2022

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all ready to start a new year with new plans and goals. 

New years eve is always a mess for me and Nick. We laugh about it. We never have any parties to attend so we just go out for a nice dinner somewhere.

We always wait to late to make reservations and that always leaves us scrambling to get into a restaurant and end up just going whereever we can find a seat. This time we planned ahead and made reservations at a place in my old hometown of Belmont called the “Old Stone Steak House”. We were excited and relieved that we did not have to go searching for a place to go. We had already searched the menu online and picked out what we each were gonna order. We were excited. We like to eat dinner around five or six but our reservations were for 7:30 and that was fine.

We were both off work on New Years Eve and enjoyed our day together relaxing. We started getting dressed for dinner and left the house a little early just in case there was a problem with parking or getting in the door. We found a parking spot in front of the door and walked right in. The hostess was nice and took us to our table. There at the table she handed us a menu and went to get our drinks.

There was a problem here. The menu was a special four course New Years dinner with limited options. First the price was 55.00 per person and that did not include drinks or tip. Second, there was nothing on this particular menu that we wanted. I asked the waitress if we could order off of the regular menu and she said “No, not tonight” . We apologized and left. No way would we pay 110 plus dollars on something we did not want. We simply don’t spend that way. We expected to spend around 70.00 for the special occasion but by ordering what we wanted. 

We ended up walking down the street to another place in town called “The Lodge Tavern and Tap”. Not our idea of a place but it was getting late and we were mad and hungry. I guess you could say we were “Hangry”. There was no wait and they took us to our table. There we ended up ordering the Ribeye Steaks with two sides. For appetizers we order fried pickles. My favorite! 

The food was ok but we were still disappointed that our original date plans did not work out.

We had plenty left over and that’s what we ate for New Years Lunch. 

Speaking of New Years lunch. This is the first time in at least 10 years that we have not prepared a big traditional New Years Dinner. We always make enough for 12 to 15 people and the meat prices are outrageous. We also struggle to find enough collards. It was stressing me out this time so we decided to give it a break this year. I think we made a good choice because we have some family members battling colds. It feels weird and I miss it. Hopefully we can get back to doing it next year. 

I hope you all have a wonderful 2022! What are some of your goals? Mine is to get a new car in the Spring or Summer. I also hope to lose my weight again. 

Unpleasant Dining

We had received a gift certificate for Christmas to Texas Roadhouse steakhouse. Due to limited capacity in restaurants here in North Carolina, we have been putting it off.  It had been a long week. I was tired and hungry, so I suggested we use that gift certificate and have a nice steak dinner for a change. 

We thought it would be a pleasant and deserving dinner out. Well, not so much. 

We both worked until five. We rushed home from each of our jobs and got dressed to go out. But first, I wanted to call and make sure there was not a long wait. I learned from the call that this is what I had to do....call and get on a waiting list.

I called and talked with a hostess. She took our name and asked us what our expected time of arrival would be. I told her 6:00. “Great”, she said, “Just drive to the booth at the bottom of the parking lot and give them your name when you arrive”

We arrived in the parking lot at 6 sharp and there was a long line that lead up to the road from the booth she was talking about. 

After about a 10 minute wait in line to get to the booth we had to put in our name again. The hostess then instructed us to park and wait until we receive a text letting us know our table is ready.  

We waited in our car for 20 more minutes. It was nearing 7:00. We were hungry and we do not like to eat this late (I think getting old does that to ya). 

Once we were texted letting us know we could come in, the hostess walked us to our table. It was so crowed, I felt like we were sitting on top of each other. 

Our luck has it, (mommas don't hate me, I’m a mom too) but next to us was a young couple with two little children. Every couple minutes, one of the little kids would let out a shrill scream. It was ear piercing and doesn't sound good when your half def in one ear. It can be painful. The mother knew her kids were getting on our nerves while we tried to enjoy a meal. She did not seem to care and looked at us as if she dared us to say anything. (Nope, I was hungry and too old to fight). 

They brought out our salads and they had deviled eggs chopped and mixed in. I do not like egg in my salad but I ate it. Nick on the other hand is allergic to eggs. He ate around it best he could. 

After another 25 minutes, our steaks arrived. My medium well steak was medium (it was bleeding a little). I ate around it. Nick ordered the kabobs and they were fine. We never complained. We finished our meal, graciously tipped the waiter and left. 

This is what’s happening. Businesses are cutting back their help and the remaining employees can’t keep up. I see this, not only in restaurants, but also in department stores. Times are tuff for everyone. People are losing their jobs. Places can’t keep up the inventory and customer service just plain sucks.

I do not hold the bad experience against the wait staff or cooks, but to poor management. I happens though. We could go back the next week and it could be perfect. We just picked a bad night to have a steak.