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| - We stopped in one weekday evening to grab a pint and a bite to eat . . . basically, this place was right beside us, so why not give it a try.
Inside, this location is a bit smaller than other OJ's visited. There isn't a huge capacity. It didn't matter on this night, though, as it probably was only half occupied. I'm sure it fills up on weekends with the neighborhood "staggering distance" crowd.
Anyhow, an Original Joe's is what it is. I pretty much sum them up as being average. Typically there is someplace better nearby, if you want to put in the effort.
What did stand out on this night, though, was our waitress. My friend was watching attentively from first arrival, and finally announced an observation: "She can only do one thing at a time, period."
And so, like budding anthropologists, we started watching and taking notes. And it was fascinating!
Observed behavior:
We would finish our drinks, and close our menus, ready to order. She would take our empties, look at our closed menus, and walk away without mentioning food or refills.
She would then come back, take our refill drink order, and quickly walk off before we could order food. Our closed menus still clearly visible on our empty table.
She comes back. Food order given. Drinks getting low. No mention of drink refills. Gone like smoke.
Food arrives, still no drink refill order taken.
Finally drink order given.
It continues. Visit by visit, table by table in our section. Each fly-by for one specific task, and one only. The attention was there. The effort was there. The multi-tasking.... not so much.
Anyhow, I don't mean to be critical. I personally can't remember anything either. But I'm aware of that limitation, so I make use of a notebook. Otherwise, like her, I'd be repeating the same thing in my head all the way to the kitchen and praying I didn't get interrupted. "Extra napkins table 7. Extra napkins table 7. Extra napkins table . . ?. Extra natchos table 7 . . . Cleanup on aisle 7 . . . Doh!"
Things can just go so wrong.
Well, anyhow, I guess you get my point. Service was kind of on the slow side, but not due to a lack of effort, just a lack of skill. Maybe it was her first day. The food was fine, the beer was cold. If I lived nearby, I'd drink here so that I could walk home and not worry about cabs.
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