Text 1981, 109 rader
Skriven 2013-06-29 15:21:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: two meals part one 788
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This girl I'm kind of interested in came over, and when
talking about what we should have (there were the fixin's
for carbonara in the house) the subject of bluefish came
up, and bluefish it was. Bob and Deb had taken me several
times to the Sole Proprietor in Worcester, and I'd been
pretty pleased, so off we went - I didn't bother to change
and was in torn (fashionably, I was told) jeans and an
Asian shirt. We were seated at the last booth available,
fairly trafficky but comfortable enough.

The waitstaff work in pairs. Ours were Jim, a thirty-or-
forty-something and Sarah, in her twenties, very cute.
Jim was pretty outgoing, Sarah apparently relying on her
looks to get by. At the outset they were reasonably pleasant
if not too attentive (we didn't look like the big tipping
type).

The response to the drink question was that we'd like two
glasses of the Talbott Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay 09, a good
deal at $11 the glass, and Jim pointed out that one gets
4 1/2 glasses in a bottle, and it's cheaper (marginally -
$43, still a good deal, as the retail price is $30 to 35).
A deft upsell, and one that didn't displease me at all.
What displeased me is that the wine didn't come for a while,
during which time Sarah had breezed by my "excuse me" at
least twice, the second time an over-the-shoulder "your wine
will be out in just a minute," which was an underestimate by
at least five. Not that much of a problem, but unsettling.

The wine was thick and rich in the old-style oaky Chard way;
the fruit (supposedly abundant and tropical) had begun to
recede, as the wine was about at the end of its design
lifespan, but I like that. The ice bucket kept it a little
too cold for the style.

Food: I started off with the oysters of the day, something
from Buzzard's Bay, perhaps Katamas, very briny, very fresh.
I had inquired about the soft-shelled crabs, and Sarah had
told me that they were frozen, because it wasn't season
(this being smack-dab in the middle of season), but she
would check. Presently she came back with the news that of
course they were frozen (implication: was I nuts or what?).
One sale down the tube, but it could have been worse - she
could have lied, and I wouldn't have found out until too late.

The clam chowder is of the thick thick variety, essentially
a white sauce with some ground sea clam protein and a bunch
of potatoes, kind of tasteless but filling.

Linda had a salad, good greens, blue cheese dressing with
substantial chunks of cheese - no kisses tonight! She
pronounced the lot to be good.

Then the anticipated derailment started.

I ordered the bluefish broiled with garlic butter; this is
offered with vegetable (broccoli, summer squash, carrots,
you see this cacophanous "medley" all through the western
world) and some kind of potato - I nixed this and asked
for just some spinach. What came: the spinach was fine;
the fish, however, was done to a crisp and completely dry.
Obviously it had been broiled as though it had butter on
it but had no such protection, so the top was hard and
crusty, not really the way fish should be.

Linda had crab cakes, three giants, with I think mashed
potatoes or maybe the usual horrid restaurant pilaf and the
aforementioned vegetable medley. The cakes were quite good,
though not exactly Maryland as claimed, because there was
rather too much filler, and the crabmeat probably came from
South America if not farther.

Anyhow, we tried to flag down Sarah several times to get some
butter to rescue the fish, but she was avoiding us for whatever
reason. Eventually Jim moseyed up to ask if everything was all
right, and of course it wasn't, and I should have sent the
fish back by this time, but I just asked for two pats of butter
to make things right. This took maybe 5 minutes to come, way
more than it should have, but by this time the place was full
and the kitchen slammed, so maybe that's an excuse.

The bill was not inconsiderable, and I left a 12% tip and
asked for Jim to talk to. When he came by, I gave him my
thoughts and an extra $10, bringing things up to a total of
20%, which was way too generous. I should have left a zero
tip on the credit card and given him the tenner or maybe a
bit more as the total.

We were actually not in a bad mood as we left, but someone must
have ratted us out, as the manager ran up to us in the parking
lot. We discussed the situation. I told him that Jim was fine,
but it appeared that Sarah should be shown the door, either that
or she must be a college student in need of substantial retraining.
His response: well, she's a college student, but she's been in
college for seven years. Then he offered a gift card as a token of
his penitence, to which I said, I live 400 miles away and don't
come here that often, to which he gave the old bromide of, well,
we want to make sure you return when you return. Okay, I figured
I'd give the card to Bob and Deb, so we waited outside, discussing
how much it would be for. I said it should be more than $10, which
would mean that he actually thought that our issue was without
merit, but less than $50, which would be 50% off the pretax and
tip and too much for a not-so-huge offense. Ideally, I thought $25
or 30. He came out, we said thanks and goodbye, and I put the card
in my pocket without looking at it. Bob and Deb will have a nice
lunch sometime - it was $50.
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