DRINKING BUDDIES

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Valentine's Day


My wife and I actually managed to take our friends out with us for an early Valentine’s Day dinner in what little free time we had on Sunday.  The unfortunate thing about working in retail, is the irony of being constantly surrounding by people yet having a diminished social life.  The four of us went to a restaurant that we are all usually please with and have eaten at a few times before.  Although their prices are a little high, it is more than well worth it.  This experience we had was a little shy of acceptable in the sense that almost every element of dinner was nearly unpleasant.  Especially the bill.


For the local followers, I really do not want to point out the restaurant and give them a bad review because hopefully I can manage to actually make peace with this and be able to go back in good faith and spirit.  But our FRIENDS were also disappointed with this COASTAL menu at the RESTAURANT. My wife and I arrived a good fifteen minutes before our guests and were rudely greeted at the front door by a young man opening the door for us quickly followed by, “Hey.  You got reservations?”  We did, but even after explaining to him that we did, he then quickly responds, “Did you just call?  Like five minutes ago?”  I started to wonder why that even mattered although we didn’t just call.  So after a few seconds of senseless babble with this kid, he finally decided to let us into the building.  I first looked at the chalkboard menu in the corner where the daily specials are usually listed and it just vaguely stated VEAL and SALMON.  Cool.  Somebody knows how to spell these words.

  We were seated on the upper floor where it is usually reserved for special functions or parties.  It may sound like we’re getting the royal treatment, but I almost felt like there should have been a dusty old sign from the 40s that read “Colored’s Only.”  It was about five minutes before our drinks were ordered, and about another ten minutes before we received them.  Pretty strange since we just wanted some water before cocktails or anything.  Our party arrived shortly thereafter and had placed another simple drink order that would take about ten minutes to arrive.

The atmosphere was nothing short of waiting in line at Disney World: a few couples hanging around drunk and loudly talking about their trips to the free clinics and children running around screaming like they’re being raped.  Distractions aside, we decided to order an appetizer to brighten things up. 
After being treated like rubbish and barely getting refills on water, we came to the quick decision to skip any cocktails, coffee, dessert or anything of that nature.

it took twenty minutes to get the bill which they also forgot to separate.  

The next night, actually on Valentine's Day, I took my wife to Waffle House.  Service was awesome, food was good, bill was 1/5 the price.  And I even made out with an extra waffle, on the house.

Long story short.  Waffle House is awesome, and some locations will let you bring a bottle of wine to dinner.  No corkage fee.

Bon Boire!

9 comments:

  1. nice.
    my Valentines day was nothing but drugs and sadness

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good stuff, glad you had a good v-day! It's always good to not be charged a corkage fee ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've rarely had Waffle House disappoint the way some fancy restaurants do. Happy belated Valentine's Day

    ReplyDelete
  4. The tried and true always is better. Like a reliable mate, you know exactly what you're getting, no window dressing, just the real treat-you-right deal.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Restaurants are like zoos these days. for me, it's either go big or go home. none of this boston pizza shit, i go to restaurants with names i can't pronounce.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "And I even made out with an extra waffle, on the house."

    I hope your wife was OK with this. :D

    ReplyDelete