive ‘broken,’ requiring a few hours of downloads and patches. It would be nice to purchase a new machine that the latest software and patches already installed.

Jennifer Emerick from Alpha Xi Delta joined me for my 99th lunch destination, saying “I had to be part of this historic event.” Tomorrow will be my last meal on the “No Repeat Lunch Week” campaign.

Whenever five of us head out for lunch, we always have a hard time agreeing on where to eat. Add the restriction of nearly 100 restaurants we can’t eat at, and the decision process becomes even more difficult. I anticipated this, and reserved some of our favorite restaurants for the end of my campaign. Boston Market was one of them.