Viral hospitality: How Chili’s fixed a ‘broken’ cheeseburger

You might have seen a picture of a little girl kissing a cheeseburger on your Facebook news feed.

It’s been “liked” or shared nearly a million times in the last couple of days.

The story behind it is about a “broken” cheeseburger and how compassion saved the day.

Anna MacLean recently took her 7-year-old sister, Arianna, to a Chili’s restaurant near Salt Lake City, Utah. Arianna has autism and MacLean says sometimes, it’s hard for her to make it through a meal without a meltdown. But she was in a good mood that day and was looking forward to ordering her cheeseburger, which she calls a Krabby Patty.

“As soon as we sat down, and even before our waitress, Lauren, could greet us, Arianna rambled off her order, saying she wanted a cheeseburger with pickles, french fries and a chocolate milk,” MacLean says.

That’s why she was surprised that about ten minutes into their meal, she noticed Arianna was only eating her french fries. She asked her why she wasn’t eating her burger and Arianna told her that she didn’t want it anymore because it was “broken.” It had been cut in half and she wanted one that was “fixed.”

Chili’s policy is to cut the kids’ burgers in half to make sure they’re cooked to the proper temperature. MacLean didn’t want to make a big deal about it, so the next time the waitress came around, she asked her if she could order another one and she would pay for it.

It’s what happened next that Anna says was amazing. She says Lauren leaned over to her sister, looked her in the eyes, and promised to make it right.

“She was so kind to her and told her, ‘I can’t believe I brought you a broken hamburger. I’ll get you a brand new one,'” says MacLean. She says she made Arianna happy by explaining what she was doing instead of just taking the burger away.

The restaurant’s manager also came by, apologized to Arianna for their mistake and brought more fries for her in the meantime.

When her second burger arrived in one piece, Arianna was thrilled.

“She told her cheeseburger, ‘Oh, I missed you,’ and started kissing it over and over again,” says MacLean.

MacLean took pictures and posted one on The Chili’s restaurant Facebook page. She wanted to let the company know how the crew’s compassion made their day.

“To them, that was nothing, they were just doing their job. But no, that’s not just you doing your job, that was saving our entire weekend,” says MacLean.

Within 24 hours, the picture went viral. MacLean was shocked.

“I had no clue. I woke up the next day and the story and picture were everywhere.”

She says it makes her happy that so many people have been touched by the story. But she adds, there are amazing things that happen every single day and we just need to let people know that we appreciate it when we see it.