La Fabbrica – Thin crust pizza with fat profits from unwary tourists paying in US dollars…

My lady, her youngest son and I had a craving for pizza and so we rolled along to La Fabbrica which is an Italian owned restaurant located in Escazu on the road leading to the big MultiPlaza shopping mall.

La Fabbrica serves up incredibly thin crust pizzas which are really quite tasty but, we got a shock this time when we got the bill and started to pay…

While I was talking to my young friend – her 14 year old son, my lady gave the waiter a US$100 bill and the waiter asked her something, she confirmed and I really just wasn’t listening to the waiter at all.

But as soon as he left the table, I did ask her what had been said and I couldn’t quite believe my ears when she confirmed that the waiter had said that if we paid in dollars – which nearly all restaurants are delighted to accept in this area – that the exchange rate would be 500 colones to the dollar.

What?

Knowing that the Banco Central de Costa Rica shows the current exchange rate at Buy: 558.12 and Sell: 567.85 I raced off after the waiter, gave him a credit card and told him that he would give me back the $100 now and charge the credit card instead and, I wanted to speak with the manager – Now!

A few moments later, a skinny young man appeared at my side who looked as if he had just that second been appointed as the acting manager for that one difficult moment and said that it was the policy of the Italian owners – whom he declined to identify – that La Fabbrica would exchange one US dollar for 500 colones.

Now I don’t know if this is illegal or not and did ponder for a second that I should call one of my attorney friends and ask, but what would be the point?

Scott’s ‘Policy’.

So here’s my ‘policy’ – when someone tries to take advantage of me, I like to warn my friends and our 15,000+ VIP Members so …

By all means enjoy the thin crust pizza at La Fabbrica but please, don’t for a second think about paying your bill in US dollars because you are literally throwing away 10% of your hard earned money on top of the total bill for nothing!

And no! We will not be going back to La Fabbrica!

One of our VIP Members started a Discussion Forum thread about this article which you can see here.

Written by Scott Oliver, author of How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa and Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.