Washington DC is truly a melting pot; you will run in to all kinds of nationalities and languages spoken, which is actually pretty cool. However, with such diversity, you are bound to run in to some "interesting" people. I encounter a lot of these interesting folk when I venture out of the office for lunch. While I'm used to the homeless people on the streets constantly asking for money, shaking their cups of change at me, huddled in the alcove of an abandoned building entrance, their plastic bags of possessions encompassing them, or the crazy women with lavish fur coats dripping to the ground and a matching Russian-style fur hat, or the avid male runner in his too-short shorty-shorts and no shirt, or the Chinese guy playing the electric mandolin hooked up to an amp and his case open to receive tips; yes, I am used to seeing all of these people. But it is the weirdos inside the restaurants that never fail to catch me off guard.
One afternoon last fall, my co-worker and I decided to spend our lunch hour eating outside so we could enjoy the beautiful weather. We chose a nearby restaurant that wasn't too pricey; Austin Grill. We were given our requested table outside, and proceeded to wait at least 15 minutes before we were even greeted by our server. This is the kind of place that immediately has somebody place a basket of chips and a bowl of fresh salsa on the table before someone else even comes to get your drink order. So we were a little curious and truth be told, annoyed that we had been sitting there for that long without a greeting. We finally waved down our waitress and asked for the chips and salsa. She said "sure". When she came back, we asked if we could order, so she said OK. We ordered our drinks and food, and 10 minutes later, we had to wave her down again to ask if we could at least have our drinks before our food came out. "Oh, yeah, um, OK, sure". We were feeling a little uneasy at this point. We finally get our drinks and we're happy. A long while later, our basket is left with barely the crumbs of the chips that we consumed, our salsa devoured, and our glasses filled only with mostly-melted ice. We see our server come out the door. Hooray! We are ready to eat our meal!
...... Ready for this? .............
The waitress comes over, sets the leather-enclosed bill on our table and says, "Thanks for coming." ...Seriously.. My co-worker and I look at each other, stunned, and my co-worker tells her, "We haven't even gotten our food yet!" Her response: "Oh, you haven't? Oh, woops. Um, I'll go check on that." YEAAAAA. Why don't you go do that. So she brings out our food and it was luke-warm, like the plates had been sitting on the counter in the kitchen for the last hour, not even under heat-lamps. Gross. The manager comes out to ask how everything is, so we tell him our trouble. He offers us free dessert, which we accept. When we are all done with our meal, we remind our server that we were offered free dessert. So she rattles off the desserts and we put our orders in. 15 minutes later (I'm not kidding), she comes back and tells me that they don't have the kind of pie that I chose. Great. I don't care at this point. Get me out of here! First time I've ever "stiffed" somebody. She never apologized for any of it, so I figured not giving her a tip could allow her a witty "touché".
Fast-forward to this week. Another work luncheon out. This was at a more uppity restaurant. Our waitress comes over to us and says, "Wow! I'm surprised they actually sat my section! I'm a really bad server. They should have fired me a month ago." GREEAAAAT. We were in for quite a treat. I prepared myself. She continues, "So are you guys here during work hours? Do you work around here? I swear I know you! (looking at my co-worker) You look SO familiar. Do you know me?" I'll spare the details on this one, but it was bad. Really bad. She may have been high on cocaine. But I will give her this: yes, she should have been fired! She was just plain awful!
This afternoon I was waiting in line to get some chips and guacamole to-go, and I was asked twice by 2 different men if I could give them money. They both smelled like booze and ash trays. *sigh* We are no longer able to escape inside the walls of restaurants. The Crazies always find a way in - just like the cockroaches on the wall in Subway..... Haven't eaten there since. EW! Lunch in DC has given me more adventures than I could have wanted or imagined. I've started to pack my lunch more often so I can just eat at my desk. Crazy- and cockroach-free. Safe.
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