You want fries with that?

I’ve got some bad new for ya. I know you’ve been reading this blog picturing me as some handsome muscled young stud -- but I am not. I’m fat and 35 and all muscle has left since I stopped working out about 5 years ago. What happened? Who cares – what I wanna talk about today is how every waiter is trying to kill me.

They are!

As a traveling consultant I tend to eat out 3 meals a day while I’m on the road. And in order to lose some weight I thought I’d just stop getting side dishes. Hamburger – no fries. Pasta – no garlic bread. Whatever it comes with -- I don’t want it. This is very hard for waitstaff. Here’s a conversation I’ve had about a thousand times:

Me - “I’ll have the French dip, but I don’t want any sides”

Waiter - (confused pause)

Waiter – “You don’t want… Would you like to substitute something else for the fries?”

Me – “Nope. Just the French dip is fine.”

Waiter – (weirded-out pause) “Um… Okay.”

15 minutes later

Waiter – “Here ya go.”

Me – “I thought I ordered no sides, but there are fries covering half the plate.”

Waiter – “I guess the cook just put them on anyway. You don’t have to eat ‘um”

Now I gotta decide if I feel like sharing the completely shameful fact that if those fries are left in front of me I will eat every single one of them along with about a gallon of ketchup. But I usually just shut up and eat the damn fries.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Not really the same thing but you reminded me of a conversation I had with a water:

Me - I'll have a chicken schnitzel with napoli sauce.
Waiter - Isn't that just a chicken parmigiana without cheese?
Me - Sure, if that's easier.

Another time at a different italian restaurant:

Me - I'll have a chicken parmigiana without cheese.
Waiter - Isn't that just a chicken schnitzel with napoli sauce?
Me - Sure, if that's easier.

And, would you believe, on another occasion:

Me - I'll have a chicken parmigiana without cheese or a chicken schnitzel with napoli sauce.
Waiter - (looks dumb founded) so...which one did you want?
Me - Go nuts. Surprise me. (smiles)
February 20, 2007 at 7:29 PM
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