It was a warm Saturday evening. Five female friends found themselves in L-ville with growling tummies. After little debate (because they were so hungry) they chose a restaurant and settled down at a small table on the patio to wait to be seated. In doing so they unwittingly sealed their fate. 

 

About 10 minutes after they sat down a server appeared. “Hi,” he said. “Are you eating inside or outside?” 

“We’ll eat outside,” said the girls. 

“OK. Would you like to place your orders?”

“Well, we don’t have our menus yet.”

“Oh, right!”

“But we could order drinks.”

The girls placed their drink orders and the server disappeared promising to return in “three or four minutes.”

 

20 minutes later. Rachel goes to ask the hostess what is going on. When she returns to her table she finds that the server is back. He has brought water for everyone and is now ready to take their orders. “But we don’t have our menus!” The server leaves and after a relatively short period of time returns with the menus. 

 

20 minutes later. The server is back. “I’m sorry it’s taken so long. I have like six other tables. You aren’t mad at me are you? Can I get you all a free salad?” Two of the girls request a salad. After an amazingly brief time (so brief in fact that this journalist wonders where exactly he found those salads) he returns, sits the salads down and rushes away. The girls look at each other is amazement and then burst out laughing. He had not given them any silver ware. Driven by hunger the girls steal some unused utensils from a neighboring table and dig in.

 

To make a long story short, the service did not improve. The girls watched as people who had arrived half an hour after them left the restaurant having completed their meals. A bright spot in the evening was free ice cream for everyone. As they prepared to eat their well deserved ice cream the server appeared again. He crouched down beside the table, “Now I don’t think anyone will be checking but if anyone asks about the ice cream tell them it’s your birthday.”

 

Fortunately the girls were able to keep their sense of humor throughout the whole ordeal and now have a renewed appreciation for good service and friends who can keep you laughing through a three hour dining fiasco.

Quote of the Day (from a lovely movie that everyone should watch):
"As Harold took a bite of Bavarian sugar cookie, he finally felt as if everything was going to be ok. Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies. And, fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or subtle encouragement, or a loving embrace, or an offer of comfort, not to mention hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish, soft-spoken secrets, and Fender Stratocasters, and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things, the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties, which we assume only accessorize our days, are effective for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives."- Stranger Than Fiction