Night out

As I walk into the restaurant I can feel the atmosphere immediately. The host was friendly and the door was held open by a stranger in a Hawaiian shirt. As I found my seat, I noticed how packed the building was. People waiting for a seat against walls and tables shoved together, all of the tables that were together contained families with at least one child. Once seated the red headed waitress, Julie, looked as if she had just been crying intensely just before greeting me. Julie seemed rude, I’m sure she was dealing with other problems in her life.

The table to my left had a family of three. A young couple with an infant daughter. The father had a Cowboy’s hat on and was flaunting a jersey for Tony Romo. He has an untamed bearded and a happy looking disposition. His wife or spouse, was sitting across from him with the daughter hung around her. She is a nice sounding girl, her voice is as much as can attempt to observe. She is sitting at the same seat but a table over so I can’t turn and stare. The couple is talking about their child and spending some time with their relatives.

The table in the corner is all men in suits, I could only glimpse as I sat down but they are directly behind me so I can hear them. Mostly one of them talks. I gather that they have been there for some time, they all mention that they've been waiting for their waitress. It is Julie. Beside the wait, the one man goes on and on about the work week and appreciating all the work the other men have done. They all got the same meal, enchiladas green without onions. Beer all around except for two men with waters.

The table directly in front of me has just seated two women. They appear to be friends. Middle aged with tired looks on their faces. They both order margaritas and chips. They immediately begin to laugh and chat about how stressed they are. After the initial stories have come out, fifteen minutes in to their night, they pull their phones out and begin scrolling endless pages of anti-social media. They only stop to gossip about this or that thing that they have seen on each other’s Facebook.

Julie brings them the wrong order, actually intended for the Cowboys couple. The couple had been waiting quite some time. The phone women laugh it off but after Julie leaves they make a snooty face at one another.

The suits behind me are getting louder with more comedic stories about their boss. They all leave after all agreeing to go somewhere else. The Cowboy’s couple talk about how good the food is and how happy they are that their daughter has stayed asleep.

The phone ladies ask to see the manager because of the slow service. They may have been being a bit unreasonable but never the less, the manager comes with an apologetic story.

When the Cowboys couple leave they look very happy with the night and leave a formidable tip for Julie. They joke about her being “pobrecita”, this means poor thing in Spanish. Probably commenting on the large crowd and heavy workload for Julie. They seemed to be very nice and good people. The wife mentioned an appointment for the daughter as they were leaving and that’s the last I saw of the Cowboys couple.

The table behind me has been filled with what I believe to be college students. They only spoke Spanish, very well. I am not so fluent with the language but I could make out various phrases. It sounded like they were talking about a paper they had to write as a group for some class. I figured there was two guys and two girls, just by their voices.

The phone woman once again speak to the manager, but this time they are complaining about the food. It has not met their standards. The food was “cold” and “without flavor”. The manager attributes the temperature of the food to the slow service from Julie. The women receive a gift card to the restaurant and finish their meals, pay, and then leave.

The tip for Julie is almost nonexistent. From my perspective I could see how hard she was working and how much she was doing at once. She was unhappy with the tip but she moved on and continued to serve the rest of the crowd in her section.

The Spanish students behind me have ordered their food, from what I understood, they teased each other about the different items.

The night has slowed down, at least in my section. I’m starting to see a pattern in woman that go to restaurants as a pair. They appear to chat about their phones and more gossip conversation than other topics. But I don’t have much to work on for that yet.