Friday Night Flavors

It’s approximately 7:45pm and the sun set is five minutes gone. The traffic can be seen bustling. There’s a big window in front of the building provides for easy awareness of the environment outside. The television located in the south east corner of the building is broadcasting the local news program.

At my arrival I walked past two females sitting at the first table and up to the counter. The cashier bid me good night and inquired about my order. He quickly noticed, probably due to my indecisiveness that I was probably a first time customer and said he was going to give me a minute.

The number seven on the menu seemed to have stood out. So that is what I ordered. Since I’m new to the place I guess lucky old number seven will work for tonight.

The two females mentioned earlier, whom we will call Queen and Princess; could be seen devouring their enchilada plate. They seem to be very close with each other as I could over hear them speaking about their weekend plans of a family trip to Albuquerque. Both Queen and Princess are of Hispanic descent. Queen is a lady in her forty’s and Princess seems very familiar now; I believe she was in my Chemistry 112 class last semester.

Mr. Regular hangs up his phone and starts a conversation across the room with the cashier. Both seem full of humor and frequently spoke in short dialogue about project happening around locally and funny encounters they had during the week.

The cashier then signals me that my food is ready and I quickly rush over to the counter and back to my table. About four minutes into my beef taco plate Mr. Regular gets up and asks the waiter for a to go plate. The waiter goes out back to the kitchen and grabs him a plate. Mr. Regular then packs his left over and tells the waiter to have a great weekend.

It got really quiet after Mr. Regular left. Only the mechanical juicers could be heard mixing away. The local news seemed to be over and proceeding was a program paying tribute to the late comedian Joan Rivers.

It seems like the drive thru is pretty much busier than inside the restaurant itself. I observed approximately one vehicle driving through to order at least every seven minutes. While the cashier was handling a drive through order Queen and Princess got up, passed me and emptied their treys. Queen had probably been watching me scribbling away in my notebook the entire time and upon her return from emptying her trey, I took a quick glance at her and I could see her smiling at me. She was probably wondering what was so interesting about scribbling in my book since I had barely touched my taco plate. They then approached the counter, got their receipts and left.

After they left I entered the second half of my man vs. food war. As I was pretty close to finishing my plate an elderly couple Mr. and Mrs. Johnny come lately came in. They seem to be very energetic and entertaining type of senior citizens. The waiter quickly greeted them, the husband was rapid to inform him that they had heard that the restaurant was one of the best in town. Mr. and Mrs. Johnny come lately also pointed out that they just moved to Las Cruces today and that it’s their first night here in their retirement home. The waiter then congratulated them. Similar to myself they were undecided and it took a little for them to order. They then walked over to the table where Queen and Princess had sat earlier.

I was never able to finish my plate due to the fact that the food here is served in very large portions. I got up and emptied my plate, then paid for my food. I then stepped out into the dark night and returned home.