In a Hurry Schmurry!

Talk about an annoying party of eight.  Well, it was mostly just one person in particular who annoyed me, but nonetheless, it ruined the vibe at the entire table.  One nasty germ in a group will undoubtedly spread quickly like a virus.

It was a party of eight - seven females and one male.   The first few women ordered food that wasn't too complicated, right off the menu.  Then, the nasty germ released her toxic verbiage into the crowd and had to break that easy order taking ride for me.   She requested her own entree; nothing remotely close to an actual menu item - freaking Sundays!   After I complied with her special request, two other women piped up and asked, "Oh!  Can I do something like that too?"  Ugh.  Just as suspected, her germs were rapidly spreading and soon everyone wanted to change their order.  With all my being I wanted to say no.  But I couldn't.  I spent what felt like five minutes or more retaking orders.  The germ lady spoke up again, "We're actually in a hurry."  Of course you are.  I told her straight, "For larger parties, ma'am, it usually takes a minimum of 20 minutes."    She then leaned in toward me and said, "Well, could you actually ask the kitchen to hurry up.  We need to be at a hospital soon."  Seriously?  She pulled out the hospital card?  Really?!  It's possible they were all truly headed there.  But is this recent news supposed to make the cooks disregard all of their orders ahead of theirs or what?  And would anyone really ever run back to the kitchen and tell the cooks that?   I honestly doubt that if this party of eight truly had to be at a hospital, they wouldn't have stopped at a restaurant for a leisurely Sunday luncheon first. 

Almost immediately after the food came out, in what seemed like a reasonable amount of time, the germ told me she was ready for the check.  But wait!  She needed a nonfat cappuccino to go first.  Again, her germs spread quickly and another lady demanded she needed a soy latte to go.  Don't they understand that if they really needed to leave quickly that asking for two custom coffee drinks to go at a restaurant is going to take a minimum of 5-10 minute longer?  Maybe they were that oblivious.   Maybe they truly thought I could be as quick as a Starbucks and I've got baristas just waiting on pins and needles to make coffee drinks for me in the back of the restaurant.  What she didn't realize was that I had to find soy milk in the far back kitchen walk-in  (because there weren't any in either of the four refrigerators on the restaurant floor).  This was hardly a simple "coffee to go" task like she imagined.   Not to mention, I did have several other tables I was working.  The germ lady and her infected crew were not my only clients at that moment, and it was obvious I was juggling a lot of other requests.

After ten minutes or so, I finally got their coffee drinks and brought the check.  Luckily, because it was a party of eight, I was able to add a gratuity.  Mrs. Hurry Schmurry germ lady put a line through the tip section on the check, took her perfectly prepared nonfat cappuccino and left with the rest of them. 

Note to fellow diners in this world:  if you're in a hurry and you're with seven friends, don't go out to eat at a nice restaurant.  Go to a pizza place or a fast food restaurant and move on with whatever it is you need to do in such a hurry.  Putting that much pressure on the server, the kitchen, the bussers, etc.. just isn't fair.  It's actually quite rude, inconsiderate and unreasonable.  And for the love of god, if you do find yourself in that situation, please order off the menu.  Ordering specialty items takes so much longer.  From the server taking the order,  to placing the order in the computer, to the server clarifying the specialty entree to the cooks, to the cooks actually making the item, to the food runner double checking the specialty entree with the server, this process inevitably takes much more time than the average Joe might realize. 

Think about it.  And don't do it.