Have a restaurant know my "usual"

..still learnig Polish ;)

For all of you who have never known the pleasure of authentic mexican food. Texas has some of the best mexican restraunts, and Quetzal in particular, is the best here. You would’nt even realize it’s there, it’s a pretty samll place, but the food and prices are excellent, and they always know what we want to eat and drink, right when we walk in.

...I used to go to this Greek joint in Seattle, just next to the laundromat at which I did my weekly laundry. I’d put my stuff in the washer, then walk over to the gryo place and give them my order. At the time I was a vegan, so I’d order a falafel gyro with hummus instead of tzatziki (which is fantastic, BTW). Over time, the owner got to know me because of the frequency of my visits and the unusual order I was placing. He was a stocky Greek guy, dark and hairy and always ready with a smile. He was the local soccer coach for his son’s league, the main chef in his restaraunt and about as Greek a fellow as you could meet outside of Athens. After a time when he saw me coming, he’d just point at me and say, “The usual?” I’d smile and answer in the affirmative, he’d yell the order back to whomever was behind the counter, then he’d shake my hand and we’d chat briefly about our lives. It made me feel as though I were really part of that neighborhood.

One day I went in to place my usual order and there was a new kid behind the counter. I gave him my order, and he looked back at me and said, “You can’t have that.”

“What?” I said back.

“We can’t make that. A gyro comes with tzatziki, not hummus.”

“But I get it all the time,” I replied, “I get it here every week.”

“It’ll be extra,” he said back to me.

“No, it won’t,” I began to reply.

Just then, the owner came out from behind the counter wiping his hands on a paper towel and asked what the problem was. The new kid told him that I was trying to order something that wasn’t on the menu and that I couldn’t have it. The owner put his right hand up between his face and the new kid’s face and made a, “pssshhhht!” sound. “He can have what he wants!” He shouted.

The kid looked at me like I had just peed in his flowerpot, then he skulked off into the back to do God-knows-what (hopefully not spit in my gyro…). The owner extended his hand in appology and said, “I’m sorry my friend. The usual?”

I miss that place a lot.

...if the waiter’s my boyfriend and he knows my drink order by heart? j/k lol :P

grande chai frap, no whip.

at the beginning of the summer i was in panera with my friends (we go there a lot) and one of my friends ssaid something along the lines of “we should come here all the time and order the exact same thing every time and then by the end of the summer be able to say, ‘i’ll have my usual, tony’.” hasn’t happened (yet) but my usual in case u were wondering is a cinnamon scone and a small dr pepper

I never would have thought of this goal myself, but I do enjoy going 2 – 3 times a week and even the new people know my “usual” even if I have something different once in a while.

As cute as it would be to be able to walk into a small, cozy local restaurant and be able to say to the waitress tending the counter, “I’ll take the usual thing,” while stumbling haphazardly over to my “usual” seat at the “usual” booth…

I don’t think I like eating out enough! haha. I like cooking with my mom, then eating dinner and curling up to read or watch a movie. I only go out to eat on special occasions, and gosh. I’m usually so over-whelmed by the choices on the menu I don’t think I’d ever want to order something twice.

Maybe someday, though. When I live somewhere else. I can eat breakfast at a little coffee shop and read the paper before work? That’d be cute, too. I could send the staff Christmas and birthday cards…

I never had to say a word. They saw me come in and asked “your usual?” and I would nod. Very cool. I call now to order from a local delivery Restaurant and they ask if I want the same order as last time. LOL, I usually do :)
I am such a creature of habit.

You know, I work in a resturant where I know dozens of specials. And, of course, I cannot get one person in one resturant that I visit regularly to know my usual.
I can’t even get the people at Domino’s to remember that I like extra garlic sauce with my pizza and I’ve been there three times this week!