Between my husband’s white hair and my graying hair, we fit right in with the majority of folks eating out these days, but we don’t frequent restaurants. It’s not that we don’t want to go. My husband so wanted to go to the Nameless Franchise, (there are none in this town) that he bought us a gift card with the holiday 20 percent bonus free gift card.
He said we would enjoy Nameless Franchise when we went to visit out-of-town relatives. On our way to visit the kinfolks, our route included supper at that restaurant. I called and asked them to put our name on the list for a table. We would be there no later than 7:30 p.m.
At 7:25 p.m., the traffic in all three lanes ahead of us came to an abrupt stop. Way ahead of us, emergency lights flashed. I called the eatery, “We have hit a traffic jam and cannot make it.” They promised to keep our names as guests for the evening and give us priority when we arrived. We arrived shortly after 8 p.m. They promised a 10-minute wait.
We waited and waited. We watched other parties leave the waiting area for their assigned table until we were the only ones still waiting to be seated. Then we were invited to come and sit down at a table.
As we followed the hostess, I whispered to my husband, “We know what we want. Let’s place our order now.” We ordered an appetizer and an entree with a side order of sweet potato fries. The waitress brought a dish of “eat this while you wait for the real food.” We ate and waited about 15 minutes before she returned, “Did you receive your appetizer?”
We hadn’t. Several minutes passed before she returned with appetizer. Very delicious. Just right. We enjoyed it and waited for the entree. And we waited. She offered us another serving of “eat this while you wait for the real food.”
I declined; my husband accepted, “I’m hungry!” he explained to me. The waitress came back, ”
Did you really want that side dish with the meal?” “Yes,” I replied succinctly. I did not say, “that’s why I ordered it. And your question is one reason I don’t like to eat out – the comments and looks from people about the food I order.
When I eat out, I want something that I don’t fix at home or won’t buy at the store. I can fix meat and potatoes for supper any night.” She returned with the second helping of “eat this while you wait” food and said, “The order did not go through when I keyed it in.”
We said, “Okay.”
And we waited. The hostess brought us each a small bowl of chowder as an apology for our long wait and the mistake. Free food!? Score one for us! It really did taste pretty good with the bacon sprinkled on top. I may have to try that at home sometime. We ate. We waited. They took the bowls away.
We waited. Some strange young man peeked around our booth and presented us with a plate with our entree “But we didn’t order it that way,” I said, pointing out that the side order and entree’ were totally mixed up. “I can take it back,” he offered.
We had other things to do besides wait another half hour. “No, that’s fine,” we said and we ate it.
Mix-up or not, it was delicious. I had planned to order a dessert, but it was so late by then that we asked for the check. The hostess came with the ticket.
She folded it in her hands. “We messed up. You do not have to pay. We will cover the cost.” We started to argue. We had come. We had eaten. We would pay. No, she would take care of it, but if we wanted to leave a tip, we could do that. I left about 20 percent of what the bill would have been.
Not the best of experiences, but better than our first time at the same Nameless Franchise when our simple meal took more than an hour and a couple of appetizers eaten while shivering in the breeze from the draft of a frequently opened door.
Yes, we will return to Nameless Franchise. We will return because we still have cash on our gift card for that restaurant. And next time I will order dessert and sweet potato fries. That should really mess with the waitress and the cook. Who knows … we might get another free meal out of it.
For now, I’m eating at home where both the waitress and the cook know exactly what I want, how I like it and when I expect it placed on the table.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times. E-mail her at joanh@everybody.org.)