This Is Me--2024 A to Z Theme

My A to Z Themes in the past have covered a range of topics and for 2025 the theme is a random assemblage of things that are on my mind--or that just pop into my mind. Whatever! Let's just say I'll be "Tossing It Out" for your entertainment or however it is you perceive these things.
Showing posts with label Original Pantry Cafe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Original Pantry Cafe. Show all posts

Friday, February 14, 2014

About the Old Man Thing (Hint, hint, hint!)

A Subconscious Past Study
A Subconscious Past Study (Photo credit: ssoosay)

          Do you believe that our subconscious mind rules most of what we say and do?   We think we're doing one thing because we have to do it or want to do it and all the while we're practically operating on auto-pilot.  From earliest childhood we are not in control.  It's our subconscious that drives us, tricks us into thinking we know exactly what we're doing when we actually don't know.

          That's my theory for today and I'm not going to try to prove it one way or another.  Besides, my subconscious mind is probably guiding my fingers as I type this.

          Whatever the case may be, that's where I'll credit the inspiration for my Monday post The Crappy Old Guy Waiter Restaurant.   I wasn't really posting the story so much for the story as I was presenting the piece as a prelude to an upcoming event.

           But before I get to that event let me clarify my reference to the Original Pantry Cafe in downtown Los Angeles.  It's true that the restaurant is one of the oldest in L.A. and they have some older waiters who have been there a long time.  However the fact is that this is one of my favorite eateries in L.A.  This is a place where I try to take out of town guests who visit me.  The place has got a lot of character.  Once you step inside you feel like you've been transported back to the 1920's.  It's very cool  And the food is downright good.  Hearty portions of some of the best home-style American cooking you'll find anywhere.  The old guy waiters are real pros who have provided quality service every time I've been in the place.  If I were closer to the Pantry Cafe I'd eat there far more often than I do.  If you visit L.A. and are near the Staples Center, make a point to go eat there.  It's an original L.A. experience.

         That's my unsolicited endorsement.   No one paid me to say this and no old guy waiters threatened me with harm if I didn't say it.

         Enough of my gushing--I need to get back to the topic.  Subconscious mind actually rules us.  That's why I wrote the kind of true and kind of made up post of Monday.  Yeah, I think about getting older now and then and sometimes I think I'm succumbing to the throes of old age.   Or maybe I should say settling into elderliness.

         Honestly I'm not ready to be reduced to just a piece of neglected furniture sittin' around the old homestead.   I'm as young as I feel and that's youthful and vital.  That's what I really feel.  Except when I'm feeling old.   Pass me the bottle and let me wallow in my crankiness if I need to, but I'm not ready to leave this old world yet.

        Oh, and why today's post and Monday's post?   They're hinting at the next Battle of the Bands which comes tomorrow February 15, the day after that dumb love day that some people are so fond of celebrating.  Besides the Battle of the Bands the other good thing that starts on the 15th is that the leftover Valentine's  candy goes on sale.  I'm not falling for that full price ripoff, I'm getting all mine on sale.

        Can you guess my song choice for Battle of the Bands?     Do you think the subconscious mind is really in charge of us?     Will you be stocking up on the on-sale Valentine's candy?

Saturday February 15th!


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Monday, February 10, 2014

The Crappy Old Guy Waiter Restaurant

The New Orleans "Picayune" mascot fr...
The New Orleans "Picayune" mascot frog character as a waiter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
     

         Social security just doesn't meet the needs of people like me.   I suppose I might ditch the house I have now in favor of smaller cheaper living quarters and subsist on a meager diet of stuff I buy in bulk or at the 99 Cent Store.  I could just stay home and not ever get new clothes or do much of anything but watch TV--free digital television over the airwaves.   There are a lot of things that I could cut back on I suppose, but my wife would really hate it I'm sure.

         With all this in mind I've been contemplating ways I could pick up extra income.  Saturday, while dining at Red Lobster,  my in-laws' favorite restaurant, I began daydreaming over my fishy lunch as I watched the waitstaff bustling about.   Then it hit me--maybe I could wait tables in a restaurant like that.  Why not?  Tips would probably not be too bad and I could probably get discounts on meals for all the times we eat there.  Believe me--we should own stock in the Darden Restaurant group.

         As I pondered my table waiting dream, I realized that these were young folks.  I would be totally out of place in an establishment like this.  No one would want a slow old guy like me waiting on them.  And  I'd be a pretty crappy waiter at that.  I'd be screwing up orders and spilling stuff and undoubtedly getting pretty cranky as my shift wore on.  

         Maybe I could get a job at the Original Pantry Cafe, one of L.A.'s oldest restaurants.  That's a place with some old waiters.  I've heard that some of those waiters have been there for 70 years.  Those guys must really like their jobs.  I'd probably have to wait for one of them to keel over dead before there would be an opening.   Actually some of the waiters already look like they've died.   They've been working there so long that they're just in the habit of being there and don't realize they're dead.   It's possible that a lot of the customers are dead too so they don't pay any attention to the dead waiters.

          If I'm going to work as a crappy old guy waiter then maybe I'll have to start my own Crappy Old Guy Waiter Restaurant.  If I'm the owner though I guess I shouldn't be waiting tables.  I should be greeting customers with a scowl and grumpy demeanor.   So where can I find all those crappy old guys to wait tables?    Or the bigger question is who wants to go to a restaurant where a bunch of crappy old guys are waiting tables?

         Well I'm probably screwed on this idea.   Scrap another great plan and get back to lunch.  Something's fishy at Red Lobster.  

            Have you ever waited tables?    What has been your rudest waiter in a restaurant?   Which restaurant would you want to work in if you were going to work there for 50 years or more?

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