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| - So, I moved back to the Bay Area 6 years ago this week. Last week, I was in Phoenix and met with some friends from high school who I haven't seen in 9 and 11 years respectively. Our 20 year HS reunion is next month and since I am not going, decided we should have our own mini type reunion and this was a place easy enough for all of us to meet up. Yes this is a chain, and yes when in Phoenix I play the chain game.
When this restaurant was built, it was all the rage. I used to work for a company close by and this was the place we would go to for recognition type lunches, etc. The portions were huge, there was a salad bar (yep this seems eons ago) and service was great. There was always a line and if you showed up at dinner time, you had to be prepared for a 1+ hour wait. We all met at 6:30 on a Wednesday night. No line outside, no one waiting inside and we were seated immediately. This told me right away that either the economy has taken a real toll or that the Claim Jumper isn't jumping anymore.
We were seated and all just started gabbing away. We all had non alcoholic beverages and warned the waitress we would be there for the long haul with gabbing, etc. so if she needed us to leave so she could get more tables to let us know. Heads up folks visiting AZ from CA-any wait staff in AZ DOES NOT MAKE MINIMUM WAGE. They make around $4.25 an hour now (used to be $2.12) and have to depend on tips. This is why I find service in AZ to typically be stellar compared to service here.
They have a smaller menu than they used to and also offer smaller plates. We all had something different-me a spinach salad and a big ass baked potato. My friends had a chicken sandwich of sorts and the meatloaf with mashed potatoes. We were all satisfied and my friends each took part of their meal home. We also all shared a coffee ice cream mud pie. It didn't taste as good as I remembered it, but it was a nice end to the meal. The desserts are still larger than life and even with 3 women gabbing and noshing, we left about a third of it.
The waitress was great-the restaurant still never got busy and we ended up closing the place down (that would be 10pm)! The three of us then ended up sitting outside in front of the restaurant and gabbed and gabbed until well after midnight. It was a great evening and a nice place to have played catch up with old friends (none of us are 40 yet so they wouldn't like me calling them "old").
I drove back to my mom's and parked the car, took off my shoes and walked through the house on my tip toes. Kind of like how I used to come home in high school but I wasn't drunk or stoned...
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