Audio By Carbonatix
The High and the Mighty: Is there anything more disgusting than big shots trying to toss their weight around? I don’t think so, either, which is why I’m passing on this story sent in by an irate reader. She and her husband stopped for lunch at a popular downtown chop suey parlor. They purposely arrived early, in order to snare a table in the nonsmoking section. A few minutes later, two customers grabbed the table next to them–two very important men in Arizona politics,” according to my correspondent. She writes that, as nearby nonsmokers frowned and glowered, one of the politicos “very casually lit up a pipe.” When they alerted the waitress to the violation, she refused to ask the notable to extinguish it. So the nonsmokers asked to see the manager. When they repeated their request, the reader wrote, “You’d have thought we had stuck her in the butt with a fork from the look on her face.” The manager refused to do anything about the problem. Finally, after more complaining, another supervisor dropped by. He somehow summoned up the courage to gently ask the offender to put out his pipe. Well, according to the writer, Mr. Big Shot “acted like he had been shot between the eyes. He was so shocked that he wasn’t important enough” to light up wherever he wanted. “For this very reason,” my indignant informant says, “I shall not vote for his son for governor, or vote for Mr. Biggershot’s son for attorney general.” Put Down the Mee Krob, and Come Out With Your Hands Up: How’s this for a restaurant horror story?
A man and his young son stopped into his favorite west-side Thai restaurant (not Siamese Kitchen or Siam, the two places reviewed this week) about 9 p.m. recently for dinner.
They ordered soup and main dishes, which the staff, apparently anxious to close up and go home, brought out all at the same time. The customer asked to be served in courses, so the server left the soup and retreated back to the kitchen with the other platters. Several minutes later, finished with the soup, the diners signaled for their main dishes. Out they came–stone cold.
Annoyed at the lack of graciousness and the “get them out the door” attitude, the diner refused the food. He got up to leave, offering to pay only for the soup they had consumed. But the restaurant would have none of it. Instead, management called for the police. According to the stunned customer, the proprietor accused him of creating the problem because he arrived a half-hour before closing time. After much arguing, the cops came up with a solution worthy of Solomon: The customer wouldn’t pay, but he was forbidden to come back. That’s one ruling that shouldn’t be too hard to comply with. Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Most of the questions that come my way are pretty straightforward. What’s a good Italian restaurant? Where can I find decent seafood? Do you know a romantic place where I can propose to my girlfriend? Where can I eat for less than ten bucks? But every once in a while, I get thrown for a loop. Recently, a reader called with an unusual query: An adventurous friend was coming to town. Did I know of any Valley restaurants that serve insects? Nope, at least none that will admit it. And I’m unaware of any ground swell of local bug interest. Readers?
