Most Sundays, after church, we go out for lunch or brunch at a local restaurant. This is most definitely a habit we inherited from DaddyDoc's side of the family. When I was a little girl, we always attended 9:00 mass. IF we were good, SOMETIMES my dad took us to Bob's Big Boy, Sambo's, The Jolly Roger or The Parasol Coffee Shop for breakfast after church. We had three critical intersections between home at church at which he could either turn left or continue straight. As we passed each one, I held my breath wondering.
Number one: Are we going to turn? No, darn it!
Number two: Are we going straight? Dangnabit, he got in the turn lane.
What about this one last shot? If we turned left there, all hope was lost, Mom was making something at home.
Daddy Doc's family went to 11:30 mass and they almost always went out afterwards, usually with at least one or two other families even.
And now we have our turn. We have our regular stops. At a few of them, we have our regular servers, too. I love having regular servers. They walk up to my table carrying our diet sodas without even having to ask us first. But we find that the servers like having regular customers, too!
Before our children, we had a regular server at Mimi's. On one occasion we heard her shout and cheer when she returned to the kitchen. She knew we loved a particular appetizer and that day the staff had a tic-tac-toe game and contest going on. All she needed to complete her row was an order of Fried Artichoke Hearts with Lemon Butter Sauce. She saw us walk in, looked to her peers and announced that she would be right back with that square. She came to our table and said "Hi, can I get an order of the artichokes for you?" We said yes, she cheered and she won!
Several years ago, we ate lunch at Islands and sat in Tarin's section. Tarin convinced her manager that day to play a name game. When Tarin introduced herself to us, she let us know about the contest and asked us to use her name whenever possible during our visit. The server whose guests used his or her name the most that day would win the contest. And so it began...
Our boys were much younger but they understood the rules and we all had so much fun with the game. "Hi, again, Tarin! You know what, Tarin? We could use some more Diet Coke, Tarin. Thank you, Tarin!" Mr. Genius joined in, "Excuse me, Tarin, could I have some more ketchup, Tarin, french fries, Tarin?"
When the manager stopped by to see how we were doing, we informed her that "We're great. Tarin's our server. We love Tarin. Tarin's really helpful. Tarin's doing a great job helping us today."
Yep, you bet we did. I think at some point, we just said her name to say it: Tarin, Tarin, Tarin!
And, obviously, we remembered Tarin's name. Every time we returned to Islands since that day, we ask for Tarin. At first the staff recognized us: "Oh! You're the Tarin Tarin Tarin family!" Over the years, the staff working there that day left the restaurant and now only a few remain. But we still ask for Tarin.
Today we decided to have Islands for lunch. It had been awhile since our last visit. I saw Tarin when we came in and asked the hostess for a table in her section. The hostess at first apologized and said she just sat the table we needed. Then she changed her mind and offered us the "large" table, meant for a much larger group than ours. I told her not to worry, Tarin knows us. Sure enough, she apologized to Tarin and she laughed saying "No problem, I know them! They're great!"
Tarin greeted us, squatted in front of our table to write our order, and started to write down three kid's milks on her pad before asking if we wanted Diet Coke today. (Sometimes I order Paradise Iced Tea at Islands. She had reason to ask.) Then she dropped her news. Tarin and her husband are moving to Oklahoma in a few weeks and she was glad we stopped by before she left.
OKLAHOMA?? Oklahoma is far away! Oklahoma is cold! Oklahoma is humid in the summer! How could she do this to us???
We asked more questions. Her husband will be attending a specialized school for nine months and they may come back when he finishes. I told her that I expected her to come back. She mentioned that Islands assured her that they will rehire her when she returns.
We gave Tarin a little extra in her tip today and wrote a little note on our receipt before we left. Then I hugged her on our way out the door.
Because I'm just like that.
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