8.8.99

    Soup and Salad. How long does it take to get soup and salad? Not long, you say? Actually, it takes about twenty minutes and then you get to be verbally assaulted by the waitress.

    Perhaps "assault" is too stringent but when I tell you that twenty minutes is too long to wait for soup and salad when the group who came in at the same time has already received their myriad baked and broiled and sauteed dishes you better just shut up.

    I hated waitressing when I did it. To be a really good wait person you have to have a natural inclination towards making others happy. I have never felt the need to make others happy. I don't need to be liked. However, when I waited tables I knew when I screwed up and I tried to make it better. It doesn't always work but there's just no point in arguing with your customers. Hand it over to management or shut the hell up.

    Yes, T. and I got bad service this weekend. Yesterday at noon we went to Northwest Portland for window-shopping and lunch. While I had planned to just find a place to eat along our wanderings we were parked right by Flander's Brew Pub so we went in. Big mistake. We ended up leaving about thirty seconds before our salads arrived (sans soup, I noticed) and grumbled off in search of food.

    Lucky for us since we found this peach of a restaurant called the Byways Cafe. We had hot, delicious, full lunches (by this time soup and salad would just not do) in around five minutes with sides of potato salad to die for. It's a busy, cozy little restaurant on 1212 NW Glisan Street with the theme of "American Destinations" (that's what I'm calling it) covering the walls. There's a wall of commemorative plates from every state plus a few more, truck-stop collectibles behind the counter and View-Masters on every table. T. and I looked at "The Inuit people of Alaska" and "Beauty of the Grand Tetons." I didn't know View-Master made reels of anything other than cartoons. If we hadn't gotten such god-awful service at the first place we never would have found it.

    Byways Cafe just solidified my notion that if you have one outstanding thing in your restaurant that it can succeed. It can be a dish or a character behind the bar or something unique about the experience which, if you do it right, will keep people coming back and telling their friends. Byways could have stopped at the funky stuff on the walls and the good food and done well enough but the View-Master reels seemed like a clincher to me. I want to go back and look at more reels. And have more potato salad.

    Way back in the summer of 1997 (it is starting to feel like awhile ago), I entered a contest to win a restaurant. I forget where I heard about it but it was a restaurant in the South of Market area of San Francisco. (Which I continually hear ad nauseum is the up and coming, hip area of San Francisco — I wouldn't know.) I rounded up three very talented friends from three different parts of my life and asked them to join me if I won. One was a very good cook, one an excellent and creative artist, one with a lot of style and sensibility. Me? I was the drive. I was fully prepared to sweat out every little detail and work that restaurant myself. I had plans. The entry cost $50 and we had to write a couple paragraphs and then send it in. Unfortunately, the restaurant would only run the contest if they received over 1,000 entries. They didn't and returned the money.

    I just know we would have been successful. I just know it.

    After lunch, T. and I wandered up and down Glisan street and peeking in at all the crazy furniture stores. I found two couches that I just had to have. On was black velvet with a gold and black, tiny harlequin pattern on the back. Only $5000. The other was a grey, suede couch that sort of snaked around a bit and was low to the floor. A mere $10,000.

    I had to laugh at T. have triple, cardiac arrests over the prices. I kept telling him not to look at the prices. It's no fun if you see how impossibly far away you are from owning something. We went into a lighting store and found two things which we really wanted. A 1950s-esque rocket-shaped table lamp and some bug lights which hang from cables. Hard to describe so I won't but they were really neat-o. And, of course, expensive.

    Before lunch, we browsed at Wickes, a large-scale furniture store. We amazingly found a rather creative bedroom set that we both liked. Amazing because it's been hard for us to agree on too much in the way of decorating our abode. Also amazing because these places often lack creativity. Granted, there wasn't a ton of imagination running through these places but there were a few items. What was really nice about this trip is the fact that everything seemed a little more affordable than before. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything just right. Actually, we can't buy anything for another month or so so maybe just looking is the best idea.

    T. and I rented October Sky and watched it Friday night. Very good. I was highly impressed with the way they transformed the book into the movie. I could see where they had compressed and combined and somehow didn't leave too much out. T. really loved it and is now reading the book. Read it. See it.

    We also rented A Simple Plan, Hillary & Jackie and Bastard Out of Carolina. We're not insane — we had a coupon for 99 cents for any movie, up to five movies at a time. I watched Hillary & Jackie which was excellent. I can't remember if it got an Oscar or not but it was worthy. I did cry a little bit but I don't think it's a "chick flick" which, though he didn't say it, is probably the reason T. refused to watch it with me. I have no idea whether Bastard Out of Carolina will be any good. I thought the book was extremely powerful and I'm an honest-to-God fan of Dorothy Allison as a result. I recently read her collection of short stories and loved them. They're quite raw with emotion. The movie stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, who always makes my teeth itch, but maybe it won't be so bad.

    We tried to watch A Simple Plan on Saturday morning but gave up when watching it became too uncomfortable. It was making me all tense and annoyed. I really can't stand Bill Paxton. Ever since he started becoming a "serious actor" he has irritated the crap out of me. Plus, he kept doing voice-overs and I hate his "serious actor with deep resonate voice" voice. When I mentioned that I wasn't liking the film, T. turned it off and we got on with our day. It's only the third movie that I haven't watched all the way through because it was so not entertaining. Canadian Bacon and To Die For were the other two.

    I must pry myself away from this computer and clean, dammit! What a time suck the web is.