We Were Ready to Order. Then the Waiter Arrived.

We were ready.

Everybody had studied the menu. Opinions had been formed. One person had even closed it with the authority of someone whose work was complete.

Then the waiter arrived.

Suddenly, nobody had ever seen a restaurant before.

“What are you having?”

“I thought you were having the fish.”

“I was. But what did she just order?”

The menu reopened. So did the entire investigation.

I enjoy this particular form of dinner theatre.

There is always someone who asks an excellent question about a dish and, after hearing the answer, orders something completely unrelated.😂

Someone wants to share, but only after establishing what everybody else intends to choose.

And somebody says, “I’m easy,” before revealing an extraordinarily detailed set of conditions.

The other person’s plate

We are all very relaxed about food until a desirable plate is allocated to another person.

Then it passes the table.

“Actually, that looks lovely.”

Of course it does. You were perfectly happy with your choice until it acquired a competitor with better presentation.

There is a certain diplomacy involved in looking at someone else’s dinner.

A brief glance communicates interest.

Continuing to look after they have picked up their fork begins to suggest a proposal.

“Would you like to try some?”

What a thoughtful person.

Dessert is apparently for research

Dessert introduces another stage entirely.

Nobody wants dessert.

We should see the menu, though. For information.

One spoon becomes two. Someone suggests ordering something for the table, which is an elegant way of ensuring that responsibility has no identifiable owner.

Then the dessert arrives, and the person who absolutely could not eat another thing becomes unusually precise about where the plate should be placed.

I find all of this excellent company.

A good dinner gives people time to become a little less rehearsed. The conversation wanders. Somebody tells the longer version. An ordinary detail becomes the thing everyone keeps laughing about.

Eventually, the waiter returns to ask whether we need anything else.

We probably don’t.

But has anyone seen the coffee menu?

And if somebody begins a story halfway through dessert, I would like to hear the part they nearly left out.

Silvia