Red Robin...A Deliciously Wasteful Restaurant

Last night my husband took us to Red Robin for dinner, with a little protest as I don't think they are very healthy. I also want to mention that the other day as were planning to go there I called and asked where they get their meat from and if it is hormone free. The manager came to the phone and said that they get it from the Wolverine Packing Company in MI. He also stated that their meat does not or no longer has pink slime. Which I thought was good but I told him that that is not the same as hormones. I Googled Wolverine and called them the next day and asked them if they inject their cows with hormones and a guy told me no, I asked him how he could know that and he said they test the meat. I hung up the phone and was thinking that how could that really had been his answer? How could he just not tell me that they don't shoot up their cows with hormones? Now I may not be a super genus but I don't believe him. If he knew for sure that they don't, I think that's what he would've said.  I also called the main office of Red Robin in Greenwood Village near Denver and have not gotten a response yet.

 Anyway the main reason I wanted to write about this is because all I could think about while eating there is how wasteful it was. I asked to be seated outside as it was nice out and couldn't help but notice a family walk to their can and they had 3 balloons, the little girl, maybe 2 or 3 years old, accidently let go of hers. The family just stared up at it as it went into the sky. Right then and there I decided that my girls would not be getting anymore balloons, ever. They are so wasteful. Where do they end up? Popped somewhere, just laying there not biodegrading. What is there purpose anyway, they are useless, they don't clean anything, you can't really play with them, you just end up throwing them away and they are probably more toxic then we like to think about. The other wasteful thing was the napkins we of a ton of napkins and my husband asked for more, which we didn't use. They probably throw them away when they cleaned up our table. I decided to remedy this that I will be making napkins that we can take with us. I can just stick them in our diaper backpack for now and when I am no longer using that I will stick them in my purse. The 3rd thing was my fault I forgot to bring a dang container for leftovers and had to use their Styrofoam crap! Uhhggg!  I hate styrofoam! Not good for your health what so ever! Also terrible for our planet! I have been keeping all the styrofoam I have been accumulating and I am going to take it to the Denver to be recycled as I found out there is a place there that does it. Only one in the state. 

I want to mention that this is not intended to me a personal attack on Red Robin that this occurs in many restaurants. Consumers and restaurants need to be aware and help out! Red Robin DOES need to get rid of their balloons though! Also my husband did end up getting #1 a balloon, I was very disappointed and told why I didn't want her having them anymore. He told me that I was a meany and a  party pooper. After I explained how I felt they where super wasteful he didn't say anything back but hopefully we won't be that wasteful at a meal ever again!

I did a little research about balloons and the effect on the environment and there is evidence that they are biodegradable but not all of them. If you are interested just do a little google search and there is a ton of info on this. I personally would just like to avoid them and not be a part of a possible problem!