- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 1852
We get lots of business people. The Big Wheels in the city, mostly oil and gas, some technology and support services. People with big expensive cars and even bigger expense accounts. Most of them are regulars, we know them by name or to see them.
And then there are the others, the not so regular, shady business people looking to make a great impression. Reservation under "DePonzi & Associates", they meet with potential investors and hush their voices when the service staff approaches. Still you can overhear fragments before the tone drops - quiet voices promising great fortunes: "Millions of ounces of gold....still underground...limited investment opportunity...", huge returns promised on relatively small capital investments, and their eager guests, starry eyed in anticipation of the great sums they'll make...
It's a classic con, the fine restaurant a front for dodgy dealings, and you wish you could warn them but it's not your job and so you just smile and take their order.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 1931
He comes in at 1:00 PM. We close, officially, at 2:00, the kitchen's often gone by 1:15 or 1:30.
He's waiting for his date. He doesn't want to sit in the dining room with the rest of the customers, he wants to sit instead in the closed dining room. And once there he gets on his cell phone and begins talking to his date. "She's on her way" he tells me.
He's a new regular, I don't recognize him since I left but one of the other staff members lets me know who he is.
He won't get off his cell phone, but eventually, the third or fourth time I approach the table he tells me that we have a bottle of wine for him in the cooler, the owner knows what it is.
I find it, it's a cheap Orvietto.
We charge him a small corkage, $20.00, it makes it by far the cheapest wine on our menu, or not on our menu as luck would have it.
He continues to talk to his guest on the phone, 1:30, 1:45 and she's still not here. The Owner, the kitchen is open awaiting their order. And the whole time he's on his cell phone.
At 1:55 she arrives and the kitchen gets the order. The last table has left the restaurant, from the other, the "open" side, at about 1:30.
He's out of wine now and gives the waitress $22.00 to run to the liquor store and buy him another bottle of this wine, this $11.00 bottle of Orvietto, and reminds her that the corkage is only $20.00.
They strew their papers and business documents all over the table and stay in the restaurant with his guest until 5:00 PM when we reopen, then decide it's time to leave.
Their waitress, she tells me that he's a new regular of sorts, started coming before Christmas. The owner doesn't know what to think, wants to tell him to come in earlier so he doesn't have to keep the kitchen, keep everyone here all day, I want to tell him it's futile, this customer, he's not unaware that we're closed, he's just possessed of incredibly bad manners.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 1978
And the boy calls, he's wondering if he can come and stay with me for a few days.
I'm delighted, of course, but am wondering why this all of a sudden, especially with the cats and his allergies -
His mom takes the phone:
"I just wanted to say that your boy has grown up to be JUST LIKE YOU! And I can't take it anymore so he's going to come to live with you and..."
And she carries on, she's having a bit of a fit. The boy, he's in his early teens, you knew it would come to this sooner or later, but I'm a bit surprised that she should accuse him of being "just like me", which seems a bit harsh, and I'm surprised because we've gotten along, more or less, the past 15 years pretty good and so - well, to be the victim of her righteous wrath right now....
There's a pause for a moment in her ranting and I slip in a question - "What's he done?" I ask, and this is an invitation for her to start again....
"He's an intellectual snob..." she finishes, and it's fair enough, I can see this and it's probably time the boy and I had a little talk. We make our plans.
When we get together I explain to him the rules, assign him Lord Chesterfield to read, punishment enough when you're 15, and I ask what precipitated this outburst....
"We were having a discussion and she was arguing that material things don't define you and I explained that I thought they did...." and I sympathize, he's doomed, there's a few years ahead where he's going to have to hide his light under a bushel and I explain that there's some things some people don't want to talk about and for the next few years he can't win. He accepts it.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 2055
We've got dinner theater tickets and so I take the boy. It's one of those musical productions where every waiter has a part and between courses gets up on stage. This evening's production is a "Rock and Roll" themed event, so there's Madonna, Boy George, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, the Beatles, there's dozens of roles and no matter who you are you'll have a turn on stage.
We're watching this and I think I recognize someone. Someone I went to elementary school with, one of the 'luminaries', as it were, a smart kid, I grew up in a small town, there weren't many 'smart' kids and so I marked him from the crowd, everyone did, as being destined for great things.
Now I think I recognize him because in the wee hours one evening a couple of years ago I googled his name, curious as to what had become of him. and had found that he was playing in a touring show playing at this theater, and I had meant to drop around and say "hi" but circumstances didn't permit.
So he's serving, he brings me my wine, he's a big "AC-DC" type wig on his head but there's something about the face - the accent, the voice is all wrong, not what I remember at all, but the height - that would be about right, and the face...
The boy has dropped his spoon, character waiter picks it up, talks about spoons falling from the ceiling, this must be the worse job in the world - not really "serving", you're more an "entertainer", it's somehow as if you couldn't get a job as a waiter or as an actor and so ended up being the character waiter.
I'm filled with sympathy for him, ridiculous given my own situation of being a waiter-slash-unemployed, and he's made eye contact with me a few times and I'm not sure if he's recognized me....
I confront the waitress - she breaks character for a moment to confirm my suspicions, the boy is watching. He's just applied for the performing arts program and I tell him this could well end up being his career. He's not too enthralled with my vote of confidence.
The show goes on and eventually he drops by, the character waiter, and we talk. How long has it been? About 30 years. In fact, almost exactly 30 years, and you realize how old we're getting. And we talk briefly, catch up, he's now in "Arts and Entertainment" and I'm - well, I'm overwhelmed with compassion (and this only because there's an inability to recognize or acknowledge my own predicament...). He gives me his number, we'll go for coffee and catch up another time, he's working now, and so he walks away between the tables talking loudly to himself so that everyone can hear:
"It's OK to look at me, I'm famous...."
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 2079
It's a vanishing art, this. I know, I've tried a few, most are clowns barely fit to change a battery, but he's different, his walls are lined with European & Swiss certifications, He's in his 60's and he's been doing this all his life, as has his father before him.
I've been coming here almost 20 years. He's the best watch repairman in Western Canada.