I have written more than once about the challenges of having a pleasant meal out. I have mentioned the crying babies, hats, tattoos and other things that assail you while you try to eat. Regrettably, there are more.
We generally make a point of frequenting local establishments when we dine out. They do not make it easy. First off, my town suffers from that lack of convenient downtown parking that plagues so many active, old NJ towns. For reasons that truly escape me, the downtown banks have all the private parking, not the restaurants. This despite the fact that people who actually go inside banks these days are rare birds indeed.
People do go into the local restaurants, though. Just via catch-as-you-can parking around here. Once we manage to resolve that, we confront the bewildering variety of challenges ahead (as noted at the start of this missive). Recently, we discovered that a new eatery in town ran their show via that bane of "modern" restaurants: someone OTHER than your waiter actually serves the food. Now, in good restaurants, the wait staff carefully notes which diner gets what. In these imitators, some poor clueless blivot shows up asking "who gets the steak?" and the like, unnecessarily interrupting the moment. Aaand yet another nail in the coffin of proper dining is driven home.
It is a wonder that my Sainted wife and I still screw up the courage to venture out.
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