Everyone's Favorite...
Did someone say Perkins?
Quite a few people know the story of our evening at Perkins simply because a lot of people were present. It was on a Thanksgiving after the Plaza lighting ceremony. For those outside Kansas City, we have a trendy shopping area near downtown that has a grand lighting ceremony where every building around is covered in lights. It's one of the things we're known for around here. Anyway, it's obviously a holiday and we want to spend some more time with friends and grab something to eat, but what's open?
Perkins is open. Once again, for those in the area this time, the Perkins is north of the river as most of us lived in that vicinity at the time. We all meet up at the Perkins and are seated at a large table just shooting the breeze when our waitress arrives. She takes our drink orders and the fun just barely begins as one of our members orders ice coffee (basically coffee in a glass with ice). The waitress says she doesn't want to be responsible for the glass breaking with the mixed temperatures and refuses. Determined, the order changes to a pot of coffee and a glass of ice. The waitress acquiesces and leaves to put the orders in.
Now, as I continue on, I do have to give the benefit of the doubt to the waitress that she was having to work on a holiday, late, instead of being home with family, but then again she did choose this job and had a responsibility to her employer to provide good service to those eating there.
With that said, our drinks come and she's beginning to take our food orders. Most of the orders are plain and simple with the only warnings from the waitress being that they were out of certain food items, which was understandable after a long day of serving people who didn't want to cook on a holiday, people like me for instance. Then we get to the end of the table where I'm seated and one of my friends says he just wants a milk shake. She responds, "No." No reason, just a no! We all think she's being funny with us and he basically just reiterates that's all he wants. She says, "I made my last milk shake for the night." It's not that they're out of ice cream; it's simply that she doesn't want to make any more of this particular item on the menu. To this day, I can't remember exactly what his order ended up being, but there was no milk shake to be had as a couple from another table interrupted our talking to ask if they heard correctly that the waitress refused the milk shake. We told them yes, it was true and we saw the disappointment sink in as he says he was planning on ordering one as well. Good luck...
As the discussion went around the table about our waitress, another person called to check where we were at. We told him to come on over and join us and, by the way, order a milk shake when he arrived. When he got there he didn't so order the milk shake, especially after being told the story of our waitress.
Since we had been discussing our waitress for most of the evening and wondering about the tip, we finally decided to leave a note written on a napkin with a tip for the total cost of a milk shake. The note read something to the effect of "Have a milk shake on us!" To put this in perspective, the cost of the milk shake would have been under $3.00 while there was about eight or so of us that should be tipping for our meal.
Perkins has become a little bit of a tradition because of the incident; although we have never seen this waitress again.
No Really,
AWChris
Quite a few people know the story of our evening at Perkins simply because a lot of people were present. It was on a Thanksgiving after the Plaza lighting ceremony. For those outside Kansas City, we have a trendy shopping area near downtown that has a grand lighting ceremony where every building around is covered in lights. It's one of the things we're known for around here. Anyway, it's obviously a holiday and we want to spend some more time with friends and grab something to eat, but what's open?
Perkins is open. Once again, for those in the area this time, the Perkins is north of the river as most of us lived in that vicinity at the time. We all meet up at the Perkins and are seated at a large table just shooting the breeze when our waitress arrives. She takes our drink orders and the fun just barely begins as one of our members orders ice coffee (basically coffee in a glass with ice). The waitress says she doesn't want to be responsible for the glass breaking with the mixed temperatures and refuses. Determined, the order changes to a pot of coffee and a glass of ice. The waitress acquiesces and leaves to put the orders in.
Now, as I continue on, I do have to give the benefit of the doubt to the waitress that she was having to work on a holiday, late, instead of being home with family, but then again she did choose this job and had a responsibility to her employer to provide good service to those eating there.
With that said, our drinks come and she's beginning to take our food orders. Most of the orders are plain and simple with the only warnings from the waitress being that they were out of certain food items, which was understandable after a long day of serving people who didn't want to cook on a holiday, people like me for instance. Then we get to the end of the table where I'm seated and one of my friends says he just wants a milk shake. She responds, "No." No reason, just a no! We all think she's being funny with us and he basically just reiterates that's all he wants. She says, "I made my last milk shake for the night." It's not that they're out of ice cream; it's simply that she doesn't want to make any more of this particular item on the menu. To this day, I can't remember exactly what his order ended up being, but there was no milk shake to be had as a couple from another table interrupted our talking to ask if they heard correctly that the waitress refused the milk shake. We told them yes, it was true and we saw the disappointment sink in as he says he was planning on ordering one as well. Good luck...
As the discussion went around the table about our waitress, another person called to check where we were at. We told him to come on over and join us and, by the way, order a milk shake when he arrived. When he got there he didn't so order the milk shake, especially after being told the story of our waitress.
Since we had been discussing our waitress for most of the evening and wondering about the tip, we finally decided to leave a note written on a napkin with a tip for the total cost of a milk shake. The note read something to the effect of "Have a milk shake on us!" To put this in perspective, the cost of the milk shake would have been under $3.00 while there was about eight or so of us that should be tipping for our meal.
Perkins has become a little bit of a tradition because of the incident; although we have never seen this waitress again.
No Really,
AWChris
posted by AWChris | 5/31/2005
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