Today is a big day in Nash-Vegas. It's the annual Music City Marathon. Early last week I received an email from my friend, Jose, telling me that he and his roommate Matt were coming to town to run in the big race. So, yesterday after work I headed to the hotel to pick up Jose and get him downtown to the Expo to check out all the cool stuff. 22,000 people plus are running in this race today! That is a lot of blisters!
After meeting up with Matt; Jose, Matt and I decided it was time to "carb up" for the big race. (Make no mistake .... I am NOT running, just going along for moral support!) Jose wanted to eat downtown at the S'ghetti Factory but it was at least an hour wait so we decided to head out to Green Hills to eat at Carrabas where we could do a little shopping while we waited for our seats. While in route, Matt's girlfriend gives us a call telling us that her family had just eaten at a great little Italian restaurant off Elliston Place and it was only a 30 minute wait. Perfect!
The wait was about 30 minutes as promised, but we should have taken the clue when as the hostess walks us to our table she says, "Do any of you mind sitting in a
taller chair?" She wasn't kidding. The
three of us sat at a small table for
two and poor Jose towered above Matt and I as he sat in a bar chair they brought from the bar area. After a few drinks and a couple baskets of bread, we sat anxiously waiting for our food. An hour came and went and STILL no food. The couple sitting behind (also there to Carb up) was becoming restless as they were violating their own rules by eating so close to bed time the night before a race. Not to mention it was now going on 9 o'clock and they needed to be up and at 'em at 4am.
We attempted to wait patiently, trying to enjoy one another's company and making small talk with the couple sitting next to us. BUT, as time continued to lapse we realized not only were we getting extremely tired, we were no longer hungry for the food we'd ordered over an 60 minutes ago. Our waitress comes over to say "You're food will be out shortly" and we break the news that we will be leaving due to the extensive wait. Then out comes two helpings of pasta, to be served to the couple behind us who arrived 10 minutes
after us! As we're standing to leave, our food arrives and we sit to force ourselves to eat a few pieces of the food in which we had been waiting for. Sitting in silence, playing with our pasta more than eating it, I feel a presence over me. It was that of the chef. Glaring at me, she loudly says, "what is the problem?!" I was speechless. Again she says, "You tell me... what is the problem?!" Jose, half laughingly but attempting to be respectful says, "We ordered our food almost an hour and a half ago." Matt chimes in, "And not only that, but this couple received their food before ours and we were here nearly 10 minutes before them." Calmly attempting to communicate our frustration and dis-satisfaction with the service, the chef begins to shout a number of excuses as to why everyone's food was late. My favorite line... "If you want fast food, go to a fast food restaurant." She continued to escalate and said,
"We don't want customers like you anyway!" With that, nearly everyone in our area of the restaurant stood to leave and the chef states "no one is going anywhere without paying." She was MAD! Jose tossed some money on the table to cover
most of the meal and we headed out the door. We stopped by to shake the hand our our waitress acknowledging this was not her fault and letting her know money had been left on the table for her. As we're standing outside talking about the ordeal, the waitress comes out crying stating that the chef told her to get our license numbers that she was calling the police. She said she didn't want to but she was told to. We told her we would stay until the police arrived. Eventually, Jose spoke with the manager who said he would "take care of it" and that in fact, the police had been called but we were okay to leave.
So, the "customers like us" headed to Target to get some cereal and energy bars, for these two runners who simply wanted to Carb up before their big race. I think the food would have been good, but you can bet I'm not going there again.
As I write this, both Jose and Matt are running at 10:03 mile and at mile marker 6. (Thank God for the internet.)
