Travis Smith: my resume, bio and photos back to the main blog page
Tracker Pixel for Entry

Cipriano’s Drove Us Away

posted at 12:26 pm
on Nov. 21, 2008

Comments: 0 so far

Permalink

 

Previous entry:
10 Days to Tokyo

Next entry:
Christmas Wish List 2008

I went out to Cipriano’s italian restaurant recently for the second time.  The first time it has been so good, that I couldn’t wait to get back.

The food was great, and the service started a little cold though otherwise decent.

But this time, as the meal wound down, the strangest thing happened.

We were almost the only folks in the restaurant—and it was only 8:45 p.m. The waiter came to our table and asked us if we wanted dessert.

I said, do you have tiramisu? (It was what I’d ordered last time.)  The waiter said, No.

I said, Oh, are you out? He said, yes, we’re out.  Monique said, what do you have? The waiter said, spumoni ice cream, and coffee ice cream.

Neither sounded great, so we asked for the bill and for him to package up our leftovers, of which there were plenty—Cipriano’s has HUGE portions. He said he’d split the leftover bread between us. (Note: Yes, I’m being picky, but you’ll see why.)

The food came back, and we’re sitting there talking, waiting for the bill, and the music is switched from being an eclectic though nicely Italian mix, to being some ‘50s comedy lounge routine that’s hard to understand with a SUPER loud laugh track.  And the restaurant is blaring it. Finally the bills comes back, and we pay it.

At this point, Monique and I have to yell to hear each other, I’m not kidding.  We get frustrated and get up to leave, and as we walk over to get our coats from the coat rack, they turn off the music entirely, so now it’s dead silent in the restaurant.  It’s now 8:58 p.m.

They basically drove us out of the restaurant.  And when I got home and looked at my food, they’ve split the bread and given half to Monique and the other half is not in mine, it’s nowhere.  So they screwed me out of the leftovers.

And I now believe they probably did have tiramisu.  I mean, what Italian restaurant doesn’t have any?  Come on.  They just wanted to get the doors shut by 9 p.m. so they could go home and watch Law and Order or something.

Crazy.

Overheard

“Oh boy! Another great opportunity for personal growth!”

...who said it?

“I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so. ... She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain—it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”

...who said it?

After over a decade of user testing, it is clear that the way we search the web is similar to the way we would search our home for valuables as it was burning to the ground. Frantically.

...who said it?

“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value ... The shift necessitates a fundamental change in our prevailing theory of the firm… The current theory holds that the singular goal of the corporation should be shareholder value maximization. Instead, companies should place customers at the center of the firm and focus on delighting them, while earning an acceptable return for shareholders.”

...who said it?

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.”

...who said it?

Comments

 

 

There are no comments for this entry ... yet. So leave one already! Go on!

Add a Comment

 

 

Name:


Email:


Location:


URL:


Submit the word you see below:


 

 

 

Your comment:


Remember my personal info


Email me about follow-ups


 

Syndication Links


Click here for the main
XML feed for this blog.



Column only



Side links only



Quotes only

 

I'm Listening To

see more at Last.fm

MetaBlogs

AboutBlogs

Clients

Humor

Journalism

Los Angeles

Mac

News

Personal 1

Personal 2

Photos

Politics

Other A-F

Other G-Q

Other R-Z

SocialNetworking

Tech 1

Tech 2

Travel

Vancouver 1

Vancouver 2

Vancouver 3

Vancouver 4

BizBlogs

Back to Main

 

Powered by
Expression Engine

 

Copyright 1995 - 2012 Feb 09

 

 

Want Column?

Enter your email address:


It will NEVER be shared.
Unsubscribe

You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)