Thursday, July 23, 2009

Kelly and Eric's Night of Invisability

Tonight Eric and I had the pleasure of being part of a comedy show. Here is how it went down.

It all begins at 4:30 when Eric and I decide we have no food in the house and we want to go out to dinner somewhere we don't go often. We finally settle on Vinny Testas, an Italian chain restaurant. I haven't been there in so long and I love it. At about 5:05, we stroll into the restaurant and sit down. After about ten minutes no one has come over, which we think is a little strange but we are chatting. We do notice that we are 1 of 3 groups in the whole restaurant, there are many more waiters than their are customers. At about 5:10 the bartender comes over and tells us that they are not ignoring us but they had to get some more vodka. I am slightly confused by this because #1- I did not order vodka, and even if MY waiter is getting vodka for someone else, can't someone else get me a drink because like I said there are more waiters than customers. But that's fine. At about 5:15 someone random brings us bread. We are happy, until we realize we still have no drinks or napkins (which we proceed to steal from a nearby table). At 5:17 I notice several bottles of vodka have appeared at the bar, but still no waiter. The two waiters that are actually working (serving the two groups in the restaurant besides us) continue to schmooze with their customers. The woman tries to get a little 5 year old to talk to her, but he wants nothing to do with her. "I'll TALK TO YOU! TALK TO ME!" I think. At 5:26 Eric says we will give it 5 minutes and then we will leave. We begin to discuss other possibilities in the area, but really just want to be served. Annoying girl waitress comes back and tries to talk to the 5 year old again about how he ate too much bread and now won't have room for his meal. He is thinking "You are not my mom! Go away" but she continues to talk to him. She tells him how she used to not talk to adults when she was little either. I try to get her attention with my eyes but she is too focused on the boy who hates her. At 5:30 I start to laugh because I am sure I am getting punked. The waiters who had no customers continue to stand in a group, talking and laughing. I swear they are looking at us but doing nothing...I start to debate which one will tell us we are being punked. At 5:32 Eric and I are daring each other to walk out. We are not confrontational people and we never LEAVE somewhere, but c'mon. At 5:35 I stand up first and we leave. No one even notices, even though there are still only 2 other groups in the restaurant. On the way out I tell one of the waiters we are leaving because no one served us. He stares at us dumbly and asks if he should take our order now. Um NO.
At 5:37 we walk into a nearby Japanese restaurant where all the ladies love us, we receive water by 5:38 and our order is taken at 5:40. I'm sorry, is the economy so awesome right now that you can afford to lose customers for no reason?
So weird.
Also, I went for a 5 minutes run, 5 minutes walk on the treadmill today. My knee hurts now. I guess it's not better after all. I don't like pointless injuries. Now if only I can find a dress long enough that I can wear my knee strap to a wedding on Saturday night...

14 comments:

  1. Back in our younger years (20's), my wife and I would go to restaurants and always be "invisible." I'm 6 ft. 2, so I don't know why I couldn't be seen. So I can relate to your experience. OK, something in common...I'm a teacher's assistant in a private school for students with learning disabilities; my 27 year old daughter teaches kindergarten. Small world. Also, I read back and see you completed a "tri." Sweet! Congrats. I also read that you're getting married in a year. Congrats on that also.

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  2. Aw man..I HATE sucky dining experiences. Haha, Japanese food is delish though at least. And probably healthier. :)

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  3. "At 5:30 I start to laugh because I am sure I am getting punked."
    Haha! Hilarious.

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  4. wow thats ridiculous! also congrats on the tri :)

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  5. At least you ended up with a ncie meal. You should call the owner or manager or that restaurant. I bet they'd like to know that they waiters were doign such a poor job.

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  6. Oh I HATE instances such as that!! I mean, you go somewhere to eat, you are hungry, you are thirsty, you are looking forward to being served, and it doesn't happen! Ugh, that's the worst. Funny story though :) I'm glad you enjoyed your Japanese food!

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  7. That's so totally weird! Good for you guys heading somewhere else to get some decent service!

    We went to a chain restaurant a couple years back and nobody had taken our order for 20 minutes. We got someone's attention, asked for the manager and ended up getting our whole meal free. :)

    Sorry about the knee pain!

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  8. That is completely unacceptable! You should def say something to a manager! I work in the service industry and my manager would be horrified if something like that ever happened at our restaurant!

    Good luck on the dress hunt! Oh the joys of running!

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  9. So weird!!!!!!!! I kept waiting for the comedy show to start (I took you a bit too literally :P )

    But honestly I sort of can't get over it...that's just too weird!

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  10. Thanks for stopping by my blog.

    So crazy. What's up with that. I totally feel you. I wouldn't ahve waited so long to bail though. You are much more patient than I. I am a pretty laid back patron and have worked in the restaurant industry before, but c'mon. Sometimes you just gotta bail.

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  11. total bullsh** for sure, i would have loved the chance to ream someone out for sure! next time you should definitely say something, but i would call and tell the manager anyway!
    i waitressed in fine dining for almost 9 years, so there is no way that would have been acceptable for me.. lol i would have been jumping up and down. sometimes dear you have to play a beyootch! lol

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  12. Hi Kelly! Such a funny story, I hate waiting for food so I would have been so mad!

    Check out my latest post, I am giving you the "One Lovely Blog Award"

    -Katie

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  13. i almost had to do that a couple weekend's ago. "your server will be right with you" ... yeah, define "right" please. i didn't check the time so i'm hoping it just seemed longer than it really was, but i served my time as a waitress and (in my opinion) the guest isn't supposed to wait that long for a drink order. lucky for mr waiter he walked up just as we had decided to leave but then we stayed. turned out he was really busy 'cause they were short staffed. doesn't quite sound like that was the problem here! good for you for leaving!!

    hope your knee makes up it's mind and decides to just feel better!

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  14. That is horrible they treated you that way! That is so rude and I hope you don't go back there anytime soon.

    I had a similiar experience shopping two days ago. I went into Victoria's Secret and they were so helpful and kept asking if I needed anything. Walked next doo to the Gap and there were tons of workers, and not one said anything or acknowledged I was even in the store trying stuff on. Guess which place I didn't spend any money???

    In this economy, customer service is even more important, I think. I def. agree with you on that!

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