leave it with me

It's no secret that we eat out quite a bit. With the cost of things nowadays, we should probably eat out less but how often we go is probably less of a big deal than when and where we go out to eat. Between my husband and my youngest daughter, there are never enough little things that can easily sour a fine dinner out. One thing that helps is to go when there are less people. So dinners have become extra early and the most enjoyable days to go? Monday or Tuesday afternoon. The somewhat sad part of going out on those days is that our favorite server/s are usually off.

There's a CPK at the mall that has been reliably less full than most places, even on weekends. At the moment, they're running a $10 pizza promotion on Mondays and Tuesdays only. This is enough for us to go, but when we get there, there's the happy hour menu to consider as well and if you're ridiculously early like we were today, the lunch duos are still available. We actually ended up completely ignoring the $10 pizzas. I got a lunch duo with my favorite spaghetti bolognese and caesar salad with chicken. My husband got a bahn mi and a salad, with a beer and pizza combo from the happy hour list. The thing is, they were completely out of draft beer so they actually offered him a bottle of his choice. Good call by the server, who decided to go check what was on tap before telling my husband what his choices were. 

The server. Whenever we go to CPK, we tend to ask for Donnie. The guy is a fixture at the restaurant. Been there since they opened, I think he said. Employee of the year, his name, literally painted on the door. And what we've noticed whenever he's not there and we don't get Grace, is that all the young servers sound like they were trained in the SoD. School of Donnie, we call it... ok ok! Donnie has a very distinct way of speaking and when these younger servers start saying yes yes, you just know. SoD. The young man who served us tonight? I think he got a solid A. Any flubs were actually the kitchen's fault. Such as the full size sandwich for my husband's lunch duo being only a half sandwich. No problem. They made him another half. Did we need anything else? Some napkins, please, and some parmesan for the spaghetti. When our server returned, he had a nice stack for our table and on top of it, he placed...

I can't think about this happening without smiling. He finally made my dreams come true. Whenever Donnie would come over with the grater, he would say, "Just tell me when." I always counter, "Never" as I always want more cheese. Or he could just leave the cheese with me <big hearty laugh> Once or twice, instead of bringing over the cheese grater, he would bring me one of those dipping bowls with a whole mound of freshly grated parm. But today's server left me the grater. My maaaaaaaaan...

My husband says he shouldn't have done that. Years in the restaurant business have taught him a few important things and has made him highly critical of service everywhere we go. Don't even get me started on his food cleanliness checklist. If he was the food sanitation inspector, half the kitchens in this town would have to close. And I'm certain that if Donnie knew that our server left me the cheese grater, he would get a deduction on his report card. But I'm cool with it. 

Playlist Recommendation: Back to December, Dan + Shay cover