Unfast Food
Last night, Paula and I decided to go out for supper, despite neither of us feeling like it. The reasons for this decision are two-fold:
1) We are still living in narrow pathways at our new domicile, and while we have eaten such basic fare as cereal and sandwiches, man (or woman) cannot live by baloney (or Cheerios) alone.
2) We had gone to get some supper for Paula's friend Joyce, who is currently recovering from a broken ankle (she has 3 grown children who apparently can't be bothered to come by and check on her on a more than irregular basis - grr!). Anyway, we pulled in at the Priceville Krystals and got her two burgers, a Krystal Chik and Fries. It smelled so good that we decided to return and indulge ourselves.
That was our first mistake.
See, we know that going to Krystal is going to take extra time - that's a given. So I wasn't unduly upset when the girl who took our order told us to have a seat and they'd bring it to us. Apparently, they were out of grill space at the moment. No, I'm not 100% sure what that means, but they were back there literally hosing down the floor.
The first sign that something was amiss was that right after she took our order, the girl left.
So time went by (so slowly. And time could mean so much). A family of about 5 people came in and made a big order to go. We sat and waited - and watched with concern as they waltzed out the door with their order.
More time passed. The universe was born and died. Dinosaurs ruled the land. Still no food.
Time marches on. Flash! World War II over! Another guy comes in and orders. He also waits a while. He tells us this is the worst Krystal he's ever been in. We figure that's because it's set up for mainly drive-thru business from the Interstate rather than locals.
Meanwhile, the temp has fluctuated from Ice Age to Jurassic Park and back, which doesn't do either of our sinuses a whole lot of good.
Finally I had enough. I go up there and and ask the guy now running the register about out order. He looks back over the orders, gets this look on his face, and asks the guy running the grill about our order. Three times.
Answer #1: "Oh, they left." *ecccck*
Answer #2: "Didn't we send it out already?" Sorry, casey, strike two!
Answer #3: "Ummm - I might've given somebody to many burgers, I think." Oh gee, YA THINK?!?
So he starts cooking our new order and the guy behind the counter says, "You can have a seat, we'll bring it out to you."
Yeah, cuz that worked so spiffy last time.
"Y'know what, I think I'll just wait here for it."
While I'm waiting, he finds that all the fries are cold, so he gets really upset and tosses them all. Finally, he brings me my burgers and says, "It'll be a few minutes on the fries. We'll bring 'em to you."
I'm tempted to wait for them too, but there's no point in prolonging Paula's wait just cuz I feel like making a point so I agree. And sure enough, about 3 minutes later, here come the fries.
Total Wait Time for 12 tiny square burgers and two medium fries? 35 minutes. I could've driven 10 miles back to the Decatur Krystal and gotten my food faster!
Then after they brought us our food, everyone - everyone who was working in the restaurant went outside on break!
Dudes! Who's minding the little square beef patties?!?
Oh, and here's the icing on the burger, so to speak. As I was leaving, I asked a girl behind the counter for a refill on unsweet tea, She looks at me like I'm speaking Urdu and says "Sweet tea?"
No, unsweet tea, please.
So I watch her walk over to the tea dispenser and start to fill it with sweet tea.
"Maam! Unsweet Tea! Unsweet Tea!" I had to repeat it three times and she only responded when the in charge guy called her. Then she gives us all this look like she can't imagine anyone wanting unsweet tea when there's nice sweet tea right there.
So she dumps the tea - and using the same frelling cup, she scoops up a new glass of ice and refills it with unsweet tea.
Needless to say, the tea went in the garbage bag outside.
I love a well-oiled service economy.
1) We are still living in narrow pathways at our new domicile, and while we have eaten such basic fare as cereal and sandwiches, man (or woman) cannot live by baloney (or Cheerios) alone.
2) We had gone to get some supper for Paula's friend Joyce, who is currently recovering from a broken ankle (she has 3 grown children who apparently can't be bothered to come by and check on her on a more than irregular basis - grr!). Anyway, we pulled in at the Priceville Krystals and got her two burgers, a Krystal Chik and Fries. It smelled so good that we decided to return and indulge ourselves.
That was our first mistake.
See, we know that going to Krystal is going to take extra time - that's a given. So I wasn't unduly upset when the girl who took our order told us to have a seat and they'd bring it to us. Apparently, they were out of grill space at the moment. No, I'm not 100% sure what that means, but they were back there literally hosing down the floor.
The first sign that something was amiss was that right after she took our order, the girl left.
So time went by (so slowly. And time could mean so much). A family of about 5 people came in and made a big order to go. We sat and waited - and watched with concern as they waltzed out the door with their order.
More time passed. The universe was born and died. Dinosaurs ruled the land. Still no food.
Time marches on. Flash! World War II over! Another guy comes in and orders. He also waits a while. He tells us this is the worst Krystal he's ever been in. We figure that's because it's set up for mainly drive-thru business from the Interstate rather than locals.
Meanwhile, the temp has fluctuated from Ice Age to Jurassic Park and back, which doesn't do either of our sinuses a whole lot of good.
Finally I had enough. I go up there and and ask the guy now running the register about out order. He looks back over the orders, gets this look on his face, and asks the guy running the grill about our order. Three times.
Answer #1: "Oh, they left." *ecccck*
Answer #2: "Didn't we send it out already?" Sorry, casey, strike two!
Answer #3: "Ummm - I might've given somebody to many burgers, I think." Oh gee, YA THINK?!?
So he starts cooking our new order and the guy behind the counter says, "You can have a seat, we'll bring it out to you."
Yeah, cuz that worked so spiffy last time.
"Y'know what, I think I'll just wait here for it."
While I'm waiting, he finds that all the fries are cold, so he gets really upset and tosses them all. Finally, he brings me my burgers and says, "It'll be a few minutes on the fries. We'll bring 'em to you."
I'm tempted to wait for them too, but there's no point in prolonging Paula's wait just cuz I feel like making a point so I agree. And sure enough, about 3 minutes later, here come the fries.
Total Wait Time for 12 tiny square burgers and two medium fries? 35 minutes. I could've driven 10 miles back to the Decatur Krystal and gotten my food faster!
Then after they brought us our food, everyone - everyone who was working in the restaurant went outside on break!
Dudes! Who's minding the little square beef patties?!?
Oh, and here's the icing on the burger, so to speak. As I was leaving, I asked a girl behind the counter for a refill on unsweet tea, She looks at me like I'm speaking Urdu and says "Sweet tea?"
No, unsweet tea, please.
So I watch her walk over to the tea dispenser and start to fill it with sweet tea.
"Maam! Unsweet Tea! Unsweet Tea!" I had to repeat it three times and she only responded when the in charge guy called her. Then she gives us all this look like she can't imagine anyone wanting unsweet tea when there's nice sweet tea right there.
So she dumps the tea - and using the same frelling cup, she scoops up a new glass of ice and refills it with unsweet tea.
Needless to say, the tea went in the garbage bag outside.
I love a well-oiled service economy.