Holiday Eating

Went to Whistler over the Thanksgiving long weekend with L&G. Had a couple of interesting outings at dining establishments.

The first occurred at the Squamish White Spot, a lunch stop during Saturday's drive up. After waiting about ten minutes to even talk to someone about sitting down, we were eventually led to a table. Fifteen minutes after sitting we had yet to meet our server. She finally came, apologized for the delay, took our orders, and disappeared. We then noticed some garbage on the floor 2-3 feet from our table: something that resembled crumpled toilet paper and an empty cream container. Over the course of our stay in the booth, we watched as many staff members acknowledged the garbage by glancing down and stepping around or over it, and yet the garbage remained during our meal and in fact was still there when we left. Nice pride White Spot. More than half an hour after ordering, we finally see our server again, who comes bearing food and another apology. Turns out she's the manager and the kitchen is understaffed today. Yeah, it is prime lunch time on a holiday weekend, why be prepared for that? And yet they have enough staff for someone to walk around vaccuuming during our meal, intentioanlly bypassing the aforementioned garbage.

Up in Whistler, we dined out at Earls on Sunday night. No drama until ordering time. We'll focus on Biscotti, who wasn't very hungry and simply ordered wings and a caeser salad for her and me to share. She asked for it to come before the rest of the meals. No problem. The server asked if she wanted the caeser salad side-order size or entree size. Entree side. Done. 15-20 minutes later our meals are brought by a female not-our-server. Hmmm, so much for the wings and salad beforehand. Wait, there are no wings and there is no caeser salad; instead there is a thai noodle salad that no one ordered. Biscotti tells not-our-server the error for her to relay and not-our-server tells L that the side salad that comes with her meal will be out soon. Ten minutes later a guy carries wings and a caeser salad over, puts it on the table, and drops to a knee. He says that he's a manager and apologizes on behalf of our server, it's her first day serving and she's very nervous. The wings and salad are comped. L then asks him if her side salad will be out soon, and he goes off to check. After he walks away Biscotti tells us she had to bite her tongue to not point out that he had brought her a side-order size caeser and not the entree size she had ordered. Two minutes later L has her salad brought by another female not-our-server.

Come on people, just because it's a holiday weekend doesn't mean you can vacation while on the job.