A Happy Accident

Yesterday, we drove by a new Brewpub on the way to the restaurant we had selected for dinner. It kind of seems like brewpubs are popping up everywhere and we don’t drink so it would seem like an odd choice. But sometimes you are just in the mood for a burger/sandwich type place so we decided to give it a try.

The bar area was crowded but the dining area was about half full so we got seated right away. And then we sat. And sat. And continued to sit. A family came in after us and their server came right over while nobody seemed to care about us.

In the distant past, I worked in customer service. I bussed tables at a family style restaurant and I’ve worked at a fast food place. So I tend to cut places a significant amount of slack. Everyone has a bad day once in awhile.

But being ignored is a different story. And it is really simple to remedy. Even if you are busy, simply stop by to say you’ll be right with us. There was a guy who may have been our server. He stopped at the table next to us and took their drink orders. Then walked away and came back with them several minutes later and started to take their food orders. He had to walk right by us to get to their table so there were multiple opportunities to give us the “I’ll be right with you”. Either he didn’t care or wasn’t our server.

In a situation like this, it is probably the fault of the hostess who sat us since they are typically supposed to notify someone that we have been seated. But the other servers in the area who looked at our table and saw us just sitting there could have also done something.

In the end, we decided that this particular place wasn’t worth the wait. Oh and it was over 15 minutes with nobody showing up. I don’t expect instant service but when I see people who came in after us getting taken care of while we are left staring at the menus, it is time to find a new spot to eat.

Drove down the road to another option but since it was a nice Sunday, I think everyone had the same idea and we could see the place was packed with people waiting outside. There was another place right next door that we hadn’t been to (really had no idea what they served) so we decided to just go there.

The place describes itself as a Latin American tapas bar. We were seated right away and our server walked us through the menu. Even answered our questions as we tried to gauge how much to get. We wanted one dish but my wife was worried about the spice level so the server said they could just put everything on the side so we could spice to our choice.

The food was good and the choices were a little bit more unique than a brewpub. All in all, it was a great experience. We will certainly be back.

As for the brewpub, well we have crossed that off the list.