The Great Chuys Dots War

(A diversion to the diversion. One of my favorite Chuys stories. This is all true.)

I'd only been in Austin 2-3 years when Teresa became my office mate. Some of use were together at lunch one day at Chuys (where else), when she started talking about how often she was at Chuys, A couple of friends who'd known me longer than she had assured he I was there way more than her. Back and forth they went, until she threw down a challenge. For a year, each of us would keep the sticky dot off our silverware wrapper each time we went to Chuys and bought a meal or drink; we'd stick each dot on the back of our drivers license. At the end of the year, whoever had the most dots would win and the other would buy them a lunch. Having no idea how it would turn out, but loving the idea, I accepted.

Over the next year, whenever people would see the dots on our licenses they'd ask what was up with that. We came up with a variety of stores, but our favorite (worked out together on the spot at Chuys when asked about the dots) went like this.

"APD (Austin Police Department) loves Chuys, too. They have this thing, it's not official or advertised, that if you have enough Chuys dots on your license and get pulled over, they'll let you off minor traffic violations and such. Not real crimes, but little stuff. But they take the dots off and you have to start over. It's kind of like a Get Out of Jail Free card in Monopoly."

The best part is that a lot of people really believed it. It was pretty funny. We really hoped one day someone would try this when they got pulled over. If it happened we never heard about it.

Eventually, the year was up. While I knew I'd eaten at Chuys a ridiculous amount that year, I had no idea just how ridiculous. We each counted our dots, then counted the others' dots as a sanity check. The tallies per license were within 1 or 2, and the spread was more than that.

I don't recall the exact numbers, but Teresa had around 190 or 200. I neat her by 10 or 20. We were both stunned, not so much at the outcome as the number of times we'd each eaten at Chuys. Actually, it was crazier than that. Some of hers were not even for meals, they were for celebrating after a soccer game with her team- a drink. Whereas all mine were for meals. that has to be my all time high count for eating at *any* restaurant in a year. That included just me, groups from work, family meals, meals with friends, etc. But only one dot per visit! (This was, IIRC, the year I ate 21 times during the 21 day Green Chile Festival.) That's a lot of Tex Mex. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of awesome.

I don't recall what my victory lunch was (probably chile rellenos, because I was ordering those a lot around then) but Teresa was the gracious loser. I offered her a rematch but she declined. Neither of us had eaten a lot more because of the contest, but we had both admittedly pushed it a little, and we figured at least some of that money ought to go somewhere besides Chuys, especially since we weren't getting stock.

But it gets better.

Teresa not only played soccer, she coached a young girls' team. Shortly before the contest ended, she had to coach her girls at a tournament in Houston on a weekend, She also had her own game to play in Sunday afternoon. Since it was her team's first year, they weren't all that good, so she knew she'd be home Saturday. Imagine her dual excitement and consternation when her team went to the finals. I don't recall if they made it to the very final game or not. I do know they did well, and that Teresa had two and a half hours or less to make a three hour trip. She was flying low, a good 15 or 20 over the speed limit when she crested a hill on 290 a half hour outside Austin and the flashing lights came on.

She pulled over and got out her license and insurance card. "I'm sorry, officer, I know I was speeding." The usual drill. Until.... "Ma'am, may I ask why you have all these... dots... on the back of your license?

Teresa toyed briefly with the idea of telling him the whole tale but (probably wisely) decided against it. She went for brevity. "A friend and I eat at Chuys a lot and we're having a contest to see who eats there the most. That's how we keep track."

"Chuys? The Tex Mex restaurant in Austin? I love that place!" They spent a few minutes discussing favorite dishes, their favorite waiters and waitresses, etc. All the while Teresa was trying not to bust out laughing, worried about being late to her game, and thinking how weird this was. Finally the policeman said, "Well. anyone who likes Chuys that much is all right by me. But please, keep it slow, OK?" He handed her the license, and walked back to his car. Not even a warning. She made the game.

Sometimes, life imitates art. It was so cool I bought her lunch. We were even. At Chuys, everybody wins.