Check, please!

Our children and friends sometimes comment about "our waiters" - meaning the waitstaff that we know and even ask for when we dine out. And, as you know, we dine out a lot. For most families, dining out is a treat, and the exception. For us, dining in is the exception.

So if we dine out a lot, we become acquainted with a lot of waitstaff. At least those who stick around a place long enough for us to get acquainted. We have seen a lot of waitstaff pass by in our 20-plus years of dining at Chuy's! And it was at Chuy's that we we first began asking for Courtney. "Courtney the colorful, please," to differentiate her from the non-tattooed Courtney who also worked there at the time. Our Courtney was vividly tattooed - really! - and she finally left Chuy's to return to San Antonio, ostensibly to attend Mortuary Sciences school. I suppose if she always wore long sleeves and high collars she could become head-waiter in a mortuary.

Since then we have befriended  others, most recently Tim and Erin. Tim was a pony-tailed middle-aged man of indeterminate sexual persuasions who worried about his mother's failing health, We talked about his weight loss and the dishes he enjoyed preparing at home. And his mother moving to Hospice. Evidently, it became too much for him and one evening he had a melt-down at the restaurant and no longer works there. Erin is our waitress now. More about her later.

And then there's Dee and Beha at Frans - and Freddy, the manager. We hear about kids and family and think enough of them to leave small gifts at Christmas. Of course, when you eat at the same place several times a week, you not only grt to know the waitstaff, you also become acquainted with the other regulars - Mary and Daniel, Dot and Bill, and Coach.

But it's not always because we eat at a given place all the time. There is another Erin working at Suzi's who picked up on the fact that we liked certain dishes after just a few visits. We eat at Suzie's perhaps once every 6 weeks, but this Erin is skillful at her job and remembers our likes. Jorge at Tres Amigos is in the same category; it only took a few visits for him to know our drink is always iced tea with lime and Barb doesn't like spicy dishes. Of course, in both these establishments there is low turnover and a small number of staff. That makes a big difference.


I mentioned poor Julian at Red Lobster and his battle with hiccups. We ask for Julian because he is by far the best waiter we have come across. We have on a couple of occasions sought out his manager to tell her what great service we get. And it is not just us - the manager says three women come in each Sunday, always arriving before Julian's shift starts - and wait for him!

So back to Chuy's Erin. We ask for her because she (usually) gets our preferences for table sauce and drinks (limes, por favor) without being told. She's not as professional as her counterpart at Suzy's but over time we have gotten to know her. She shows us pictures of a wedding she was in, and we show show pictures of  our grand kids (and introduce her to family members when possible. Right Jason?). We know that her soldier husband has been in Afghanistan, and that after he came back he was not the same person he was, and that they separated. Last week she was giddy to tell us that they were trying again with the help of counseling.

I don't think her manager would have been pleased if we gathered around her and prayed for that marriage during the evening rush, so we didn't do that, but we do pray for that couple. And we'll ask how she's doing, and really want to know.