Inhospitality

I guess I'm sensitive when it comes to restaurants, probably because I don't have so much disposable income to lavish on such luxuries. I don't know if that makes me more demanding than a fatcat who regularly eats at top-rated eateries in the Michelin guide, but I don't think so. I do know that I'm more susceptible to getting angry at a restaurant than most of my friends. I take after my mother that way. For that reason, I try to stick to places where one cannot expect much at all; namely I mean your typical fast food places, albeit the more reputable ones.

After improv class, we always go to a frozen yogurt place. After demeaning ourselves in scene after scene for laughs, we generally feel we've earned it. The yogurt place, about which I've written in the past, is cheap and reliable. Their habit of throwing open the side door late at night during the dead of winter aside, they're pretty good to us, and I can't complain. A pizza and panini-type place we recently went to as a change of pace however, easily can be complained about.

Now, I'll credit them with one thing. Their sign said they closed in twenty minutes, and we went in there anyway. I didn't want to. Against my better judgement though, I consented to order something. As I was not in favor of trying to cobble together a pizza coalition, I went with one of the sandwiches. This was well enough, as the surly lady taking orders had declared that only slices were available, and I'm not crazy about ordering slices anyway. I didn't realize that she meant the only food one could order at that point was slices of pizza.

Stung by this refusal, I declined to order a thing, and resolved to indulge in conversation only. This was not too bad. It was also interesting to watch the business model of hostility towards the customer on display. The restaurant I once worked for was well established, but its owner continued to operate as though it were hanging on by a thread, and he had us all bending over backwards for customers. I didn't much like having to do it, but I admired it and appreciated the sense in it. As a customer, I sure like the places that lean more towards being accommodating. Places that irritate me or make me feel like a fool are most effective in their apparent mission of ensuring that I don't patronize their business twice.