A trip to Eataly and mi espresso

Wow, I think the espresso was a bad idea. I tossed and turned until 2AM last night. How does that affect my voice? Maybe it won't be a recording day. Just practicing. Or I could take a moment to clear out the boxes that have been cluttering up the upstairs hallway since we moved in. Gotta move the cube shelving into that space so I can make room for the desk and finally move the recording equipment out of my daughter's room. Nah. I'm still on the fence about all that. I think a new neighbor is finally moving in upstairs and it makes none of the bedrooms ideal for recording... at all. But my daughter will be home in a few days so I should take my stuff out of her room anyway. Sorry, thinking out loud.

An Eataly opened up in town and it was a packed debut for them yesterday. I'd been to one in Las Vegas when we attended the wedding of one of my nephews earlier this year. As someone with a real fascination for Italy, I thought it was cute concept, like an Italian market, as far as I could tell. The new one here is a little different from the one at Park MGM. Smaller, I think, but something new is always appreciated and opening day is probably the only time you're ever going to see the table and chairs on the patio so clean. 

I stayed in line for food while my husband and daughter went to get a seat. I noticed a fly on one of the sandwiches they had displayed and promptly called the attention of one of the managers. She thanked me and they removed the sandwich from the tray. Hopefully that was discarded. I decided to get 3 slices of pizza: a bolognese (my family knows I love me some bolognese), a soppressata, in lieu of what normally would have been pepperoni for my daughter, and a margherita, because I don't know what else to get. They were all nice but at $10/slice on average, my bolognese being about $12, that's expensive. It's not a shocker, and won't stop me from coming back, but probably a lot less often than I would have, had the prices been a little less. 

After pizza, I decided to go back inside and get an espresso. I came back to our table with my drink and a shot glass of water. My daughter asked me if she could have some. Water, not the espresso. I took a small swig and then handed it to her, but she no longer wanted it because I'd already sipped from the glass. So, I told her to go inside and ask for one, or ask her dad if he would go. At this point, it seemed all thirst had disappeared. You see, this is a problem that my family has. My husband and my daughter would rather die of thirst than have to interact with someone in order to get a glass of water. My husband reasons, he doesn't want to have to line up. My daughter just goes mute. So I told them the story of how I got my espresso, without having to line up. 

I stood in front of the counter where they made and served the coffee. As one of the baristas came up, I asked him where I could order a coffee and he directed me to one of two registers to my right. I stood there for awhile and when no one approached the register to take my order, I asked him if I needed to line up where all the people were lined up to get pastries. He then asked me if all I wanted was a coffee and I said yes, so he took my order, rang me up and offered me some water with my espresso. It was not an attempt to skip the line. It was just me politely asking a question, as needed, and getting service where it was required. He was efficient, even fast-forwarding through the tipping screen for me so I didn't have to go through that awkward moment of, do I tip or not, for this quick order. If you ask me, they should have one register for the drinks and another for the pastries, so everything that happened felt justified. I didn't feel at all like I needed to apologize for being served without having to line up and nobody was complaining either. Well, if anyone did, I was oblivious. Maybe that really was the drink ordering register and everyone truly needed to line up at the other one for pastries.

A word of advice though, if you're planning to visit Eataly and you actually want to eat at their sit down restaurant, make a reservation. I hadn't planned on reserving anything when I invited my friend to dinner there next week but upon checking out the availability on Open Table, I acted quickly and booked it. 

Playlist Recommendation: Espresso (E), Sabrina Carpenter