Will Work For Food

Specifically, I will work for foie gras eggrolls, Bay scallop ceviche, and freshly shucked oysters. As Washington Post staff writer Sara Kehaulani Goo reports from Google HQ in Mountain View, California, that is exactly the sort of fare offered by the company's various cafés (and not cafeterias) to its hard-working employees.

Just a taste:

One week, according to menus Google provided, chefs featured the "tuna tower": a collection of "mixed organic greens, carrot matchsticks, and Asian dressing topped with sliced, seared Ahi tuna, diced ginger root and lime, toasted coconut, basil, mint, cilantro, pickled cucumber and peanut praline." Earlier this month, a menu at Cafe 150 touted egg rolls "stuffed with Szechuan duck confit, Sonoma foie gras and julienne celery root . . . served with huckleberry-ponzu jelly"; Bloody Mary consomme with "house made crab, saffron, and celery gelee"; and, for dessert, potato chips covered in chocolate and sprinkled with fleur de sel.

Two other things: Google offers not only lunch but breakfast and dinner, encouraging its 10,000 workers to spend more time in the office, thereby bolstering productivity. Second, did I mention it is all free?

I know what you're thinking. Go ahead, soak it up, enjoy it while you can. But nothing lasts forever and one day this too shall pass. Maybe so, but that might not be for at least another six or seven years. And right now, I am thinking of going to Potbelly's, wait in a line that wraps around the block, and purchase a "Wreck" sandwich and a bag of Utz sour cream and onion potato chips.

It's just not right.