We planned to go out on a date for our anniversary. Just us. No Vivian. Since this date was taking place in the middle of the week we were only planning on doing dinner. Justin didn't want to be out too late, and we assumed that our babysitters wouldn't appreciate that either. We had a gift certificate to the Outback steakhouse that had been gifted to us a long time ago that we'd been holding in reserves for just such an occasion.
Sarah was our original babysitter, but she called to report that her household is battling strep throat right now, and we have no desire to be involved with that situation. (Sorry, Sarah. I hope you and yours get past this quickly.) Michelle stepped up as our backup. We dropped Vivian off, and when we walked out the door she was just passively sitting on the floor grinning up at her little cousins.
So this experience at Outback...it was weird. We were greeted as we walked in the door by a very timid looking young man with a nasally voice. He asked us if we were okay with a half booth, half table arrangement. We said that would be fine and he walked us to the back of the restaurant. There was a padded booth seat that ran the length of the back wall, and had tables arranged in front of it. He walked us to the corner table and asked us if that would be okay. It would have been fine, had it not been for the people in the table next to ours. Their toddler son was sprawled out on the floor between the two tables coloring and eating. Justin and I said nothing, we stood their side-by-side staring at this scene, waiting for the parents to realize that first, the floor of a restaurant is a disgusting place to put your child, and second, that there was no access to our table. We said nothing, they said nothing, and finally after several awkward seconds our nasally host suggested that perhaps we would like a full booth, and Justin agreed. The host then turned and led us across the room to an open booth, and asked us to stand there awkwardly in the restaurant while he went to check on what booths were open. He returned and seated us at the booth in front of us and told us that Marissa would be taking care of us.
While we waited for Marissa to make her appearance we watched as the nasally host then attempted to escort another couple, who had just arrived, to the same half booth, half table arrangement that we had just declined. We watched amused as the other couple had pretty much the exact same experience, and similarly wound up being seated elsewhere in the restaurant. I would love to know how many people the host attempted to seat at that table. Our attention was drawn from that situation when a man seemed to sort of slide up to our table. He made no introduction, but tossed his shoulder length hair out of his face, and asked us if he could get us started with a beverage. According to his name tag he's Leonardo. He looked Hispanic, and I believe that if you envisioned someone that was hoping to be spotted and recruited to model for the cover artwork of a Harlequin romance novel about a Latin lover, you would envision someone like Leonardo. He had his Outback steakhouse shirt partway unbuttoned, and he tossed around his hair quite a bit, all the while acting sort of uninterested in us and our order.
As soon as he left Justin commented that "that definitely was not Marissa." No sooner had these words left his lips than Marissa did appear. She was rather abrupt, and for some unknown reason had gauged ears that were so stretched out that I hated looking at her at all. She introduced herself, and asked us if we'd like to get started with a beverage. Justin informed her that someone else had already left to get us some waters. She asked us if we were okay with waters, and when we said "yes" (since that is what we ordered) she disappeared.
A few seconds later Leonardo reappeared and asked us if we were ready to order. We told him that Marissa had been by and said she'd be taking our orders. Leonardo disappeared for a few minutes, and returned to announce that Marissa would in fact be our server. Marissa reappeared a few minutes later to take our order. We weren't ready, but ordered an appetizer. She returned twice more to take our order and to announce that our appetizer would be out any second. Our side salads showed up first, then our appetizer and food, all in rapid succession. It was annoying, and we found it to be a little odd that Marissa acted as if nothing were amiss, and never made any sort of apology or mention of the issue. However, the food was actually really good and we try not to be too uptight about that sort of thing. Although I did notice that Justin was a bit tight-waddish with the tip.
All in all we had fun being at dinner together, and were amused by the service. When we returned to retrieve Vivian from John and Michelle's, John immediately asked us how the service had been at the restaurant. I told him it was terrible, and he said that he and Michelle had been there a couple of weeks earlier and had been astonished at the seeming incompetence of the staff there. It was all very bizarre for them as well. We asked how Vivian had fared in our absence. Apparently she was a huge hit with her cousins. Michelle produced this video clip as evidence:
After watching that I'm thinking that she and Coen might have enjoyed this little date night experience even more than we did. I don't know that Creed can say the same.
No comments:
Post a Comment