Inert Ramblings

Last night, Kris, Andrew, James and myself headed out to Longhorn Steakhouse in Manch Vegas, NH for an evening testosterone-laden conversation over freshly-prepared slightly-dead creatures. Although Kris and James aren’t on Atkins, they respected the wishes of Andrew and myself and agreed to eat at an establishment where a low-carb dinner wouldn’t consist of a special order and the waste a perfectly good bun or tortilla.

After sitting down and perusing the menu for a few minutes, Andrew and I opted for the age-old Atkins stereotypical meal: an appetizer that involved lots of cheese and a main course that contains beef, beef and, if I remember correctly, more beef. A short while later our incredibly enthusiastic and way-too-happy-to-be-working-on-a-Friday-night hostess made her way over to our table, went through the have-you-experienced-Longhorn-before spiel, discussed the specials and took drink orders.

After getting our drinks, Melanie then took orders from the easy side of the table, which consisted of Kris’s and James’s relatively conventional fare of hamburgers and fried foods. Then, when it was time for Andrew and I to order, we started with an appetizer of chicken, cheese and jalapeño nacho dip, hold the nachos and tomatoes and explained that the two of us were on Atkins.

Undaunted and extremely understanding, Melanie took note of our strange appetizer, took our steak and salad orders and then chatted us up for a short while about how steak houses, quite obviously, are a haven for manly men such as ourselves taking on the task of weight loss through mass consumption of dead critters. After leaving the table, the conversation shifted to how completely charismatic and cool the waitress was.

Returning with our salads, we immediately noticed that Melanie had gone out of her way for us, as the salads on our side of the table were conspicuously missing croutons while the salads on the easy side of the table had been loaded up. Now, let me just say that this is an extremely small and often-overlooked detail that I have never had a waitress catch. She was the first waitress that I’ve ever had who has consciously removed items from a meal without asking because she knows that people on my diet can’t eat them.

Extremely impressed, Andrew and I both commented to her about it and she explained, quite matter of factly that, since we asked to hold the tortilla chips on the appetizer order, wouldn’t it be obvious to also hold the croutons and other carbohydrate-laden sauces and ingredients? Yes, a blinding flash of the obvious for most but, again, Melanie was the first waitress that I’ve ever had who has made this connection.

Our meals came and Melanie stopped by a little more often than usual to make sure our drinks were full, to make sure everything was alright and to see if we needed anything else. The meals were amazing and, after every last scrap had been devoured, she cleared the table, came back and asked if we wanted coffee. Another extremely small detail that most would overlook. “Do you want coffee?”, not “Do you want coffee and dessert?”. Since Andrew and I have both sworn off caffeine as part of our diet, we declined and opted for the check.

Once divvying up the balance of the meal, Andrew and I then emptied our wallets of ones and added it to the pile for the tip. An evening of extremely small details absolutely made our night and I felt almost guilty that I didn’t have more ones in my wallet to contribute to the twenty-something percent tip. Melanie returned to retrieve the check and we then had another short conversation about Atkins, how amazing it was that I had lost so much weight and that, after some initial skepticism, she now absolutely believes in Atkins because of the sheer number of people she sees each week who have lost copious amounts of weight on the diet.

So, I’d like to give Melanie a huge thumbs up for absolutely amazing service and hope that, if any hostesses out there read this, I have prominently displayed the importance of some of the little details that can make a great meal an incredible meal!