Pages

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Feeding frenzy

Tonight, out with the In-laws, we had the opposite dining experience to last night; M-i-L insisted upon eating a huge dessert even though she's a diabetic, so we went to the local Italian for coffee and luscious cakes.

Chatting away merrily, Bumblebee taking photos of us all with Grandma's camera, when a couple next to us suddenly erupted into globs of molten outrage, hissing at the young waitress in disgust about hearing from lawyers, and stalked off, leaving a table with two half-glasses of wine, and a garlic bread with two slices on plates with one bite out of each.

All of us nearby were mystified, having missed the initial inflammatory situation. Best Beloved made a joke out loud that their forks had been placed on the wrong side, and the group at the table next to us turned and said 'REALLY?!' which made us laugh.

We asked the waitress (after she'd composed herself) and it turned out to be as pathetic as if the forks HAD been on the wrong side: she'd forgotten to bring their bread until just before the hissy fit, and he'd said that if the bread was on the table at the same time as the meal he'd be walking out. I think she'd just come out to tell him that, sorry, their meals *were* imminent, and he'd erupted.

I should be addressing this question to the Devil Drink at Progressive Dinner Party. Is such a situation really so bad as to stalk off? I secretly suspect he'd discovered that he'd left his wallet at home or some such thing.

6 comments:

Lord Sedgwick said...

Hope those two half empty (or "half full?" you ask) glasses of wine didn't go to waste and you took advantage of the win[e]dfall.

Anonymous said...

One hopes his dining companion had wished she's left him at home...

($20 on that he drives a 4 wheel drive...)

Lord Sedgwick said...

What a cynic you are bernice, but I'll go you halves on the $20 which we'll share at a restaurant that doesn't even bother about cutlery.

Ampersand Duck said...

hah! forgot to mention that we checked the bottle, and it was empty, which may have addedd to the fieriness of the situation.

His dining companion was just as nasty, hissing and scowling in support as she draped her caramel leather jacket over her shoulders as they stalked off, like Cruella deVille.

I had my money on a convertible, but 4WD could be right. A really big shiny black one, that's never seen mud in its life.

Anonymous said...

Dear Lord Sedgwick - Maccas in Downer on Wed night then? We can share the fries...

harry said...

"Sir, sorry that your bread was late but your chill-pills will be early."

This is why EVERYBODY should work as (a) a waitress (yes, even the blokes) and (b) a bartender, in the hope that everyone will stop acting like total tools in public because they've been on the receiving end before.

It would also encourage waitstaff to taunt the tools out of the building, and (since everybody else in the restuarant will have been waitstaff) the other diners could burst into applause at the end.