#restaurant fail

[halcyon-horizons]

I forgot discrimination might not be illegal in other countries

[dineamicspos-blog]

Most Restaurant people have to just wing it.

My company has setup thousands of POS systems. We we go into a new client’s site I am never ceased to be amazed at how many restaurant owners and managers just wing it. 

There’s a lot of things in the restaurant business that need to be handled in a “just-wing-it” situation. You never know what crazy thing is about to unfold and it takes a manager with guts, bravado and the ability to think on his/her feet to handle them. 

But what I’m talking about is making money. Most restaurant owners go by volume of sales dollars. When there’s money in the bank things are good. When there’s not, things are bad. 

That’s one misconception that can wipe out a restaurant inside of a month. Yet, that’s how so many operate. 

[anazzg]

Saw this place while walking downtown... with a name like that, I can't imagine why they closed!

[dailyshitsandgiggles]

Ummmmm, no thank you. I'm not hungry right now.

[anazzg]

Il menu, per favore!

What a difference two weeks makes! It doesn't take a genius to know that when you travel to a foreign country of which you don't fluently speak the language, it is naturally expected that there will be a moderate amount of miscommunication that takes place until you get some basic words/phrases under your belt & get your bearings. Well, here's some advice. Don't rush into it - no matter how good you think you are - there is no shame in playing it safe by having some sort of translator with you when you first start out, or else you might do like we did and find yourself spending extra money on something that you might not have wanted in the first place. Let me explain:

On our second day here, I convinced Joe to walk with me to a ristorante next door to the hotel. Grinning from ear to ear, I was so excited to have my first real Italian meal that I just decided to throw caution to the wind and jump in to this place head first. At the door, a man greeted us with a loud "salve!" (a more formal greeting than ciao) and ushered us in. The restaurant, as stereotypically quaint as it was, was completely empty. It was 5:30... and we later found out that the Italians don't really start dinner until about 8. So he motioned for us to sit down at a table & instead of giving us a menu, he began offering us things - in italian... very fast italian. I managed to understand "red wine" & "sparking water" and "antipasti" so I continued with my "lets just go with it" attitude and said "si" to everything. Well, this is where the fun really began. Next thing we know, we have a whole bottle of wine at our table (uhh... I was thinking just a glass...) and the man, Stefano, starts bringing out plate, after plate, after plate (uh oh - you see where I'm going with this) after plate of all sorts of things. Insalata caprese (tomatoes/mozzarella,) grilled vegetables, bread, oil cured fish, octopus with lemon, cannellini beans w/ seafood, more bread, zeppoline & pasta cresciute (see 2 posts ago), fried mozzarella, crocche (a sort of deep fried potato dumpling/croquette) oh and some more bread. It was right around the time he brought out the ambiguous oil cured fish that panic began to set in. Everytime we looked up, Stefano was coming out of the kitchen with another friggin' plate. Here I am, in a weird place between panic & a laughing fit because the wine is hitting me like a semi-truck, here's Joe, with a concerned look of "how much is this gonna cost me?" 1/2 of the plates are empty - he oil cured fish & octopus still remaining, and here comes Stefano, with another heaping basket of bread. Basically, our meal rounded out to be more like a show in a dinner theater, because there we were, reduced to a comical combination of broken italian & pantomime charades to try to communicate that we were full & didn't want any more food. I gestured to my stomach to try to show full - Stefano, I later realized, took that as me saying "I'm too fat," and started complimenting us instead. Finally, after doing my best mime impression signing a check, he gave us the bill (30 euros, thank god - we didn't break the bank on this reckless adventure) and we made our way out. Well it wasn't until yesterday (about 2 weeks later) that I decided I now knew enough italian to try the ristorante again. At 8pm, we strolled in like we owned the place. Greeted each other in italian. Sat down. I said, "Il menu, per favore." Wow. There were so many things to choose from on it - and the mistake I made by not knowing how to ask for a menu the first time we came in struck me as a really stupid beginners mistake to make. So, I ordered in italian - I had Gnocchi Quattro Formaggi (4 cheese gnocchi, or small potato dumplings) and Joe had gnocchi with sauteed shrimp & tomatoes. Delizioso! And you're damn right I asked for the check in italian - no hand gestures necessary. 

Oh, the difference two weeks makes... and the "learn italian" droid app.

[bangtanosaur]

Blue lotus fail

I called and ordered take out. Grilled chicken vermicelli (#88) for my mom and grilled pork & egg roll vermicelli (#95). When I got there the receipt said #88 and #93, but I didn't really mind that they got mine wrong cuz I'm so hungry I'll eat anything at this point. When I got home and we opened up the food I got my grilled pork & egg roll, but my mom got grilled pork instead of chicken. And now she's pissed at me -_-