A guy, a waiter and an Italian restaurant
There is this Italian restaurant near my office of which I quite like its food, which is reasonably priced too. I remember the first time patronising it when it was still relatively new. Spoke with the boss, who was the chef (not too sure whether he still does that currently), that day and few months later too.
The first thing that really struck my mind was the discount they were giving. As usual, my colleagues and I would ask whether there was any credit card discount. Boss said no but there was discount for using cash. That was novel. However, as expected from a growing business, even that was gone later.
Then sometime in latter half of last year, out of the blue, one of the waiters spoke briefly with me. A youngster in his 20s (was guessing at that time). I believed it was in response to my usual question on whether there was discount using credit card/cash or not. Instead of the usual "No, we don't have", he added that if I go there for dinner, he would be able to give me some discount. That was unexpected and nice of him. Naturally Mr Skanky and Rick thought there was more to that. Incidentally, I did go for dinner 2 days later and, if memory serves me well, I got 10% discount on the dessert I had.
The next visit, either last month of Dec last year, was with my colleagues. Couldn't manage to flag him over early enough since it was quite packed with lunch crowd. By the time he managed to come to our table, we have already asked for our bill. He lamented that that meant he couldn't get discount for us. We said we would look for him next time.
Just last night (since now is past midnight), I had dinner there. I was the only customer there for quite sometime. It is naturally not crowded during dinnertime but I guess it was exacerbated by the rain. Didn't notice him until both my food and drink were served. Waved to him just to signal hello. He came over and unexpectedly spent at least the next 20 mins talking with me, until there were customers. We spoke about nationality, job, job search, dwelling, age, driving, among other things. He reminded me again to get him when I was ready to pay and this time, I had 10% off the total bill. Pleasantly surprised. Exchange phone number so that we can keep in touch in case he found a new job.
When I told Mr Skanky the key points of the encounter, he remarked that either he's strange or gay. Well, gee, thanks alot. I was thinking perhaps I'm a nice enough guy for people to want to befriend me :-)
PS: Tossed in bed for more than half an hour. Gave up. Read blogs and typed this entry. Think dinner was too rich for me. Gah.
The first thing that really struck my mind was the discount they were giving. As usual, my colleagues and I would ask whether there was any credit card discount. Boss said no but there was discount for using cash. That was novel. However, as expected from a growing business, even that was gone later.
Then sometime in latter half of last year, out of the blue, one of the waiters spoke briefly with me. A youngster in his 20s (was guessing at that time). I believed it was in response to my usual question on whether there was discount using credit card/cash or not. Instead of the usual "No, we don't have", he added that if I go there for dinner, he would be able to give me some discount. That was unexpected and nice of him. Naturally Mr Skanky and Rick thought there was more to that. Incidentally, I did go for dinner 2 days later and, if memory serves me well, I got 10% discount on the dessert I had.
The next visit, either last month of Dec last year, was with my colleagues. Couldn't manage to flag him over early enough since it was quite packed with lunch crowd. By the time he managed to come to our table, we have already asked for our bill. He lamented that that meant he couldn't get discount for us. We said we would look for him next time.
Just last night (since now is past midnight), I had dinner there. I was the only customer there for quite sometime. It is naturally not crowded during dinnertime but I guess it was exacerbated by the rain. Didn't notice him until both my food and drink were served. Waved to him just to signal hello. He came over and unexpectedly spent at least the next 20 mins talking with me, until there were customers. We spoke about nationality, job, job search, dwelling, age, driving, among other things. He reminded me again to get him when I was ready to pay and this time, I had 10% off the total bill. Pleasantly surprised. Exchange phone number so that we can keep in touch in case he found a new job.
When I told Mr Skanky the key points of the encounter, he remarked that either he's strange or gay. Well, gee, thanks alot. I was thinking perhaps I'm a nice enough guy for people to want to befriend me :-)
PS: Tossed in bed for more than half an hour. Gave up. Read blogs and typed this entry. Think dinner was too rich for me. Gah.
Comments
Never occured to me...
J