Today was my Dad's birthday, and we went out to dinner at Johnny Carino's, kind of a casual Italian restaurant. It turned out to be almost a comedy of errors, although it actually started out pretty frustrating, but then ended pleasantly enough.
First, we requested a booth, but all they had was a half-table, half-booth. Then they seated us, and the air conditioning was cranking, with a vent right over us. We (not just me, the one that gets cold easily) were all cold, and the people at the tables on either side of us had sweaters and jackets on too. We asked one waitress, then another, then the first girl again, at intervals, if they could either turn down the AC, or move us to one of the three empty booths visible in the section next to us. They told us they had people lined up waiting for the booths, but over a period of maybe 20 minutes, the booths remained empty, until finally we saw a party seated in one of them. Meanwhile, they kept telling us, yes, they could turn down the AC, but it took that same period of time until it finally got done. Then instead of just adjusting it slightly, they came by and told us they'd turned the heat on! It did get warmer, and I think everyone mostly appreciated it, although my mom said she felt too warm after a while. Not nearly as warm as she had been cold though, not worth complaining about again.
Meanwhile during all of this, the service was extremely slow. It took a long time for our drinks to arrive, for us to be served bread, for our orders to be taken. A long time after that for our respective salads and soups to arrive. Then a long time after that while we sat with empty plates and bowls and empty drink glasses. We kept looking around for our waitress, and she was nowhere in sight. The table next to us finally found the manager, because apparently one member of their party had had his order served to him wrong, twice. And then we heard the people at the table on our other side complaining to their waitperson that something had been made wrong with their order also. We kept waiting and waiting for our food, not being offered drink or water refills, not being offered seconds of (unlimited) soup and salad, or more bread while we waited for our entrees. It's one thing if the food is going to take extra time for some reason, but one would think that making sure the diners were kept happy with the drinks, soups/salads, and bread, would make the wait much less objectionable. But, we were getting no service at all!
Finally, the second time the manager came by the table who'd been served the wrong food twice, I made eye contact with him and asked him to come to our table. I requested refills on the desired items, and told him (nicely) that I was asking him because we hadn't been able to find our waitress to ask her in quite some time now. He was nice, and went off, looking harried, to see it done. Shortly thereafter, another waitress came by to find out what refills of drinks and my soup she could bring, and then our original waitress came by right after that, asking the same thing. We told her the other waitress had gone to get the items, and then of course both waitresses showed up with a set of drinks! I got my second bowl of soup, and only one bowl, not two of those, was brought.
After that, we saw the manager talking to our original waitress, and then we saw her leaving with her purse. I hate to think she was fired on the spot, but her service had garnered repeated complaints from at least three tables, ours and the ones on either side of us, just that we were aware of since we got there. If she was just having a bad night, I hope she got another chance.
Finally, our main courses arrived, and the food was very good. Just one thing... my mother, who hates parmesan cheese, had ordered her grilled salmon salad with NO parmesan. Of course when it arrived, there was parmesan on it, so she sent it back. The waiter who brought it came back with the correctly-made salad, saying, "There were two of them on the counter, and I brought the wrong one!" So I don't know if someone else was then served the salad that had been put in front of my mom first (she hadn't touched it, but still...), but at least she got the correct food brought, and it only took a moment to fix that error.
After that, another waitress took over our table, she was friendly and very attentive, the restaurant gave us all free desserts for the trouble, and the rest of the dining experience was far more pleasant and problem-free.
Whew. What a fiasco!
By the end of dinner, I was feeling rather overfull-- after the two pieces of bread, two bowls of soup, and two glasses of root beer, I took a few bites of my really tasty seafood fettuccine, and brought the rest home. That will be a very enjoyable meal sometime soon. Dessert came home too. No way I had room for it! I was feeling a little overstuffed, which I think was mostly from too much soda, and partially, I realized, I was starting to feel a little soreness from working out last night. Nothing major, but a little stiffness in my legs and abs. Which just means, yay, I worked some muscles, and I should do it again! My stomach is feeling fine again now, and I really should head to the gym in a bit here.
When we got back from dinner, I worked for a while on an update to our store's web site... my family has a wild bird retail store, and we are being a drop-off point for pet supplies to be sent to the Humane Society for animals displaced, lost, injured, etc, in Hurricane Katrina. There are lots of charities for people, but we always like to support animal organizations, too. So I posted a notice of the supply drive on our site and sent an email about it out to our customer email list. Nothing like catching up on work tasks.
Ah, it's already 12:30 in the morning, I really want to go work out, which doesn't take that long, but the night starts moving by... and I have to be up VERY early for an appointment in the morning. The appointment isn't till 9:30, but... it's in Boulder, which is near an hour away, and of course to get there at 9:30, I'm driving right in rush hour. So I'm probably going to leave myself more like 2 hours to get there, which means... yeah, I'm not leaving all that many hours from now!
I think I will change out of the cool silver pants I wore to dinner, and into my gym clothes, and go work off some soup and bread and root beer!
First, we requested a booth, but all they had was a half-table, half-booth. Then they seated us, and the air conditioning was cranking, with a vent right over us. We (not just me, the one that gets cold easily) were all cold, and the people at the tables on either side of us had sweaters and jackets on too. We asked one waitress, then another, then the first girl again, at intervals, if they could either turn down the AC, or move us to one of the three empty booths visible in the section next to us. They told us they had people lined up waiting for the booths, but over a period of maybe 20 minutes, the booths remained empty, until finally we saw a party seated in one of them. Meanwhile, they kept telling us, yes, they could turn down the AC, but it took that same period of time until it finally got done. Then instead of just adjusting it slightly, they came by and told us they'd turned the heat on! It did get warmer, and I think everyone mostly appreciated it, although my mom said she felt too warm after a while. Not nearly as warm as she had been cold though, not worth complaining about again.
Meanwhile during all of this, the service was extremely slow. It took a long time for our drinks to arrive, for us to be served bread, for our orders to be taken. A long time after that for our respective salads and soups to arrive. Then a long time after that while we sat with empty plates and bowls and empty drink glasses. We kept looking around for our waitress, and she was nowhere in sight. The table next to us finally found the manager, because apparently one member of their party had had his order served to him wrong, twice. And then we heard the people at the table on our other side complaining to their waitperson that something had been made wrong with their order also. We kept waiting and waiting for our food, not being offered drink or water refills, not being offered seconds of (unlimited) soup and salad, or more bread while we waited for our entrees. It's one thing if the food is going to take extra time for some reason, but one would think that making sure the diners were kept happy with the drinks, soups/salads, and bread, would make the wait much less objectionable. But, we were getting no service at all!
Finally, the second time the manager came by the table who'd been served the wrong food twice, I made eye contact with him and asked him to come to our table. I requested refills on the desired items, and told him (nicely) that I was asking him because we hadn't been able to find our waitress to ask her in quite some time now. He was nice, and went off, looking harried, to see it done. Shortly thereafter, another waitress came by to find out what refills of drinks and my soup she could bring, and then our original waitress came by right after that, asking the same thing. We told her the other waitress had gone to get the items, and then of course both waitresses showed up with a set of drinks! I got my second bowl of soup, and only one bowl, not two of those, was brought.
After that, we saw the manager talking to our original waitress, and then we saw her leaving with her purse. I hate to think she was fired on the spot, but her service had garnered repeated complaints from at least three tables, ours and the ones on either side of us, just that we were aware of since we got there. If she was just having a bad night, I hope she got another chance.
Finally, our main courses arrived, and the food was very good. Just one thing... my mother, who hates parmesan cheese, had ordered her grilled salmon salad with NO parmesan. Of course when it arrived, there was parmesan on it, so she sent it back. The waiter who brought it came back with the correctly-made salad, saying, "There were two of them on the counter, and I brought the wrong one!" So I don't know if someone else was then served the salad that had been put in front of my mom first (she hadn't touched it, but still...), but at least she got the correct food brought, and it only took a moment to fix that error.
After that, another waitress took over our table, she was friendly and very attentive, the restaurant gave us all free desserts for the trouble, and the rest of the dining experience was far more pleasant and problem-free.
Whew. What a fiasco!
By the end of dinner, I was feeling rather overfull-- after the two pieces of bread, two bowls of soup, and two glasses of root beer, I took a few bites of my really tasty seafood fettuccine, and brought the rest home. That will be a very enjoyable meal sometime soon. Dessert came home too. No way I had room for it! I was feeling a little overstuffed, which I think was mostly from too much soda, and partially, I realized, I was starting to feel a little soreness from working out last night. Nothing major, but a little stiffness in my legs and abs. Which just means, yay, I worked some muscles, and I should do it again! My stomach is feeling fine again now, and I really should head to the gym in a bit here.
When we got back from dinner, I worked for a while on an update to our store's web site... my family has a wild bird retail store, and we are being a drop-off point for pet supplies to be sent to the Humane Society for animals displaced, lost, injured, etc, in Hurricane Katrina. There are lots of charities for people, but we always like to support animal organizations, too. So I posted a notice of the supply drive on our site and sent an email about it out to our customer email list. Nothing like catching up on work tasks.
Ah, it's already 12:30 in the morning, I really want to go work out, which doesn't take that long, but the night starts moving by... and I have to be up VERY early for an appointment in the morning. The appointment isn't till 9:30, but... it's in Boulder, which is near an hour away, and of course to get there at 9:30, I'm driving right in rush hour. So I'm probably going to leave myself more like 2 hours to get there, which means... yeah, I'm not leaving all that many hours from now!
I think I will change out of the cool silver pants I wore to dinner, and into my gym clothes, and go work off some soup and bread and root beer!