Royalty Burger

September 07, 2014

It is early afternoon and quite cloudy even after numerous similar days lately. The tables are properly bussed, there is very little trash on the ground from customers, and the workers seem to be comfortably lax. I believe I can reliably deduce that customer traffic has been slow today, probably partly due to the weather and perhaps due to the fact that it is Sunday.

Music, which I believe to be country, is playing softly on the overhead radio. A few portraits are displayed on the walls, however a couple of them have been taken down due to what appears to be because of wear on the strapping that would have held it up. The rest of these portraits depict food in a way which is not modest in comparison to what is actually being served.

An elderly man in slacks and a dress shirt enters. His hair combed and appears to be gelled into place. He makes a call to whom I believe to be his wife before ordering. It appears he is ordering something for his wife on the way home from what I would assume to be work. He quickly receives a strawberry shake and rushes out as if he has something urgent to attend to.

A Hispanic family enters pretty loudly. The man is wearing traditional cowboy-like gear. A straw hat, worn jeans with a belt, boots, and sunglasses. The woman is wearing a blue shirt with white pants and sneakers. Their two boys, Speedy and Climber are playing around the poles that form the line to the counter. Speedy is darting around and under the poles while his brother Climber is sitting atop it near his parents. They try to order in Spanish, but the worker does not appear to know very much, so he says “uno momento por favor”, which means “one moment please”. The worker, Mr. Nohabla, gets the manager, Slick, and they are able to order. Their order takes a short while to complete and they sit down in the lobby to eat their meal.

It has started sprinkling and the Hispanic family along with their children have left, making myself the sole person in the lobby.

After about 15 minutes a man holding a motorcycle helmet and wearing one the rug burn resistant jackets enters. Jack seems to be trying to make up his mind on what to get for a long time. After ordering he sits to eat in the lobby while chatting to someone, presumably a friend, on his cell phone.

It appears that Royalty Burger’s drive thru has picked up considerably since the employee Mr. Nohabla has started bagging take-out in more of a rushed manner.

Jack gets a refill and sits back down. Although he has finished eating Jack seems content to just relax in the lobby while talking on his phone. After about another 15 minutes since his refill Jack leaves.

Mr. Nohabla appears to cleared out the cars ordering at the drive thru and starts cleaning the lobby while Slick counts his cash drawer.