Sunday, January 30, 2011

Reason #17 to keep it under three...

I served at Applebee's, and when I went through training I was introduced to the three drink rule. On the third drink the server was to alert the manager, and was possibly not to serve any more drinks. I have been to restaurants where the drink menu says: limit 2. There are many obvious reasons for this rule (that I'm pretty sure every establishment breaks in the name of money making...I know of a stout Latino man who would often drink ten Coronas), but let me share my reason #17 to keep it under three drinks.

The Mister and I were having a quiet dinner at Olive Garden. We'd waited quite a while for a table, and when we finally sat down we were ready to devour anything in our path. Our waitress introduced herself and promptly brought our drinks (OMG I'd possibly sever a limb for the peach/raspberry tea they have there....LOVE IT).  My attention was immediately drawn to a table across the room when a woman began laughing extra loudly.

There were three or four women who were well into their meal, and I couldn't help but notice the bottle of wine on the table. You'd think a bottle of wine wouldn't go far between four women, but I'm guessing either only one of them was drinking, or else they'd had more than one bottle.

I'm not judging. Have four bottles of wine with your girlfriends if you like. What bothered me was that as the evening wore on, they were interrupting my dinner date, and I found myself privvy to an awkward situation.  I'm not really an eaves-dropper. I was trying to have a quiet conversation with the Mister, and we were succeeding to a point, but now and then there was the just-a-decible-too-loud "WHAT" or the laugh/snort. And it's not like we were in Hooters or something. This little room in Olive Garden was quiet and serene. Er, uh, it would've been.

Finally I hear Miss Drunk pipe up, "Ok, ok you guys, fine! You think I shouldn't be talking to him? I'm deleting him. Look. DELETE CONTACT, ok (she says, dramatically holding her phone up for the entire restaurant to see)? You guys are ganging up on me and you're going to make me cry!" The girls tried to quietly hush her, to console her, and tell her they didn't think she was a bad person, but that her husband would not approve of her talking to "him."

There was more wine, more discussion of this "him" she was texting, and finally, FINALLY the boxes! They left, and by that time we were pretty much finished with our food as well. Our food was good, and we had some intense entertainment through dinner, but unfortunately it was at the expense of a woman who obviously broke the three drink rule...and her unknowing husband =/

1 comment:

  1. I hate it when people get sloppy drunk in restaurants, bars are one thing the Olive Garden and the like are another thing completely.

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