I was having a breakfast meeting in Chicago last week at a full-service chain restaurant.

On the menu, the egg-white omelet came with hashed browns or fruit and pancakes or toast. I told the waiter I wanted the hashed browns and the fruit.

Waiter: That’s not possible.

Me: Of course it is.

Waiter: No. You cannot substitute like that. You have to have the hashed browns or the fruit and the pancakes or the toast. No substitutions.

Me: I’m sure you can give me hashed browns and fruit. Just charge me for it.

Waiter: Would you like to speak to my manager?

Me: Sure.

Manager: Can I help you?

Me: Yes, I would like the egg white omelet, but I’d like it with hashed browns and fruit.

Manager: We can’t do that.

Me: I don’t understand.

Manager: We just don’t do it that way.

I’m not sure this waiter (or his manager) was clear on the concept of a full-service restaurant.

Here at Meatingplace, we like to consider ourselves a full-service publisher. We believe in giving you as our reader what you want how you want it.

After 18 months of reader surveying and soul searching, effective with the August issue of Meatingplace in Print, we have made some changes to reflect what we heard from you.

You will still find the type of news analysis and industry and personality profiling you have enjoyed, but with some updated formatting and even some new items that we think will make our magazine easier and more fun to read.

We have also added more ways for you to interact with the publication in print and online. As Meatingplace Editor Lisa Keefe explains in her August Editorial, with every page, we are tying the printed stories in to supplemental videos, interviews, maps and other digital content online.

In fact, Lisa and the rest of the Meatingplace staff explain it all in this brief video.

As for the restaurant, I finally did get my hashed browns and fruit, but I’m not sure I’ll be going back there anytime soon.

If you ever have ideas about what you’d like more of or less of from us, please let us know. I promise you, the words “no substitutions” will never cross our lips.

No substitutions; getting what you want how you want it

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