common courtesy .

So we went out for pizza last night, and maybe it was because I was always in a bit of a pissy mood, but I think mostly it was just things that happened during dinner that upset me. People often may not realize if they're being annoying or not. Could also be that I have a short fuse a lot of times. This may come off as a mild rant, but, I just wanted to state some things regardless.


Working at a country club, it's inevitable that your expectations for eating out grow. You expect perfection in service, quality, silver, etc. And yet, that rarely ever happens. Every time we eat out, I think about the things that we had drilled into our minds at work -- serving from the left, clear from the right, automatically refilling waters and delivering bread, making sure there is food in front of the customer at all times, and timing things so that that is possible. It's not easy, and a lot of servers make it look easy. I don't think I could ever do that... I only bussed last year, which was quite a bit easier. But while I have a lot more respect for servers in general, I also expect a lot more.

Granted, not every place carries such a prestigious name as Trump, and not every club is going to be as anal about the little things as we are. But that's been what I've become accustomed to over the past year or so.

So anyways, here's how the story goes: First of all, we walk in, and it's a real busy night. Granted, it's a Friday night, and it's a pizza place -- completely understandable. So it takes a while for us to get seated since the front lobby area is about 2 square feet (dumb, from an architectural standpoint, which, naturally, I would feel the need to point out), and when we do sit down, our server comes over and everything is okay.

We get our bread and such, and the parentals got their salad as ordered and all was good. We then proceeded to wait almost an hour just to get one stinkin' pizza. At one point, the waitress comes over and notifies us that it will almost be out, she saw it in the oven. She then apologizes for the wait, but it was the reason that bugged me the most. First, she said there were a lot of take out orders. Apparently customers that order take-out pizza take priority of those sitting down in your damn restaurant. Second, she makes this big hullabaloo about how Sicilian style pizza takes sooooOOOoOoOoo much longer to make. Okay. WElllll. I've been to Italy and had REAL Sicilian style pizza.... and that, I could understand how that would take a long time to cook.

However, apparently at Luigi's in Lincroft the change from regular style to Sicilian style pizza is about 1/4" in thickness, if that. Hmm. Something doesn't seem right there.

So I suppose some of that is just being sore about the whole thing, when really it's not as much the waitress's fault so much as it is the management and the kitchen. It wasn't her fault and if it takes a long time it takes a long time... that's something you realize shortly after signing up to serve; you take the heat for the kitchen's mistakes. It was all about how she handled the situation.

Then there's other people. There is a certain sort of etiquette that should be respected, not only in restaurants but in public in general. The group sitting behind us was loud, boisterous, obnoxious, and literally yelling back and forth to each other. And it wasn't like it was kids or anything, but adults... like my parents' age and older. They were so loud that I could barely hear what my parents were saying, despite the fact they were literally less than a few feet away from me.

Why do you feel the need to scream? I understand it's a pizza parlor, but they serve fine Italian food as well, and I've seen many couples, as I did that night, bring in a bottle of wine and try to sit down and just have a nice dinner. If it were me, that would have at least partially ruined the evening for me.

In the end, it could be I just have high expectations. Restaurants are usually a very enjoyable experience and a neat opportunity to eat whatever you please and not have to do any of the clean up. But hey, that's why there are so many of them -- you can pick and choose where to go, and if you don't like it, there is no reason that you have to bring your business back to them. No worries ! Was just on my mind.


Ps, sorry for the not keeping up on blogs and stuff. It's going to take me a bit of time to get adjusted to the work schedule and make sure to fit it all in between the actual work hours, bike rides, and workouts. As always, though, I'll do my best! I have all pictures of the day ready to go, just haven't gotten around to posting them yet (on the other blog, that is).