Friday, February 3rd 2012

Ask and you shall receive. I wanted a free night and that what’s I got this past Tuesday when my dinner plans cancelled last minute and left me with a whole evening open. I have a Counter up the street from me and for those of you who aren’t familiar, it’s a upscale burger joint that features humanely raised beef and poultry, microbrews and other tasty tid bits. On Tuesdays I remembered they have a mini burger and beer pairing so I dragged my roomie out the door and up the street.

We walked in and I immediately looked for any kind of paperwork that advertised the pairing and after looking around the bar, windows and walls I finally asked the guy behind the counter if they still did the pairing, he said yes and asked if I wanted to see a menu. Now, I know I can be a little critical, especially with restaurants, but if it were my evening on the shift or if I was managing I would’ve made it very clear to let all who came in the door that Tuesday is a killer night and this is why, but I’m not working and I’m not the manager so I’ll continue. I of course ordered the pairing and it was brought to me in a timely fashion and looked good.

I had the list of the burgers in front of me but I did not have a list of the beers which sort of rubbed me the wrong way. When you put a flight of anything in front of anybody it’s common courtesy to let them what exactly they are consuming; I was beginning to feel as if these kids either just started here or they really had no interest in doing this correctly. Upon inspection of the second burger I noticed there was supposed to be bacon, I searched under, over and even inside looking for the promised bacon only to come out empty handed. I brought Dave, the waiter behind the bar, over and told him that I was missing the bacon. He went to the kitchen, I couldn’t hear what was said but I’m sure it was along the lines of asking for bacon, he returned and explained that there was no burger with bacon on the menu for the evening. I sat in silence waiting for him to realize that perhaps he was wrong and should check the menu for himself with a blank stare until he picked up the menu, realized his mistake, trundles off with his tail between his legs to the kitchen to fetch a fresh piece of bacon. After my menu was complete I looked at the flight of brews only to realize that he hadn’t told me what was being paired with the burgers, he also took my menu. I asked Dave to return my menu and tell me what the beers were.

Once I was given my complete menu and proper information I found the experience to be quite good and one that I will do again. Working in restaurants for over a decade has not only made me critical and observant in service but also patience b/c I have been there and had nights like that on more than one occasion. The next few days are going to be quite quiet, nothing more than gym, chiropractor and dog walking. I have my first metal working class this week that I’m pretty stoked about.